I had vaguely mentioned on the TMT Facebook page that we were house hunting – but other than that, Hubs & I were both pretty quiet about our house hunting journey. I don’t think it was intentional as much as just left out in the midst of other things we’ve been busy with.
And really, it was a pretty simple process. Hubs asked for recommendations around the Athletic Department and got the same name for mortgage provider and same name for realtor from everyone he talked to. So that was easy.
After the pre-approval, we touched base with our realtor and we started getting listings sent to us. We made a list and made appointments to see some in the Bluegrass area of Knoxville and some in Maryville. Out of the first batch, we really liked one in Maryville and were super excited to see if it was as great in reality as it was on paper (er, website).
The house we really liked in Maryville was awesome just like we had hoped. We weren’t quite sure if the kitchen was going to be big enough but loved so many other aspects of it that we kept it on our short “Has Definite Potential” list. Our realtor was going to touch base with theirs to get some more info since it was on the top of our list.
That’s when things got topsy-turvy. They were about to sign with a management company to rent the house and if we were thinking of putting in an offer it had to be, like, right then. We weren’t comfortable making such a big decision that quickly with that kind of pressure so we said “Thanks but no thanks” and reluctantly kept on searching.
But that house stayed in our minds – even though it wasn’t available. We compared other houses we looked at to it, we still debated about the kitchen size and basically found ourselves still obsessed with it. When it was still popping up on Zillow searches and the For Sale sign was still outside (yes, we were still doing drive-bys), we felt there was new hope! So off we went to take another peek at it, hoping either way we could get some closure on the whole deal.
(If you’re wondering, rental company wanted a 5 year commitment from the sellers and that was too much so they pulled out of that deal and decided to give it another go at selling.)
The second time we went in with a game plan – confirm the number of bedrooms and really analyze the kitchen in terms of cabinet & pantry space. After that, we just did another drive-by through the other rooms, the garage and backyard. Standing in what is now our kitchen, we just couldn’t deny that the house just felt like we belonged in it. We could picture our couch in the living room, I envisioned Grandpa & Grandma Vining’s kitchen table in the breakfast nook, we could almost hear the girls playing in the backyard and the bonus room.
Obviously being a big, expensive decision, we decided to give ourselves a day or two to sleep on it and be sure that was THE ONE! I don’t know if we lasted that long before we contacted our realtor about making an offer. Before we knew it, we were with her in a conference room talking numbers and signing what would be the first of many forms! Now for the waiting game….
Which was thankfully short! We had a counter offer by the time we’d eaten dinner that night. We were good with it and accepted minutes later!! They’d even thrown in the playhouse & picnic table for the backyard! Since the sellers had moved out of state already, they were eager to close and so two weeks later, after the home inspection and more signing of forms for the mortgage lenders, we were at the closing table to sign even more forms.
That night, shiny new house keys in hand, Brooke opened the door to our new house and a new chapter of our lives started, homeownership!!
