How a Boston.com Staffer Stopped Paying Rent and Bought a Home
Sanjay Salomon, a content producer for Boston.com’s Digital Marketplaces, shares his house-hunting journey.
So you’re ready to own your own home?
Congratulations! You’re about to embark on one of the most frustrating, uncomfortable, anxiety-inducing, and ultimately delightful experiences of your life.
At least that’s the way it went down for me and my better half. We started our house hunt in the summer of 2013 and it wrapped up in January 2014 when we finally closed and moved into our place.
Did our search for our piece of the American Dream go smoothly? Hell, no! Are you kidding? There were bumps that made us want to throw in the towel and quit, lots of arguments, and plenty of tension with family members. Take it from someone who’s been down this path, your hopes will be crushed, you will fight with loved ones, and your financial habits will get thoroughly examined.
Let’s Get It Started
Our journey started last summer. Back then, my now-wife Rachel and I had been engaged for about three months and were planning a wedding for the following year. At the time, we were living in separate apartments so we were going to dive head-first into our marriage by buying a place together. No pressure, right?
To help us find our place, I dug up a business card belonging to Carissa Whitbread, a real estate agent I had worked with many years ago. On a muggy day in June, Carissa met us outside a Waltham condo complex when we went to our first open house. At first, we thought this was it and that our search for a home was going to be over pretty quickly.
Where’s the Fridge?
This place was great. It was a three-level townhome in a condo community with a reasonable monthly fee. A two-level home was important to both of us, but more important to Rachel who had suffered for years with an upstairs neighbor who made sounds like a bowling ball thumping to his floor on a daily basis.
We were loving the place until we realized there was something wrong with the kitchen: there was no refrigerator. We realized the current owner, a confirmed bachelor I assume, had taken out the full-size fridge and instead installed a mini-fridge and mini-freezer as a substitute. In other words, the home came with a project that would cost us a few thousand dollars.
We walked away, thinking how could we have come so close to having a place?
After the first debacle of a showing, Carissa helped us realize that we were behind on our pre-approval paperwork and really weren’t ready to be looking. She helped connect us with Rick Scherer of MSA Mortgage who helped walk us through the process. Rick cautioned us not to make any major purchases as long as we were looking to buy a place. Since we were both relying on gift money from our respective parents, he advised us to get that money in hand right away.
Meet the Parents
To put it mildly, things did not go smoothly on that front. Both our parents had agreed to set aside down payment funds for us as a wedding gift. But when the rubber hit the road and we were ready to get things moving, they hesitated and wanted more information about the process. This caused plenty of arguments over how much oversight into our house-hunt we should allow our parents.
Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and our folks both delivered their gift money to us. But we were unable to move forward with any house hunting as long as the down payment money was in doubt and this delay set us back a few weeks.
Back to Square One
We were able to resume our home hunt by September and developed a comfort with attending open houses after a few weeks. We saw some duds and we saw some winners, but – with apologies to U2 – we still hadn’t found what we were looking for. One place had a nice layout, affordable condo fee, but an unfinished attic with no insulation. Another was promising but shared a lobby with a doctor’s office. And another was a one bedroom that blatantly misrepresented as a two bedroom.
It wasn’t until November that we finally saw a place that we were ready to move on. The condo was in a newer construction building and we were at the second open house showing. We contacted our agent and told her we were ready to make an offer.
But this place was not meant to be. Because very few units were occupied or under agreement with prospective buyers, we couldn’t meet our lender’s requirement that the property be two-thirds owner occupied. An alternative lender at a local bank also fell through and so did our hopes of getting the property.
Prospects (and Feet) Get Cold
We were beyond disappointed. The cold weather was in full swing by now and we knew that a move in the winter would be an additional headache. We were still living in two different apartments and our finances were split. At this point, we seriously considered looking at rentals instead of condos.
But the following week, we stopped by another open house – well, make that three, but all in the same building. Three units in a newly renovated home had its first showings. Everything was new here and the appliances weren’t even unwrapped.
After walking around each unit, we realized we had found our place and wanted to make an offer. We talked with Carissa, who held our hand and walked us through the process. When it became clear that this could really happen, I did what any normal guy would do: I got cold feet. Thankfully, Rachel helped push me past my hesitation and we made an offer. After a brief period of nail-biting, we learned our offer had been accepted. This is the first, and likely only time, I will admit my spouse was right.
You might think this was the end of our story, but no such luck. After our offer was accepted we were bombarded with paperwork from our lender. The process of filling out the application was a long and tedious process that involved disclosing all of our financial records and spending habits. And we would have to do it again. And again. Don’t ask me why, but we had to fill out our mortgage application a minimum of three times. My next root canal and audit sound like more fun at this point.
Home Sweet Home
By January, it was all over. Our home passed inspection, we spent a long day at real estate lawyer’s office signing what felt like a library’s worth of documents and disclosures, and our stuff was moved carefully into our new place on a cold day in January.
We leared a lot over our months-long quest to find our place. We learned to be patient with each other. We learned to get financial affairs in order as quickly as possible. And we definitely learned that we preferred working with a mortgage lender over a bank.
If you’ve made it to the end of this long rant, I thank you for listening. Your own house hunt will be different from my own, but there will be times when they sync up pretty evenly. Remember not to get frustrated (oh, forget it! You’ll get frustrated anyway), keep your eye on the prize, and to do as much prep work as you possibly can. Having a team to support you (parents, real estate agents, lenders) also goes a long way.
It’s not going to be easy, but when a set of keys falls into the palm of your hand and you look at a home that only you and your loved ones can call home…well, the feeling is indescribable. You’ll know all the headaches and frustration were worth it.
Read more about the fall house hunt.
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