Tale of a First-Time Home Buyer: Embracing My Buyer's Remorse

Last time I wrote, I left you with a big cliff-hanger. I had just bought a house...on my lunch break--and the kicker? My wife hadn't even seen it yet. Yikes! I thought I'd better let everyone know how we made out...

I immediately had buyer’s remorse. I walked through the rest of the day in a daze. What have I done? I really should have taken my time and thought this out a little more. But then I thought, I already have thought this out. That’s why we were looking, because we determined what we can spend and what we wanted. And now that we found it, I’m scared out of my mind.

I had taken pictures of the model home for my wife to see, and we poured over them that night at home. We were excited, but so, sooo afraid. We were eerily quiet as we both silently comprehended the shift our lives had taken in the course of a few hours. I grabbed a beer, thought better of it, put it back, and then poured a stiff drink on the rocks.

I slept with my eyes open that night. Had I made the right decision? Did I act too quickly, too impulsively? What will my dad say? What if I missed some other great deal because I was already locked into this one? What if my wife doesn’t like it? I was so shaken, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

I suppose this type of thinking is typical. For the next few days I crunched numbers over and over in my head. We told our friends and family the good news. We immediately curbed our spending – no more eating out Friday and Saturday nights. Maybe every other Friday, we decided. We were determined to do this right.

I took my wife to see the model home the following weekend, and she was very happy and of course she loved it. I knew she would. She was talking about window valences and throw rugs, and I was picturing a 60 inch LCD beauty on the wall. Our potential energy was through the roof.

We had committed to putting 3.5% down. We had some savings, which took care of about half of the down payment, and we saved and saved and saved over the course of the next two months to put the rest of the money down. In the meantime, we concentrated on cost-cutting measures such as bringing our lunches to work every day, turning off the lights when we weren’t using them, and buying the $5 bottle of wine instead of the $12 bottle.

We also packed up our apartment slowly over the course of a few months rather than waiting until the move-out date. The more things that disappeared into a sealed and labeled box, the more real the whole situation became to us. We are really doing this…

I met with the mortgage company and went through all the Xs and Os with our new broker. He showed me everything that goes into a monthly mortgage payment like insurance, taxes, and other nameless fees along with the principal and interest payments. We were definitely at the top of our budget, but we were getting exactly what we wanted and we knew we could handle it.

We had a pre-construction meeting to pick out our appliances and finishes such as carpet, flooring, cabinetry, and lighting package. After construction started, we visited the site at least once every week to take “construction timeline” pictures, so one day we can look back and see the progress from beginning to end. The foundation was completed in mid-March, the framing was completed the first week of April, and now the interior finishing has begun.

The house has been scheduled for completion in the first week of June. We are all packed up and ready to go. Now all we have to do is hurry up and wait…