I wasn't too hopeful going into this house hunting process, because any really nice house that we saw online was gone within a few days. Timing is so crucial! There were actually only 1 or 2 that we were really excited to see that were still on the market. Our realtor put together a list as well.
We looked at about TWENTY different homes throughout the Southwest area of Austin and some surrounding areas. After about 6 hours, we actually found "the one" on the LAST house that we decided to look at for the day. Points for David because he came across this area while looking on his phone in the backseat that afternoon.
I walked into this home on Canterbury Dr. and that that warm fuzzy feeling. It had all of the major checkpoints on our list- open floorplan, upgraded kitchen, 4 bedrooms, and a good size backyard with a deck! It even had a greenbelt behind the backyard and to the side of the house. Score! We decided to put an offer on it that night, and we also went back in the morning to look again with my parents and Ryan.
To briefly sum up our 1-2 week experience with this house, our offer was accepted and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Then, the inspection came. There was a laundry list of issues that made the house a dealbreaker- roof issues, in need of a new water heater, the below grade structure was going to cause drainage issues, the deck was deemed unsafe and needed repairs, and the list went on. We were totally bummed. We rewrote the offer in hopes that the seller would correct all of the issues. As expected, the seller immediately came back and basically said no way.
So then, just as we had basically forgotten about this house, the seller came back a few days later and said they would look into fixing a majority of the issues! Talk about an emotional rollercoaster! After taking a little time to think about it and talk to other contractors and our parents, we realized this would be a bad deal. Even if most of the issues were fixed, that house would inevitably have more issues down the road. We went with our gut feeling.
This whole mess was a good learning experience, even though the end result totally sucked. We got to know the area really well, so now we believe we have narrowed down where we would like to live! We fell in love with the neighborhoods just on the outskirts of SW Austin, out towards Dripping Springs, primarily because of the gorgeous views of Hill Country. We drove around through Dripping Springs and saw the high school and some other hot spots around town. It already feels like home and where we are meant to be.
And best news of all from this weekend, we accepted a great offer on our McKinney home!
Bring on house hunting weekend #2!
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