I bought my first home in a pandemic.
By: Brittany Adam
Tags: First Home, Buying A House, Home, First Home Buyer

(not actually my home, obviously) — Image from Canva, used with permission.

Well, it all started in March. I began my third year living in the same apartment, which I loved, started rearranging some of the furniture around to refresh the space, and then the pandemic hit. I quickly shifted to working, living, sleeping, breathing, everything within the same four walls. I have asthma, so I’ve been staying home almost entirely through the pandemic, which has had its ups and downs, but overall I am so grateful that I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to stay home and keep myself (and others) safe. I’m an introvert, so staying home is fun for me and I am usually a pretty busy person so I was actually enjoying staying home so much. I have missed my family of course, but regular phone calls and little socially distanced visits in my parent's driveway have been sustaining me.

However, I also quickly realized how noisy everything around me was. Also how much I hate sharing a laundry room with hundreds of neighbors. Oh, and did I mention that the loudest people ever moved in next to me and argued on a daily basis? That’s a whole separate story though. Anyway, my sanctuary quickly turned into a nightmare that I couldn’t escape. Literally. Things were closed and it’s a pandemic, and I’m in the higher risk category for the said pandemic, so I am not going anywhere (still). My 622 sq-ft apartment just feels like a big box and well, basically it is.

I thought about all the reasons I loved the apartment: the industrial feel (it’s a loft), the way it felt like I lived somewhere way cooler like NYC than boring old Arkansas. Don’t get me wrong, Arkansas is beautiful and it’s my home, but it *is* boring. Then my A/C started acting up, right as it became summer (where it is not uncommon for it to be in the high 90s with 100% humidity), just like it had the past 2 summers I had lived there. Around that same time, my apartment office called because my bathtub was leaking into the apartment underneath me. About a week later I had a new tub-that was tiny. I like taking long, hot baths with bath bombs, so this was not cool. Add in that I also share a laundry facility with hundreds of other people and yeah, I started thinking, “Oh, I’ll just move next year when my lease term is up.” I was naively assuming the world would be more normal by the time that came around.

But here’s the thing, when I moved into this apartment I told myself I wouldn’t move again until I was moving out of state or if I bought a place. I didn’t think I could afford to do either of those things just yet, but I cautiously started looking both at luxury apartments (upgrades, baby, upgrades) and at houses. I came across the cutest little house that had recently been remodeled and I was convinced I had to figure out how to get it. I hadn’t really settled on trying to buy anything at all, but there it was-the seemingly perfect first home. Naturally, I started looking into the homebuying process immediately. Getting pre-approved, finding a realtor, all of that. But alas, interest rates were sinking and properties were being snatched up left and right. It was time to buy if you were going to, but you had to act fast.

Unfortunately and naturally, that house had an accepted offer on it before I could even get pre-approved, which took just a few days. But I was intrigued at this point because it actually seemed possible that I *could* in fact, afford to buy a house. So I looked, and looked, and looked. I found a realtor and then found another great house, but my realtor wasn’t available to go look at it. So I went without them and subsequently ended up firing my realtor and hiring the listing agent at that house for myself. I actually put in an offer on that house too because it seemed like the perfect fixer-upper, but it was rejected, which was actually for the best because I had mistakenly thought I could do something I couldn’t actually do with my program-borrow extra money to do some remodeling. So, the search continued (online mostly, or with masks on of course), until we had pretty much run the market dry. I kept thinking about that house though, and how perfect it would be for me.

My parents couldn’t stop thinking about it either and we all agreed (even my realtor — although she could be seen as slightly biased here given it was also her listing) that it was the perfect house for me. So, I figured out a way to get the program I needed to be in and have some money for remodeling, but with a much smaller budget than what I originally had in mind. I put in my third offer on the house and it was accepted! It then passed inspection with basically flying colors given its age, and my loan went through perfectly. I closed on the house last week and now we get to do the fun part-remodel it.

I documented the home-buying process and will continue the series with remodeling and eventually, moving in and decorating on my YouTube channel if you would like to check that out!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFQfvBDA5cgWlrrrHVMnYQA