The 123s of House Hunting

Why hello there family and friends! Here's a little update on our house hunt....in the form of numbers.

With our lives currently rotating around our search, numbers have become our primary form of communication. Okay, I'm exagerating a little, but Taylor and I have it down pat when we walk into a new place - we very quickly run through a slew of numbers as soon as we walk in the door:

asking price

number of bedrooms

number of bathrooms

square footage

hoa dues

percentage down

approximate monthly expense

distance to work

number of parking spots

amount of outdoor space

After we've toured the place, we spend the subsequent days discussing the numbers - how much we'd need to put down, how much we'd need for closing, how long it would take to pay it off, etc.

And so, since numbers are playing such a large role in our lives right now, here's a numerical snapshot and summary of where we are in our house hunt:

2 - The number of apartments we've rented together.

 

3 - The number of places we've lived since we got married.

 

1 year - The longest each of us have lived in a place since starting at Pepperdine (I cannot wait to stop moving every year!).

 

2 and 1/2 months - The amount of time we've been saving for a house. We know we're a little crazy.

150+ - The number of homes we've looked at online. We are incredible familiar with just about every property listed online in our price range and in our desired location. We also have a good handle on what's available in our desired location...outside of our price range!

4 - The number of apps/websites we frequent to do our searching (Redfin, Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com). Redfin is the best.

35 - The number of homes we've done a "drive by" past. We drive by places alllll the time.

1 - The number of times we submitted an application to be on HGTV's House Hunters.
{Side note - we got an email back from the show's producer and have been debating if we should take the next step, which is to do a 5-minute video about us and why we should be on the show. The only thing stopping us right now is that you need to commit to taking 5 days off of work for shooting - sadly it's a little too much time for our very busy work schedules! Maybe next time!}

22 - The number of homes we've toured with a realtor.

6 - The number of open houses we've been to.

4 - The number of open houses we've been to where we could actually afford the place.

2 - The number of open houses we attempted to go to but never ended up seeing because we couldn't find the unit within the complex. Baloons, people. Baloons.

$200 (or less) - HOA amount that we're comfortable with.

21 - The number of spreadsheets we've Taylor has put together to organize data, calculate our mortgage, monthly payments, etc.

5-8 years - The amount of time we're hoping to pay off our house.

15 year - The length of the loan we're hoping to go with (Dave Ramsey would be proud!).

1 - The number of places we've put an offer in on.

2 - The number of offers we submitted on the above mentioned place.

1 - The number of times that we were outbid.

And there you have it. Lots of looking. Lots of visiting. Lots of not-sleeping. Lots of fun!

We're bummed that we didn't get the place that we put an offer in on. The property was bank-owned and someone else put in an offer at the same time we did, and it sent us into a "best and highest offer" situation (typical for bank-owned properties when there are two intersted parties). Sadly, we were outbid. We haven't given up though, and the search continues!