The Home-buying Adventure, part 3: The purchase agreement

This is part three of our house-buying adventure. See part 1, about the houses we were shown by our realtor, part 2 about how we filtered the choices, as well as our Dreaming phase, our careful and thoughtful goal, and thoughts on Hospitality and Housework.

I'll admit- I didn't tell the whole story in Part 1. There was one more house on our list- not one shown to us by our realtor, but a house owned by our friends, that I didn't mention. Since sometime before April, we had talked to our friends- knowing they were going to be moving in the next year, and we would be in the market for a house- about the possibility of buying their house. Doing so would avoid realtors' fees, resulting in more profit for them and less cost for us (because the price could be discounted due to not having to pay a realtor).

Less than three weeks ago (before the showings in part 1 of the story) I emailed our friends and let them know that their house was still "on the list", based on what we were seeing online as choices in our price range, but we wanted to look inside the online choices. We still didn't have an asking price from our friends, but it met all our other criteria, so the house was on our list assuming it was in our price range.

Two weeks ago Monday, we were shown the houses and, Josh's reaction coming away from those was "Our friends' house is looking really good right now." It sure was. Two weeks ago yesterday, our friends emailed us with an "offer"- a price based on their comparative market analyses, but discounted because they won't have to use a realtor. We thought the price was acceptable (especially after the houses we had just toured!) and verbally accepted. We a week ago Monday for a "showing" (basically, they let us walk around the house & check out where closets & bathrooms were, etc) and talked to us about the improvements they've done in the years they've lived there. We looked at our objective checklists and realized again that their house met the criteria better than anything else we had seen. We made our decision, and signed the purchase agreement last Saturday.

It's been a whirlwind.

We're meeting with a mortgage guy today. We went to see about home insurance on Monday. The inspection is coming up on Tuesday. An appraisal will be after the inspection, and is yet to be scheduled. I'm learning so much. I think it is necessary to understand the terms, conditions and vocabulary as much as possible- but its not always obvious or easy. I'm trying.

So, the bottom line: We have a house! (pending getting a mortgage and no surprises in the inspections, and probably other things, none of which I expect to be a problem.) We were (and still are!) giddy about the idea. I'm so excited. I want you all to come visit. But not until we move in, in mid-November. And not all at the same time.

To be continued...