House Hunters

In June of 2010, lawyer sister came to visit as a part of her multi-city tour through the US. Although she's currently living in Malaysia until July, lawyer sister loves to check out local real estate wherever she goes. To feed her habit, we rolled up to a "condo" on Queens. After quickly hatching up a background story (pregnant lawyer sister is returning to the States next spring with her kind-of-a-big-deal husband, and I've been begging them to move closer to us), we dragged our poor feet through a few multimillion dollar condos. We assigned bedrooms to our 2.5 children, discussed whether or not we'd get Sunday NFL ticket in our home theater, and debated whether or not the cavernous dining room would fit our entire extended family for Thanksgiving dinner. We were hooked.

In the weeks following lawyer sister's visit, husband and I spent every waking, non-work consumed hour driving around local neighborhoods and scouring Zillow.com for the newest listings. On Sundays, husband would squeal at the sight of freshly helium-filled balloons marking an open house. We would pick apart every house--Would we have picked those paint colors? Would this floor plan work with our living and entertaining needs? Would Tuesday appreciate the heart of pine floors?

Finally, we bit the bullet and made our first offer on the Church Owned Fixer. The price of this 1500sq ft, 2 bedroom, 1 bath couldn't be beat. The location was less than 2 blocks away from one of Charlotte's most prized parks. The Church Owned Fixer also had a great lot of its own: approximately 1/3rd of an acre which is unheard-of in this neighborhood. We knew we'd have our challenges in front of us: the house was almost 50 years old and certainly reflected the era. We were also looking for one more bed and bath, but at that price, we knew we could invest and make it work. Ultimately, we were stuck in a holding pattern--the church had previously accepted a slightly higher offer, and they were keeping our offer as a backup. We waited for almost two months to find out the original buyers were able to close.

Next, Incredible Back Porch caught our attention--the screened-in back porch spanned the width of the house and was tiled just to our liking. We already imagined the ridiculous parties we could have on that porch. Don't even get me started on the amazing, curved front door. This house was a foreclosure, so we knew we had to move fast without much thinking. We put in our best and final offer--only to be outbid by $4,000! With our second heartbreak under our belt, we made a pact to quit looking at houses just before the Christmas holiday.

For the most part, husband was super-vigilant about staying on top of local listings, so he was the one who told our realtor what houses to show us. One day in December, our realtor emailed us a link to a house that was listed for sale in early 2010 but was quickly taken off the market to be rented. Figuring the owners wouldn't want to sell since they had a lease signed until the end of April, we decided to take a look at the house anyway. We fell in love. The location was only a block away from a cute little park and only a half mile to the light rail station. The house was once a triplex, giving it not only size but character. It looked like it was in decent shape too, although the kitchens and bathrooms needed a total overhaul.

We made an offer as soon as we came home from holiday. After a few rounds of back and forth negotiating, we were under contract. Soon came the house inspection... it did not go well. We were given a 90-page description of why we should forget about this house. We had a contractor and engineer look at the house and tell us that we needed to sink another nearly 10% of the home's value in repairs. Surprisingly, we were able to strike a deal with the owners of the house, and four short months after first looking at the house, it was ours! Now begins the renovation adventure.