It has been a very exciting year for us with our wedding, fun travel, Seattle excursions, new projects, friends expecting and now… a new home!
If any of you know my story (which I’ll write about next week), I have moved around a lot in my 29 (almost 30) years. With the constant change and ability to adapt anywhere, I never saw the beautiful home with a red door and white picket fence within grasp or as my ‘America Dream’. I mean, I’m a beach loving city girl -if that makes any sense- and location has always meant more to me than having a big place. Maybe not until I have little ones running around will I make my way to the ‘burbs’. For now, I’m content in a cozy size place in the city to call home.
Many of you may have already gone through the home buying process a couple times, thinking about it soon, or may have 10 more years before it crosses your mind. Whatever the case may be, I’m going to share our experience with you every step of the way. The little knowledge I knew about home buying may resonate well and spark some interest in learning more. If that doesn’t help, then Chris can make up for it with all of his home buying savviness, to get you well on your way to becoming a home buyer.
I can’t say we had a terrible time finding a place in this incredibly busy Seattle market because, to be honest, we weren’t even looking to move.. let alone buy a place! Many things in life just come together as they should… like going on ‘The Bachelorette’ to meet Chris. You never know what to expect in life until it is right before you and you’re like ‘YES’!!!! … that is how it was for this place.
We currently live in a really great condo that has an incredible view of the city skyline, Space Needle and Lake Union. As much it breaks my heart to leave this spectacular view, there’s something to be said about owning vs. renting. This is when Chris comes in to share the numbers on that and help you see the difference owning a place can make. Check out his ‘Own vs. Rent Chart’ below and download his intensive Home Buyer Guide for more information. I’m a visual learner so this chart and guide helped me understand the entire process a whole lot better.
I have a dreamer’s mindset and don’t enjoy analyzing big decisions, such as buying a home. Trusting Chris in his profession and letting him show me the importance of owning a place has really changed my outlook on home buying. Not only as a warm and cozy cave to build a life and family but also as an asset and investment. If it weren’t for him, I would have been content with renting all the days of my life, while stashing money under my mattress. haha… I’m not kidding.
Anyways… back to the place.
So like I said, we weren’t really looking for a place. We would check out different apps like Zillow and Redfin occasionally to get an idea of what was on the market within our price range. This was mainly for Chris to show me what it would look like to buy whenever we were ready. Little did we know that a cute and spacious town home in a beautiful area of the city had our names written all over it. During an impromptu lunch meeting with his real estate friend, Chris decided to check out this townhouse and before you know it I start to get serious texts from him saying we need to buy it!
To know Chris is to know that he doesn’t typically make these type of decisions so quickly- without analyzing and making sure it’s the right choice. Because of that I knew this was the real deal or he wouldn’t be so passionate about it. It’s really exciting to see your spouse so excited about something.. and for Chris it was this place.
I went to check it out that night and of course I loved it as well. The area will be a little bit new for me to explore and get used to, but there is more space to do all of my crafts, a garage to store my art stuff, an office space to do all of my work from, open living area for entertaining and a guest room for our friends/ family to visit. And did I mention we will now be able to get a dog!!! What more do I need!?
We put an offer in that very same night and to our excitement we were accepted by 2pm the next day. Talk about a quick turn around. We feel extremely blessed to have found this place and glad we took the leap of faith to go after it. There’s a lot more to home buying then just saying yes to a place and getting accepted. There’s the pre-approval process, the documents needed, the inspection, the appraisal and so much more than I ever anticipated. Let Chris teach you the ropes at www.ChrisSiegfried.com.
I may be missing out on a view but I will be making far more memories in a place we can call ours. I look forward to the years in this new home and sharing the adventures with you all!
Stay tuned next week as we get into our place to paint some walls and figure out our hardwood floor situation.
