What They Don't Tell You: About House Shopping

House shopping looks SO fun on t.v. Seriously, who wouldn't want to meet up with their hot realtor- or hot duo of realtor's, tell them a wish lists and then have that realtor show them three houses and in a week, bing, bang, boom, you gotta house!

Well, that is not what happens okay, not even close!

First things first, find a realtor. Jordan's brother had bought a house the previous year so we went with his realtor. Done.

So we made an appointment, brought a list of or wants and needs and sat down with our realtor. It was a LONG appointment. 3 hours! We listened a lot and Jordan asked way too many questions and we talked about commissions and contracts and it was a.lot. Period.

After that we received a login to a database and we would get notifications of houses for sale and ask our realtor to set up appointment for us. That's one thing you don't hear about: you do a lot of the work too. They don't generally just start showing you houses. You pick the ones you want to see and your realtor is the one who sets it up.

House hunting is not glamorous my friends, there, I said it. It was months of searching with no bites, awkwardly walking into strangers homes and having to walk around while they sat in their living rooms, standing in the freezing cold while talking to our realtor...it was a lot of things. Disclaimer: winter is apparently a slower market for real estate which means less sellers and buyers. Therefore if you find a house you like in the winter you could probably get it for cheaper and have some bargaining room since there is less interest at that time and it's likely that it has been on the market for longer.

Side note; humans are a scary breed. During our house hunting we encountered one hoarder, one person who had more animals than I could count including a turtle, a hamster, two dogs, a cat, a snake and a bunch of animals we probably didn't see, one curious looking blood-like stain, and one man who had no furniture but did have about 25 mattresses stacked in different rooms of his house.

House hunting was exciting, and it was disheartening. I have zero interest in going back to house hunting any time soon, which I think is something people should know.

There is A LOT that goes into buying a house. We sat for hours writing offers that were rejected and that is nothing compared to the hours we spent at banks, with mortgage brokers, and with lawyers.

Near the end I said "I can't believe everyone who has ever bought a house has gone through this."

Honestly, you need to be ready for all this because it is no joke. Once you own the house...well that's where the real work starts.

But more on that later.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
HGTV Whistle Blower

*If you have any questions about house hunting contact me using the information here*