The Hunt

January has been weird.Derek and I went to Georgia last Wednesday to start our house hunt. We worked on getting pre-approved for a loan before we left, to make the process quicker. We found an incredible realtor to work with, and she wasted no time getting us in to see houses. When we got there, we focused on the Winder area because that is where our friend lives and he knows the area well, plus it is in a pretty good area in relation to Derek's new job (working with said friend.) We stayed at his house too, which was fun, and we are thankful to him and his parents for hosting us! The first house we looked at was perfect. Literally everything we wanted. We decided not to put an offer in because it was the first house we had seen and we felt weird about that. So. We saw more. Not a lot more though, because circumstances kept shifting on us. The first thing that happened was:I got a job in Alpharetta.What? Yeah, thats what I said. My Uncle got me an interview with a company called MMI, and I ended up speaking to the lady for over 2 hours. I didn't even know what the position I was interviewing for was until she explained it to me. Then things started to happen very quickly. We saw a total of about 4 houses in Winder before this, btw. Then we thought about looking at rentals. That lasted all of about 6 hours- including calling a realtor who specializes in rentals- but we quickly nixed the idea because rent was outrageous and most land lords wouldn't even consider us because of the dogs. That was a day wasted that we could have been looking at houses. We freaked out a little and put an offer in on a house we thought would work, but I really didn't like the neighborhood. I had a second interview the next day and was offered the position of Director of Member Management, (I think thats what its called). I took the job and then commenced with my mental breakdown. Alpharetta is about an hour with no traffic from Winder, where the houses we were looking at were. It would take me between an hour and a half and two hours to get to work. I really wanted the job but I didn't think I could drive that far every single day. That decision was soon made for me. The lady I interviewed with emailed me and told me they couldn't officially offer me the job if we lived in Winder. Apparently they had hired someone from near there a while ago, and the person quit after 6 months because the drive was so terrible. They didn't want to deal with that again, and honestly I don't blame them. I didn't want to drive that far. Derek started to freak out, thinking we would never find a place now. Then my mom suggested looking at Condos. We hadn't thought about it before because we were stuck on getting a yard and a garage, but we decided to compromise a bit.So we had our realtor and our parents help us find a condo. I immediately started my search on the Georgia MLS, and low and behold, there were 2 affordable condos exactly in between both of our jobs. I started to freak, and called our agent. She was able to get us an appointment for that evening, and I was super excited. My commute would be around 15 min, and Derek's would be around 25min, which was greatly reduced from 45+min if we had pursued the Winder location. Alex drove us to meet the agent, and I fell in love straight away. It is the cutest little house I've ever seen. Theres a bay window on the front, and a cute deck on the back. Its 2 bed, 2.5 bath. Theres a fireplace, and tons of closet space. Its also on the end of the row, so we only have one neighbor. The other side of the house is a large grassy area, perfect to take the dogs to potty. They had installed granite countertops, and had a set of brand new matching black appliances to replace the old white ones that were in there when we viewed it. I told the agent we wanted to make an offer, and then we left. We ended up going to Buckhead that night with Alex to meet his friends and then go out to the bars. It was really fun! While at the party, before the bars, our agent called me.We had looked at the wrong house............? Whaaa? What do you mean???Apparently when our agent called the agent of the seller (who she happened to be good friends with), she told them we had asked for the carpet to be really cleaned because of the cat. The other agent said what cat? My clients don't have a cat... So, turns out, the house we meant to go see was 1300 (Street Name), and the house we actually saw was 3001 (Street Name)- which was also for sale. Ours was cheaper, smaller, and required less work. We put in an offer for the other one too, just as a safety, but then there were 6 other offers that were more than ours. They accepted our offer on the other house (the one we accidentally saw) and Wah-Lah! We were homeowners! The inspection is being done today, so unless something is wrong with the property, we can start the closing process.Which is another issue. Since we are both starting new jobs in a new area, the lenders want to see our first paychecks before we will actually be allowed to officially close on the house. This means that for the time being, we will live with my aunt and uncle (the one that got me the interview) in Alpharetta. We both start our jobs January 30th, which means we will most likely close around the 20th of February. It would be an understatement to say we are ready to unpack and have a permanent place to live. This finding jobs and houses thing has taken a long time, but we are more than grateful for these blessings! I am so excited to be able to finally use our wedding gifts. And have access to all my clothes and to not be living out of a box. It is still a shock that everything is happening so quickly and all at once. We are ready to start our new lives, with our new jobs, in our new house, and make new friends, in our new city, in our new state!!!Love,Jess