Step 2: Open Houses

Steve and I met with our relator on Saturday for the first time. We were both so excited and nervous. Steve and I had been up late the night before and were hardly able to sleep because of all the thoughts floating in our heads. 'Will we like the houses? How long will we be looking at houses if we don't like the ones we see today? How picky will we end up being?! lol What if we make an offer and find something better later on? What if we can't be in as soon as we would like? What is a short sale verse foreclosure verse a normal sale?'
With all these questions floating around in our heads, who would be able to sleep??

We hooked up with our relator, T, for an hour at a coffee shoppe and went over all our questions, concerns, likes, dislikes, filled out forms, and other things. After that, we went to our first open house off of New Holland.

The minute we pulled up I wanted to say no and turn around. It was good that we walked through and saw what we like and don't like. The 3 season room was buckling in and the roof had major water damage. (This was a serious fixer upper) We now know we don't want one of those! lol

The second house we went to was in Jenison by Bursley school, built in 1959. The house has an ingrown pool fenced separate from the rest of the yard. The inside has a smaller living room and after you walk into the dining room everything opens up more. The dining room, kitchen, and an extra living space are all open together with TONS of counter space in the kitchen. There is a slider from that extra living space going out to the yard (not to the pool). Then there is a half bath off the dining room. 2 stall garage with a door going to the pool area. 3 bedrooms and a full bath down the hall from the kitchen. There is a half finished basement with the unfinished half housing the washer and dryer with a work bench.  (We really liked this house)
Cons to this house were septic and not public sewer, having to keep the pool up to date and taken care of. We initially didn't want a pool for that reason. We wanted 2 full baths but were flexible on this depending where they were located in the house.

The third house was also in Jenison by Cottonwood. It was a quaint farm house built around 1900 (not sure on the exact date). The basement was a small Michigan basement - not livable space. The master bedroom had a master bath which we liked a lot. Both sets of stairs were very steep, narrow, and small steps which we did NOT like since both the other rooms were upstairs. There was a TINY room that could just hardly fit a twin size bed in without a dresser and then a large room for another kid. Since the other bathroom is off the kitchen, trying to potty train kids and get them up and down the scary stairs was a huge draw back. (not to mention, if they are sick and need to the bathroom ASAP, they wouldn't make it) So this house was out of the running for us in what we need right now.

So, we did put an offer down on the second house. Since we don't know the outcome yet, I don't want to give specifics of $$$ or what house it is exactly. There are 3 bids in for this house so we aren't getting our hopes up. BUT we will know tomorrow if we were the highest bid. I am so happy we don't have to wait long since we would like to keep looking if our offer is declined. We are hoping to be out of this apartment by the time our lease is up at the end of July. We know that's pushing it, but we also know it's possible!

So much going on right now and I'm so thankful for my husband and his excitement in all of this with me. :)  Oh, and did I mention Eli is rolling across the floor? He hasn't figured out how to roll the other way but all in good time! ;)

I'll blog more tomorrow once we've heard something official from the sellers.