Erica & Wes are homeowners!! ^_^

In front of our wonderful home!

Yup, yup, my husband and I now own a lovely three bedroom, one and a half bath, two car garage dream home. Buying a house was so incredibly easy and I have nothing but glowing reviews for our realtor and mortgage lender. I always thought it would be a difficult process because that's all I've heard from other homeowners and that's how it is portrayed in movies & on reality house-hunter shows. I was completely shocked at how quickly the entire process went and, honestly, it was more stressful after we bought the house than during the buying process (moving in, unpacking, fixing things here and there ... that was the stressful part!)

Our lease was set to expire on August 1st so on May 1st we started house hunting. We drove around and searched online for potential homes. We mostly did this so we could get an outline of what we wanted in terms of amenities, location and pricing. We decided on a budget and three "must haves" for our home. I wanted a sewing room, Wes wanted a two car garage and we both wanted a nice back yard for the dogs, and that was it. We approached everything else with an open mind.

We got a recommendation for a realtor from some friends of mine. Wendy with eXp Realty was absolutely amazing! I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking to buy or sell a house. In my opinion, she really cares for her clients and is not afraid to fight for them (aka she has no problem being the "bad cop") and she was also not afraid to be honest with us. She got us moved into a house in less than two months. We took two tours with her--I think we only looked at about 12 houses total. The first tour consisted of houses of all different price ranges, neighborhoods and features. She really listened to our feedback on each of the houses that she showed to us. The next list of potential houses that she sent to us was spot on. Our second tour went a lot better than the first and we found our top three homes. From the top three, we picked our favorite and Wendy went to work for us.

Everything was smooth sailing between our realtor and the sellers' realtor. I'm sure it is hard work behind the scenes, but for us, it was the easiest process ever. While this was happening, Wes got a new job with insane overtime hours, I started a new position within my current company and I also battled the stomach flu. Regardless, Wendy was willing to work with our schedules and met us several times in the evening. She kept in touch by text & email and all we had to do was e-sign a few documents here and there. There was a little back and forth between us and the sellers after the inspection but it all worked out in the end.

Another great component to our home buying process was our mortgage lender. Wes' place of employment recommends First United Mortgage Group to all of their employees. We were very impressed with our Junior Loan Officer, Beau. I definitely recommend working with him. Like Wendy, he kept us abreast of all developments via text & email. The loan application and approval process was a little more difficult than our relationship with Wendy but still much less of a headache than I thought it would be. Honestly, the only hurdles we encountered were with First United's underwriting and legal departments toward the very end of the process (and Beau had nothing to do with the mishaps we were faced with). There was some miscommunication between us and a few other employees at the First United office but Beau remained courteous and professional throughout the entire process.

Closing day came on July 21st. I was both nervous and excited. Everything else up until then went so smoothly, I was almost expecting something crazy to happen on closing day that would ruin our entire experience. But that was not the case. Closing on the house went as well as everything else...easy as pie! Wendy and Beau met us at the title company with smiles, congratulations and housewarming gifts in hand. After signing about fifty contractual documents, we officially became proud homeowners.

And I am happy to report that my sewing room is all set up and I am ready to get back to work at RagsReborn. Fall and Holiday craft show seasons are quickly approaching! I have over 20 craft shows lined up for September, October, November and December... I might be a madwoman. Let's just say I am an ambitious small business owner with drive. More on the craft show line up in upcoming blogs!