We Bought a House, Part I

In my final post from 2021, I mentioned that Brandon and I bought a house. Let’s talk about that.

Contrary to my rather abrupt announcement, this wasn’t a spontaneous decision. It’s been on our long-term list of goals for a few years now. Initially we imagined we’d buy a house after I finished my PhD, but we started thinking about moving up the timeline at the end of 2019. We’d just visited one of Brandon’s friends at his house in Mobile, and when we learned how much his monthly expenses had been reduced by switching to a mortgage, we started considering the potential advantages of buying sooner.

Then the pandemic happened, and that put all our plans on hold. We stopped talking about houses and focused on keeping ourselves and others safe. For the foreseeable future, we would stay in our townhouse at the Pointe. That said, in 2021 we did resume looking at houses online just to get a sense of what was happening locally. We even visited a couple of places over the summer via open houses and related events, but that was about it. At that point, we weren’t seriously considering moving.

But as it turns out, the pandemic that had initially halted our house-buying plans ultimately accelerated them.

It all started when we received the annual notification of our lease renewal. We expected our rent would go up, but when we learned the amount by which it would increase, we decided it was time to make a change. We’d already been paying more than we felt comfortable doing, but with the latest raise in rent, it was becoming borderline untenable. Given the current market though, and the impact the pandemic has had on rental prices, we knew we’d have trouble finding anything of a comparable quality for less money, so we decided to take the plunge and buy a house.

Brandon deserves the credit for handling the logistical side of the house-buying process. He’s actually managed most of our moves since our initial from New Mexico, from finding available places to reading through contracts with a fine-toothed comb and asking questions. It’s been no different with the house. It was his idea to begin looking at houses online in the first place, and coaxed me into attending our first open-house visits. Once we decided to get serious about buying, he researched the preapproval process, found a loan officer willing to work with us, read through every document with me, and took care of nearly all the phone calls. The way he sees it, between dissertating, curating, and working at the Cohen Career Center I’ve got enough going on, so he was more than willing to take on the extra work. Indeed, the whole process has made me better appreciate the advantages of having a life partner. When you have someone like Brandon, it makes it that much easier to navigate life and its various challenges.

In hindsight, the whole process was a bit of a whirlwind. Our lease was set to expire in December, but we didn’t start looking in earnest until October, after a raise Brandon had gotten went into full effect. Initially we worked with a realtor we had met during one of our open house visits, but soon we switched to an agent that our loan officer recommended to us. We took a free online course on home buying through Virginia Housing, mostly to secure a housing grant but also to learn more about the process itself. And of course, we went through a flurry of houses, from places we didn’t care for at all, to one place we loved but learned had already been taken off the market. With our deadline looming and the market as volatile as ever, we were starting to wonder if we’d be able to find a home on time, or whether we’d have to start renting on a month-to-month basis until something became available.

But then we saw this place:

Technically it’s a dwelling attached to a duplex. It’s part of a community called Chisel Run and was built in the 1980s. We think the architects were channeling Georgian-style architecture, with our house being the equivalent of a detached kitchen or a mother-in-law cottage. It’s about the same square footage as our townhouse at the Pointe, but with everything on one floor, it feels more spacious.

The funny thing is that this wasn’t even the house we were scheduled to visit that particular day. Since that house had already gotten an offer though, it was no longer available, so our agent found this place as a backup. It had actually been under contract but had just come back onto the market after the previous offer fell through. As we were looking at the house, another couple showed up during our scheduled slot and started touring. The sense of urgency was palpable.

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Structurally the house was sound, which was the crucial thing, but that wasn’t the only appealing factor. There was a lot about the house that we liked, including the cathedral ceiling in the living room, the skylights by the kitchen, and the back patio overlooking the yard. We also liked the location, with its quiet setting and proximity to the woods (indeed, I’m watching a Carolina wren hop about on the patio as I write this). Just as importantly, there was a nothing that we hated, such as the carpeting or the wall color, that we couldn’t change. Before the evening was over, we’d made an offer.

Things only kept moving from there. A few weeks later, on November 29th, we officially closed. We would have closed even sooner, but the Thanksgiving holiday delayed everything by about a week. On Christmas Day, after weeks of repainting and making other cosmetic changes, we moved over all our furniture. On January 6th, we officially turned in our apartment keys, a day earlier than our official move-out date. From initial conversations to the final walk through of our old apartment, we completed the entire home-buying process in under four months, a move that will save us hundreds of dollars per month in living costs.

The humbling aspect about this whole experience was the support Brandon and I had, both for each other and for the people working for us (and let’s be honest, white privilege played a role too). Brandon brought his reliable paycheck and his infinite patience for handling phone calls and reading paperwork. I brought my high credit scores and the money I’d managed to save since Roswell. But even with those advantages, we couldn’t have pulled this off by ourselves. My parents gave us a gift of money to help cover the down payment, freeing up the money I’d saved for other projects. Our loan officer, Steven Kirkpatrick, not only worked hard to get us the best interest rate and preapproval amount, but directed us to a grant from Virginia Housing to further reduce our closing costs. Our real estate agent, Jill Williams, knew just how to write the offer in such a way that we would get the house without spending too much money, and was on top of everything in terms of answering our questions and getting any information we needed from the sellers. We knew we weren’t high-income buyers, that any commissions from a sale for us would be modest, but they both treated us like we were their most important clients, and that we were valued. With these two on our side, we felt confident rather than intimidated as first-time home buyers.

So that’s the story of how we bought our house. Next week, I’ll show you all the changes we’ve made to it.

But before you go, are you looking to buy a house in this area? Let me recommend some people.

If you’re looking for a loan officer to help you with getting preapproved, look no further than Steven Kirkpatrick at Fairway Independent Mortgage. He’ll not only get you the best rate, but will continue to be available to answer questions and help you after you’ve bought the house.

For a real estate agent, I can’t recommend Jill Williams at Almond & Hack Realty enough. She knew how make our offer the most advantageous to the seller without going over our preapproval amount, and made us feel like serious contenders in the housing market. She was also on top of every question we had and immediately contacted the sellers on our behalf with any questions or concerns.