Tale of a First-Time Home Buyer: Being "Ready"

I am a first-time home buyer and this is my Tale. It all began with our (my and my wife's) decision to buy our first home. You can read the previous chapters in our tale here. Our story continues below...

Being "Ready"

Our first day shopping for houses left us exhausted, both mentally and physically. We started discussing the pros and cons of everything we had seen. We developed two lists: the first was comprised of things we could not do without, the second was of things we would like to have but weren’t deal breakers one way or the other. We both contributed to each list.

A few things I considered essential were a two-car garage and a large master suite. Our cars are our second-biggest investment, and I wanted to have them protected from the weather and opportunistic birds. And the large master suite would not be difficult to find, as most of the homes in the neighborhood are relatively new and already have spacious modern master suites. My wife wanted an upgraded kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. She loves to cook, and I love to eat, so naturally I had no problem with her requests. We also wanted at least two extra bedrooms.

Next, we talked about things we would like to have but were not necessarily essential. I wanted a rec room in the basement. My wife calls it a “man cave.” I don’t care what it’s called as long as I can put a huge TV on the wall. She wanted a separate dining room for entertaining. Fine with me.

We began to think about all the houses we had seen earlier in the day. We laid out all the pictures in front of us on the table. They started to run together in our minds. “Was this the one with the huge walk-in closet in the master?” Don’t remember. “Which one had no dining room?” No clue. “This is the one with all hardwood floors, right?” I have no idea.

We determined that we should have taken notes throughout our tours of the houses. We were frustrated with ourselves for our oversight. But a lot of positives derived from our experience. Now we knew exactly what we wanted and exactly what we could afford. And all we have to do is find it.

I called Gene later that day and told him we would like to see one of the houses again the next weekend, as well as look at some more. He said that in the meantime we should be scouring the website he sent us for new listings so when we saw one we liked, we could look at it immediately.

He made it very clear to me that now that I understood how quickly the well-priced homes are moving, we had to be ready to make an offer once we found the one we liked. It all seemed so far away, like it was never going to actually happen. I assured him, “I know, I know. We’re ready.” But were we really? I would find out if we were the very next day.