So, last we talked, I was telling y’all about the decisions that Antoine and I had to make about how we wanted to approach our homestead dream. Did we want a house on some land? Or, did we want raw land and build? There were a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs and I want to bring you all up to speed.
At one point, we thought we had hit the jackpot. We stumbled upon a 2500+ square foot home sitting on a little over 9 acres of pasture land that had just come back on the market. It was a beautiful 1930s style craftsman bungalow home with a two car garage with and upstairs to it. The land had several outbuildings, one of which included a very sturdy smoke house. The home had all the charm of a 1930s craftsman style home including a basement! Do you know how hard it is to find a basement around here? We were sold! In my head I had already started remodeling different rooms, and moving my goats into the barn. I was already making plans on where the fencing would go (did I mention that in one of the old outbuildings they actually had a BUNCH of good fencing in there with lumber included??)
I was there – milking bucket in one hand and sweet tea in the other. The kids had picked out their rooms and picked out their shaded spot to hang out outside, and hubby was picturing his green house and pond. That day we put in our offer, it got accepted, and we got the ball rolling with the seller’s agent. But, with just as much charm as that home offered, upon inspection (the seller’s were kind enough to release the couple weeks old inspection report to us to help cut down time with the sell) it offered just as many problems. From foundation and wiring issues to mold and moisture issues, it was just too much for us to try to correct with our budget. I….we…all of us were crushed.
We learned two very valuable lessons from this:
Go in cautiously if the home is back on the market.
Don’t move in before you sign those papers and get the keys.
We are usually really good about not being emotional in our buys. For us, the purchase has to make sense, and we are willing to walk away if it doesn’t. But for some reason – maybe because it was exactly what we wanted – we failed. But that’s ok. We now are on guard, which leads me to where we are now…
Land. The house didn’t work out, and there really weren’t any other homes in the area we were searching that fit what we were looking for. But there was land – lots of land. So, we had been taking our time with making sure it’s what we wanted. Since we were under contract with a realtor for the home, we asked if if we could break the contract to find a realtor more familiar with land in the area. He kindly agreed. So, we researched and got ourselves a realtor, then began our search. He was very thorough and knowledgeable of the area, its history, and a the people in it. With his help we were able to narrow down a piece. But questions remained. Could we see ourselves there? Is this the community we want to be in? Does it check off some of our wants and able to supply our needs? So far seems to be a big “YES”. We are currently in the process of “Due Diligence”! And while cautiously excited, we have not forgotten our lesson. This is still a business transaction and there are quite a few check boxes we need to make sure are complete. Appraisals, soil testing, searching the county for surveys, zoning, and hydrology, checking ordinances, and anything else that we can think of are on the “to-do” list. Slowly, they are being checked off.
Stay tuned to see the progress! Hopefully we’ll have some good news in our future.
Talk to us…are you currently searching or thinking about it? What has your journey been like? What have you learned along the way?