We Bought a House

Yep, a year a go we bought our first house and I have nothing written about our biggest investment and only debt so I'll continue to play catch up on and try to recall the best parts of this important event.

Back in 2011 when we knew we were going to move to SC we planned to buy a house for our time here. We had saved up for a big down payment and we knew we were going to be in the Charleston area for about 4 years. After a looking at houses online, talking with SC contacts about location, and looking at floor plans we thought we wanted to build. However we also wanted a bit more knowledge and information on the process, so we called up my cousin Lewis, a realtor in Utah County, and met with him early 2012. He recommended us not to buy due to the way the market currently was saying 4 years wasn't enough to make it worth all the extra cost. So we thought about it some more, Scott did a huge analysis of numbers and we decided to rent. After we had been in SC for awhile we revisited the idea of buying, Scott looked at all the numbers again. The sacrifices of the apartment life were still worth it so we continued to rent. Once again we were ready for something more and so for the second time in Charleston we pondered if we made the right decision to rent. We looked at a house or two and met with a selling realtor. We came to the conclusion that if we bought we would go into it hoping to sell but planning to rent if we needed to. We knew this before but just didn't want to rent out our own house in Charleston so again we decided no, but this time we had another idea. We could by a house in Utah and rent it out until we hopefully someday make it back to live in it. Until then we would always have a reason to go back to Utah to check on the house. unlike SC where we have no draw to return.

With that idea we began looking online at houses located in Utah, Salt Lake, and Davis counties. We felt it was good to get into the the housing market for a long term deal when interest rates were low and before inflation took off.  Again contacted my cousin Lewis to help us out he sent us houses that met our criteria and we looked and looked. We planned to go back to Utah in January to look at houses but until then we could get an idea of what was around and make a list of favorite.  Based on what you could get for your money, the growth in the area, and good location to commute for both Salt Lake and Utah counties (since we were renting and don't really know where we'll be working if we get back) we settled on Lehi. We found some houses that interested us and sent him by to look at them and report back to us.  The first few were okay, but nothing special. There was a beautiful home in Traverse Mountain, I loved how big and open the kitchen was and it had beautiful upgrades- but about 5 feet of yard with a few of a huge retaining wall. it was a glorified town home as Lewis said. We could build a home and found an amazing floor plan, but it would be in Eagle Mountain and we worried that would be too far. Thanksgiving weekend Scott's parents drove past another home and peaked through windows. It seemed like a really nice home for a great price, but Mom and Dad Richens reported that the inside seemed trashed, another X on the list. We went back online and Scott revisited a house with the back fence opening into a 5 acre neighborhood park. Scott really liked at first but for some reason I didn't so we skipped past it. We had learned to look at lot size and few other things in more detail and so this home with the park was looking better to me. Plus instead of a looking out at a retaining wall this house had a big open view of the park facing west. Beautiful sunset view anyone? We sent Lewis by. He praised the house up and down said it was great, perfectly priced and it was going to go fast. We arranged it for him to take our families through. Mom and Dad Allen couldn't make it, but Richens and my sister Ashley toured the house. We got detailed notes and video of the home and decided that this could be the house.

It was mid December, airline cost were high, we didn't want to miss out on the house, and we trusted my cousin, our realtor, as well as our family who had seen the home, so without seeing the home we put in a good offer on the house. The offer was countered, I was mad, but we accepted it and started the wild goose chase of getting our loan through in just 2 weeks to close on December 24th.  Unfortunately we had to ask for an extension because although we paid off our credit cards each month it showed we had debt of whatever the balance was and that was unaccounted for and created a mild headache. Everything was a done deal, December 31, 2013 we were 100% home owners! 20% down on $294,000 and a lot a debt we are now home owners.

Mom and Dad Allen were visiting for the holidays so they helped document. Since we did everything in SC but bought in Utah here we are sending the Fedex with all the documents signed and notarized and at the computer wiring the money making it a done deal with no turning back.

 Oh, you actually want to see the house?

TADA! 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths:

The park, and the view, one of the biggest sellers for me:

Another seller- lots of window for natural light!

 

The master: 

two vanities and a closed off toilet area, :)

  Main bath:  again love that the vanity is separate from the tub and toilet, with girls getting ready in the morning we don't want that mirror ever off limits.

 Entry:

I should probably hurry and finish writing about this because I'm starting to daydream about living it. 

All in all we felt like it was a good investment, we just need to keep renters in it. Lewis is managing the home and taking care of it. We got renters in right away and they have a 2 year lease. We met our renters and saw our house for the first time last summer. 6 months after owning the home, when we were out for Dillon's wedding. The home is located in Lehi, west of the freeway, just south of Thanksgiving Point.