Did you ask yourself if you were making the right decision?
I love the house we put an offer in on - it has what we need, it's where we want, and it's at a great price. Yes, there are things that will need to change (kitchen kitchen kitchen!) but overall I'm thrilled about it.
That said - it's all happening so fast (we've been looking for 3 weeks formally, about a year more informally), I don't LOVE our realtor; she's nice enough, she's been helpful in finding appropriate listings but...I'm underwhelmed, and it's a huge decision, which generally I'm not great at.
DH has had to talk me down from the "OMG WE'RE NOT READY TO DO THIS" a couple of times, but when I pull up the photos I took, I get excited all over again....it's such a rollercoaster.
Am I alone!?
Re: How many times?
Wow. Wow. Wow. You have described how I'm feeling exactly! It's so good to know there's someone else out there who's "in it" too.
I love the home. Great schools. 1/4 mile from a huge lake with walking paths. Needs some updates since it was built in 1993, but the roof, windows and siding are new as of 2007. 3,200 square feet with 5 beds, 4 baths. But, I feel a little uneasy.
This will be out second home and what I'm calling our "forever home." It's great for our growing family. It has what we need/want. But, we aren't crazy about the agent and we've been looking informally for 1-2 years. We saw this place on our second visit out with the agent. We have had three showings before putting in an offer (accepted today).
We can afford it, but it's at the tippy top of our price range and that's why I think I'm nervous. "Underwhelmed" is a good word choice. I know it's the right place, but I thought I'd be more excited. Maybe I'm just being a worry wart since we just sold our first home and it felt so good to be debt free and now we'll have another BIG loan.
EXACTLY! I thought I would be over the moon - beside myself with happiness, having the "THIS IS IT" moment.
I'm excited when I look at the photos and think about us in the space but cannot stop myself from worrying. Ahh! This is our first home, and while it's likely not our "forever home" (unless we expand) it's perfect for us and for starting a family. In 7-10 years, we'll probably end up moving to a bigger space, but truly won't need to before that. I keep worrying "is it too small, is it too small?" but I know 1) it's bigger than where we are now and 2) there's nothing else that meets all our other criteria even remotely in our price range...this has all the most important things!
Thanks ladies - it's great to know I'm not alone...it's just such a huge decision! I guess the mixed feelings are normal.
I had this exact same worry too. I'm used to doing things 100% the right way, which felt to me like I should be buying a house the perfect size for us PLUS two teenagers (we're currently childless, but projecting for the future and all). But we couldn't afford those homes in the neighborhood we like right now, so we bought a smaller home that's huge for us now, big for when we have our first child, and the perfect size for when/if we have two small ones. I'll worry about what comes after that (since that's about 7-10 years away, like you said) after that ... when hopefully we can afford to upgrade, even with taking the hit on closing/moving costs and all.
Exactly! I was feeling like I should be buying our "forever" home - which is funny since DH and I BOTH moved after our parents were in their first homes for 4-9 years. And where did they move? Into bigger houses, in better neighborhoods, etc.
That said - we LOVE the neighborhood so that's huge. I definitely have eyes bigger than my wallet - for sure. This is affordable and fits our needs - I have to stop imagining an enormous kitchen and remember the less kitchen I have, the less I need to clean!
540745405904458740 times!
We are under contract on a house and my feelings are EXACTLY the same. I like the house, but we are in a HCOL area and the price of love is way above our already big budget. So the house is in our ideal location, has a sufficiant amount of space, but needs some updates.
I go back and forth between in love and "ugh I can't believe we are doing this!" I do feel though that once we are in and it's "ours" I will be a very happy person!
I go between getting excited to worried to thinking the bank is going to find something wrong and not give me my loan. Everything has gone really good so far but I feel like a crazy person. I close on the 30th (maybe sooner)!
I think you are perfectly normal! Dh and I are currently under contract and I still have those feelings. I think they happen everything something has to be done to satisfy the contract. We got our GFE (good faith estimate) in the mail from our lender last night and I freaked. OMG are we ready for this?!?! We are buying a new construction home so there are lots of decision to be made and each time it becomes more and more real!
Before we made an offer I questioned if we were ready every time we went and saw houses and every time we talked about offers.
I will say, if you aren't happy in love with your agent. Find someone else! We had the same problem. We worked with an agent for about two months and honestly she was crazy! We went about it the wrong way in the beginning and just let the realtors website randomly assign someone to use. Big mistake. After two failed attempts at making offers with her we said goodbye and actually asked for recommendations and interviewed an agent. We love our agent now! After seeing houses for one weekend we were under contract on the house of our dream. A good agent makes all the difference in how you feel about the house and the transaction, in my opinion.
Our house building adventure (UPDATED 8/20/12)
Wedding Planning Bio
Our wedding blogged! (Click Brad & Briana on the right side)
Dh and I like to say we have champagne taste and a beer budget.
I think its totally normal for first time home buyers to have these feelings. We would have loved a bigger home but when we really thought about it, we don't need it. We are childless right now and even though we are planning for children soon, we don't have them yet.
Our house building adventure (UPDATED 8/20/12)
Wedding Planning Bio
Our wedding blogged! (Click Brad & Briana on the right side)
I felt this way too. I still feel this way too even after we've closed on our house 3 weeks ago!! We've gone through our budget and we know we can afford this house. I'm just a bit nervous about some surprises we may get since it is a bigger house.
We've already had to pay for some surprise repairs (that's expected anyway!).
We're getting our first mortgage bill in May and I'm nervous!
That's totally me! I've always had expensive taste..lol.
We're in the same situation - no kids yet, but in the future. And as DH points out - really for the first...6 years, they don't really need all that much space anyway, we'll want to be with them/near them, watching them, etc.
I'm such a planner/control freak I think the fact that I don't have that in this situation is what's getting to me. That and being afraid something will go wrong. But if it goes wrong...you fix it.
I definitely was not this nervous when I decided to marry DH. This homebuying thing stands in a class of it's own!
That's definitely reassuring to hear! I guess it takes time to make it yours?
I conquered some tasks today - got the inspection set up, talked to a couple of attorneys and picked one. Next step is to get back to the bank...
We close in 21 hours and I have felt uncertain so many times that I just can't think about it anymore. At this point that stress has been replaced with the stress of "where the hell is our HUD sheet so I can get the check cut for closing!?"
It's a scary thing and I don't think it's normal to be over the moon about it, truly. It's a huge undertaking and it's wise to be cautious.
This exactly, and we also are supposed to close on the 30th. So far this has gone much better than I expected and I keep waiting for something to go wrong.
Good luck! I hope things continue to go smoothly for you! I find sometimes that's what makes me worry - it CAN'T be this easy, can it? Thus making it harder for myself...