May God bless this home!

After a roller coaster of a process, I was blessed to be able to buy my townhome! :D God is so good! I actually bought it on August 17th, which was a surreal experience of signing and dating an inch's worth of paper and then becoming an official homeowner. :) Some suggested I would get writer's cramp; I did not, and realized that this is probably due to the fact that I do autograph sessions frequently. :P

To recap for some of those who do not know the events leading up to this happiness: I have been living in this townhome for a little over a year now, but at the beginning of this year, the landlady said she wanted to sell the place instead of renew our lease for another year. Instead of panicking, I realized I had enough saved up so that I could make this investment into the future and buy the townhome. However, since she was shortsaling it, we would need to get realtors involved as she could not directly sell to me.

Mind you, she kept assuring me that the process would take many months, so we need not worry about somebody buying the townhome right away and making my roommates and I scramble for a new place to live. Then one day, the landlady's husband comes by with a realtor asking if I'd be okay with putting a lockbox on the door so strangers could come in and look at the place if we weren't there. I told the realtor that I was planning on buying the place and would not want strangers to buy it out from under me. We exchanged email addresses, and that was that.

I then found a realtor that had sold townhomes in the area before, and she started me on the process of becoming a homeowner. I got an email from the seller's realtor asking if I was still interested in buying the place, because she had found a couple of other people that were highly interested in buying it. I was shocked, since I had told her I was buying it, and now I felt pressured to pay the full amount on the contract they would offer because I didn't know if these supposed other buyers would be willing to pay the full price if I went any lower. I told her that I was going on vacation soon, but as soon as I got back, I would love to enter into a contract to buy the home.

I was in the airport heading to California when my realtor called me and said the seller's realtor had put the house on the market. Really?!? Fortunately, my friends that I was visiting had access to a fax machine, so I was able to spend most of my vacation faxing contract paperwork to my realtor to give to the seller's realtor so we could be the first to ask for the townhome. In this process, we found out that the seller's realtor demanded 75% of the commission since she claimed she was working for me. She was not, but she had sent me two emails and refused to move forward unless she got more commission. My realtor agreed to her ters so that I would not lose the townhome. I found out later buying a house requires two realtors, one for the seller and one for the buyer so that one realtor does not work both ends and raise the price to get a higher profit. However, in shortsales, since the bank sets the price of the house, a realtor may act as a transaction agent and get double profit without worrying about setting the price of the house. Had the seller's realtor told me this instead of finding other people to buy the townhome, we would have avoided a lot of drama. Oh, hindsight!

Once the contract had been agreed upon, the majority of my time was spent in waiting. Waiting for lender approval, waiting for underwriting.. waiting for reapproval when I had to write a letter saying "Yes, I'm young and buying a large purchase; I know that and am financially responsible"... until finally, everything was approved, and I wrote the down payment check! :D Hallelujah!

I absolutely love my place; it is two minutes from work, I can watch the Wishes fireworks from my bedroom window, I have a view of the woods out front, it is the model townhome complete with crown moulding, granite countertops, and state-of-the-art courtyard, and the set up is perfect for having friends come over to hang out with the library, kitchen, living room, and half bathroom all downstairs.

The housewarming party was a success, with over thirty friends coming to share in food, fellowship, and fun! This townhome is such a blessing to me, and so my prayer is that those who come under its roof will be blessed. :D In whatever journey you find yourself on, whether it is buying a home, starting a family, finding a job, or simply trying to live life to the fullest each day, may you truly be able to say, "God is good!" :D

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment of the housewarming party:

We brought out Disney Apples to Apples to play; some played a few rounds, while others played for almost two hours! :D


We gave Ellie some catnip and a toy to play with, the perfect combination for cheap entertainment! :D


After buying a piano (I named her Lady Chordelia Baldwin-Hamilton), I am slowly teaching myself how to play. A few of my friends who came over gave impromptu performances, which were greeted with loud applause and deep appreciation. :D


At the end of the night, we were able to snap this picture on auto-timer of those who stayed to the glorious end of a wonderful day. Thank you so much to those who came out to my party! :D