"There's nothing short about a short sale!"

So you're probably wondering "What is a short sale?" Well, as we heard a thousand times over the last 4 months, the first thing you need to know about a short sale is that it's not short. As first-time home buyers we didn't know anything about them. The abbreviated answer is short sales happen when a seller is unable to make payments anymore or wishes to sell but the value of the house is less than what they owe. Sometimes the bank will take less to avoid foreclosing on the house. This also benefits the seller as a foreclosure will severely damage their credit. Downside is, they take forever because these big, out-of-state banks have to approve the sale, but they have bigger fish to fry. Whew, anyone else confused yet?

As we began our house search in mid April, we viewed several homes that were listed as short sales, but we really wanted to avoid them since we needed to be out of our university housing in 2 months. However, when you're fresh out of college and just starting your career, money is tight and options are limited. The very first house we looked at, affectionately called "Midland", was a short sale. After viewing over 60 houses online and many in person, we decided that there weren't any other houses we wanted.

The first time we viewed our house.

So on April 22 we made an offer! However, unlike people on the HGTV show "Property Virgins" we did not get a call within the hour or even the same day. We waited 2 months to hear that the bank was even considering our offer. Finally on July 22nd, only 3 "short"  months later (and by short, of course, I mean long), the bank, Wells Fargo, accepted our offer. Since our rental agreement had expired the week before, my (Arielle) brother and his wife graciously accepted us into their home for what they thought would be two weeks. Little did they know it would turn out to be 5! We finally closed on August 19 and moved in that weekend.

Anyway, this blog isn't really about the sale of the house. We wanted a fixer-upper, and that's what we got. So join us as we explore what it means to be homeowners (I think we already figured out it means spending money!), fix up our charming* little house, and  maybe do some other DIY projects along the way. After thinking about how we should fix up the house every day for 3 long months, we're ecstatic to be done with the process and finally able to make it our own. 

*Let's be honest, charming is just a nice way to say that it needs a lot of help. :)

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