Becoming Homeowners | We Found Our Home (part 2 of 4)

If you need to catch up you can read part 1 of becoming homeowners here.

2019 arrived and we still didn’t find the right home for us. What we both new is that we were going to take our time, we didn’t want to rush this since this is such a large investment, and when we both wanted to find a home that would make us feel like it’s “home sweet home“.

As we continued to look at homes, we also discussed the important parts of what we wanted in OUR home. I capitalize our because, if you have a partner… it’s not just your home it’s both of your homes, so make sure you consider not only your wants, but your partners too!

Here is a list of MUSTS that we were looking for in our home and were non negotiable and also WANTS but not necessary needs in our home

Musts

location- SW area of our city
No direct neighbors behind us (explained below)
3 bedrooms
2+ bathrooms
backyard facing East, front house facing West (explained below)
nice size backyard
good size kitchen
washer/dryer upstairs
around 1800 sq ft+ for our size family

Wants

4 bedrooms
loft
lots of windows
bedroom separation between master & bedroom 2 + 3
3 full size bathrooms
9ft ceilings
good size master closet
walk in pantry
lots of storage space

It was really important to Bobby and I that we wanted our front of the home facing West and our backyard facing East. The reason for that is because we LOVE using our backyard; we love having/hosting dinners and movie nights, etc… and in Las Vegas, the summer-time heat is NO JOKE! However, with our backyard facing East the shade of the backyard hits around 1-2pm and we can enjoy our backyard even more in the summer more than we could when the sun is constantly hitting it. Another really important thing was to NOT have any neighbors directly behind us! We been there and done that! NOPE! Honestly, the houses here in Las Vegas are so close together, you get NO privacy. If I can eliminate homes directly behind us to give us a little more privacy, especially when we are hanging out in our backyard, I will do that! So these 2 things were especially important to use when buying a home… and we weren’t willing to budge!

Another important part of learning this whole home buying thing was learning about the different loans to get, grants you can try and qualify for, learning about interest rates, etc. So much to learn! Also, savings… that was a huge part because we really didn’t know if we’d be able to get a grant to help with the down payment or what. We didn’t even know you have to pay for your downpayment (which you can choose how much of a down payment you want to put) and for a closing cost! WHAAT! All I heard at that time was CHA CHING.. CHA CHING.. CHA CHING (LMAO)! SERIOUSLY THOUGH TALK ABOUT ADDED STRESS!

March 2019 arrives and we visited a new built community that we have never visited before. It was open for awhile prior to us visiting, but one that we never walked through yet. There was 1 model there that we both loved, especially my husband, but they didn’t have any LOTS available with our backyard facing East. So, we were placed on a “waiting list” for those particular LOTS to open.

After leaving that community, across the street from this builder was a brand new community that just opened up that week, which the builder was Century Communities (community name will be kept private). We walked through the first model home and all it took was that one visit. I got the feeling of “home sweet home”, and the best part… my husband did too! It was a 2 story home, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath, master bedroom separation from the others, a big loft, nice size backyard, amazing size kitchen, washer/dryer upstairs, 2,054 square feet, a lot of windows, 9ft ceilings up and downstairs, and a good size master closet. It was perfection and damn near crossed everything off our MUST and WANTS! Of course comes the bad news… they unfortunately, didn’t have any LOTS that were available with the backyard facing East and no direct neighbors behind it as well. But, we loved it so much we made sure we were the first to know when there was a LOT that was available. And because we loved the home so much, the sales lady from Century that helped us from the beginning, also recommended that we get pre-qualified before even getting our hopes up on this house….

So, our next step was contacting the loan agency who Century Community works with (Inspire Home Loans) and start the pre-qualifications. After doing that, we got the good news that we were pre-qualified for the home we wanted!!! Such awesome news to hear, especially after we worked so hard for the past year in getting our credit score up! So now, was really the waiting game on if a LOT in the area we wanted would become available. Also, when we spoke with Inspire Home Loans the also had a creditor work with us as well, and recommended that we open up 1 more credit card, as the bank needs to see at least 3 open lines of credit and we only had 2. So we did.

April goes by and still no call from both communities that we loved, but especially the one we hoped for (Century). But, yet again… during those 2 months we still kept looking. More communities, even in different parts of the city (even though we weren’t planning on moving to those parts), but we still kept looking because you just never know what might be out there waiting for us.

May comes, and we decided to go back just to see if our feelings changed about the home. It didn’t. It just truly felt right, and it was something that we were willing to wait for.