We Bought a House!!!

Waiting and relying on God's perfect timing!

I know what you're thinking, "But, I thought y'all were going fulltime on the road in an RV?" Well, yes, that was the plan. However God had different plans. We could have forced the issue and went on the road anyway but, in the past that had never turned out in our favor. My husband and I decided (after hitting roadblock after roadblock) that our timing was off. God didn't exactly say no but it was clear that it wasn't the right time to go on the road fulltime. If you know God, then you know relying on His perfect timing is always best!

“My husband and I decided (after hitting roadblock after roadblock) that our timing was off.”

So buying an RV was out for now...what now? We were on vacation in San Antonio, Texas looking out at the skyline from our hotel window when my husband nonchalantly said, "Honey, maybe it's time for us to get a house." I gave him a puzzled look. I thought about it for a few minutes and said, "Really? I guess." It's not that I didn't want to live in a house. It was the debt I didn't want. That was the whole reason we wanted to go on the road in the first place; to live a debt-free life. Creating more debt was scary to me. After doing a little bit of research on the housing market, my perspective changed from scary monstrous debt to a profitable investment that could possibly be the start of generational wealth for our family! Now THAT was exciting!

"It's not that I didn't want to live in a house. It was the debt I didn't want. Creating more debt was scary to me."

God always lays out the red carpet!

I went online and researched what the qualifications were for getting approved for a mortgage loan; credit score of at least 620 (check), good credit history (check), good debt-to-income ratio (check), good employment history (check), decent income (check). We had checked all the boxes so I proceeded to find lenders and apply.

"We had checked all the boxes so I proceeded to find lenders and apply."

The first lender we applied with was Rocket Mortgage (it was the first one to pop up in Google search). Everything was going great until my husband mentioned he was an independent contractor (basically self-employed). The rep then told us we would need at least two years of self employment tax returns. Well, my husband had only been an independent contractor for one year. Every year before that, he was a W2 employee. She then told us there was no way for us to be approved for a mortgage loan without two years proving self employment. Great...another roadblock....sigh.

Not even ten minutes later, we get a call from Great Western Home Loans. We assumed it would be the same situation with Husband being an independent contractor so this was the first thing we said to the rep before anything else. To our surprise he said, "Okay, great. Let's get this loan application started!"

Long story short, by the end of that call (less than thirty minutes), we had received a pre-approval letter and was told we could start looking for a home immediately. Wow! This process progressed so quickly that it felt surreal. I mean...buying a house couldn't be this easy, right? God literally turned that "no" into a yes in less than thirty minutes. God always lays out the red carpet when He's in the mist! What I mean by that is, anytime we pray about something and God says yes, it turns out better than we could have ever imagined.

"Long story short, by the end of that call (less than thirty minutes), we had received a pre-approval letter and was told we could start looking for a home immediately."

They gave us a number to a realtor (since we didn't have one) and two days later, we were out looking at houses. (Shoutout to Christopher Stephens from Keller Williams in Arlington, Texas!) Now, I've heard stories from people saying it took them months to not only find a house they loved but also get an offer in before someone else snatched it out from under them. I assumed our experience would be no different. We had six months left on our lease where we were so we thought that would be enough time to find what we wanted. (Spoiler: we didn't even need half that time and ended up breaking our lease.)

Our first day exploring houses, we looked at four really nice homes. We loved the first three but, they didn't give us the space we needed. We got to the fourth house and fell in love! It had everything we needed from number of bedrooms and bathrooms to the beautifully landscaped outdoor spaces that we always envisioned for our family home. My husband and I looked at each other and said, "This is it!"

"It had everything we needed from number of bedrooms and bathrooms to the beautifully landscaped outdoor spaces that we always envisioned for our family home."

Chris said he would get the offer letter written up and get back to us by the end of the day. And guess what? He called us a few hours later and told us our offer had been accepted! We offered full price with the seller giving us $5,000 in closing costs. Closing costs ended up being about $21,000 so that left us having to pay around $16,000. Again, I thought, "Wow, it can't be this easy!" I honestly was waiting for the other shoe to drop but it never did. About thirty days later we had closed on our beautiful home!

"He called us a few hours later and told us our offer had been accepted! Wow, it can't be this easy!"

So, let's recap! We decided we wanted to apply for a mortgage loan, applied, looked for a home, put in an offer, offer was accepted, paid options and earnest money to the title company (options was $300, earnest money is 1% of the cost of the home), went through inspection and appraisal, and closed on the home all within about thirty days. It was so fast and such an easy process. I thought buying a house was supposed to be stressful but it wasn't at all. Do you see what I mean about the "red carpet?" We negated our plans for God's and it paid off big time!

Now we are sitting back enjoying our new home basking in God's goodness!

Also, in case you're wondering; we still plan to buy an RV Summer 2022. We won't be in it fulltime but we have many Summer road trips planned! So excited!