Homeowners at Last

As of September 16, 2011, Brennan and I have become homeowners. Yippee Skippy! The transaction from hell, that has been going on since June has finally closed. It felt surreal and didn't truly hit us until Friday evening, when we went to the store to buy a new front door lock. We now had our own set of keys for our own home. Wow!

The home you see above is a four bedroom, two bath, tri-level with a basement.

Now the physical work begins, (it actually began Sunday but that is another post). To give you an idea, we have to scrape eight "cottage cheese" ceilings, take up all the old carpet and wood floors in the kitchen, paint the exterior and interior, fix some plumbing and electrical issues, remodel the kitchen and bathrooms and landscape the yard front and back. We have a lot of work to do and will tackle one project at a time. Wish us luck. :)

Next step

So now it was my responsibility to focus on getting good grades and finishing school, while Brennan focused on getting to know his new job and making money and saving it. I prepared myself not to see him for a month, until he came out for my birthday. It was hard but we got through it and appreciated the time we did have with each other even more. During this time, Brennan began looking on the Internet for homes in the Thornton, CO area by using redfin.com. He used information from his co-workers and from driving around to pinpoint certain areas that were desirable to live in. He chose a Realtor from redfin.com and began looking at homes in his price range. He also began shopping for a loan and a killer interest rate.

Going into buying our first home, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. I worked in escrow in California for about six years, and understood the process. However, I had no idea what buyers had to go through to find a home, get a loan and actually close the whole deal.

We both thought Brennan would have no problem getting approved for a home loan. He had great credit, hardly any debt, and he has been in the same industry of work for over 10 years. But we were WRONG. Due to the economy and the downfall of many of the biggest home loan lenders, lenders now make it very difficult in getting a home loan.

First Brennan applied at Wells Fargo, he had gotten a pre-approval letter about 6 months earlier, so he figured it was the safest choice. Oh let me just say that just because you have a pre-approval letter from a lender, it does not guarantee a home loan approval from them. It basically just says, "hey you look good, we might lend to you if we feel like it." So we got a few other pre-approval letters from various lenders just to be safe, but as we found out later on, it didn't matter.

What it came down to was that Brennan didn't have enough time at his current and new job for the lenders liking. So after a couple of weeks of gathering information after information from him, they would turn him down.

He eventually found a Mortgage Broker that was local and referred to him from a co-worker that reassured him she could get him approved and a home loan. But not after submitting every kind of information known to man. I'm surprised they didn't ask for his blood type or who his pediatrician was when he was younger. Lets just say the lenders finally realized that they shouldn't lend to every Tom, Dick or Harry that they ran across. So now they are very strict and check and re-check all information submitted to them.

So what I learned in this process is if you want to buy a house and get a home loan, make sure you have a steady job and that you have been working there for more than 6 months. Also, if you are planning on moving to a new state, don't expect buying a house is going to be any easier than it it is in your current state of residence. What I have began to say because of this process is "expect the unexpected" because you will when buying a house.

The Very Beginning...

Well where should I start?..... My boyfiend and I have decided to take the risk and move away from family and friends and everything we've known in our lives to Colorado. Why Colorado, people ask. I tell them because its more affordable, and if you live in California you know that is a really good reason. I have been living with my boyfriend, Brennan, at his parents home in their "little house" for the past 3 and 1/2 years. The "little house", if your confused, its like a mother-in-law quarters in the garage area. It had everything except a kitchen. That never bothered me, because I enjoy cooking for the entire family and its good practice for cooking for a family of my own in the future. Anyway, Brennan and I wanted to get out from under the parentals roof and buy a home of our own and have a stable platform for our lives together. When I say home, I do not mean a Condo in an HOA, where you live on top of other people and can hear their every coming and going through the thin walls. Homes in somewhat decent areas were way to inflated for our budget. So I came up with the idea of looking into moving to Colorado, (I lived there in 7th grade), but thats another story.

During this time I was in my last semester of college at CSUF and Brennan was struggling, (as many people are), in his position of sales at a Honda Motocycle dealership. So in a sense the only things keeping us in California was my school until May and our family and friends. I encouraged Brennan to search online in Colorado for dealerships looking for a fantastic, motorcycle salesman. He ended up finding a couple of dealerships in the Denver area that were looking for a self-motivated salesperson and they asked when he could interview. I was exstatic! I couldn't believe my suggestion of moving to Colorado, was possibly turning into a reality. He made the appointments, booked his flight, packed his small bag, and flew out to Colorado. He nailed the first interview and really liked how big the dealership was and told me, "I can definitely see myself working there and making a good living." I told him I was onboard and supported him with whatever he decided. He took the job at the first place he interviewed, and told them he could start in two weeks. He called to tell me he accepted the job offer while I was in my Geology class. I stepped outside when I saw his call, and screamed with delight when he said he took the position. From that moment, we decided to embark on a new adventure, that would hopefully bring us closer to what we wanted in our lives together.

So he gave his notice to his current employee, they were sorry to hear he was leaving, as he was a positive addition to their dealership. We packed up all his stuff in a U-Haul, strapped it to his Toyota truck and started out on what would be a 22 hour drive to Colorado.

We left on a Sunday evening and said we were going to stop and stay somewhere in Utah. However, my crazy guy decided he was going to drive through the night, through a blizzard in Utah, to get to Colorado in one stretch of driving. Just to give you an idea, I woke up at 4am, and I was looking at a white-out outside and Brennan going 5 mph. It was either drive slowly and get through it or stop and get stuck. I guess I was more happy with the choice he had made then getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a snowstorm, in Utah. It was a long and grueling trip but we made it to the apartment complex Brennan made an agreement with at about noon. We then had the terrible task of taking everything out of the U-Haul ourselves and up to the second level of the apartment complex, where his rental was. We spent a week together in Colorado exploring, beer tasting, and going to the many great original restaurants that Denver has to offer. Then it was time for me to go back to California to continue on with my college education and for Brennan to start his new job in Colorado. It was bittersweet leaving him at the airport, but I had to put the negative thoughts out of my head and think of the life we will be able to have because of this big decision. The rest is history...and I will tell you in another blog post. :)