The House with the Brick Mailbox

This is the story of answered prayers and a first home. It's a little long, but if you'll stick with it, it's a good one (Plus there's a picture to reward you).

So a couple of months ago Drew and I realized that our apartment lease was actually up at the end of April as opposed to May. We had been flirting with the idea of trying to find a house this year, but this made it suddenly urgent. We only had a month or two to find a place (we decided not to renew our lease). So we started talking to real estate agents. We found our guy and started looking at houses and praying.

We asked God to make it obvious which one was for us because we're both terrible decision makers and also because we wanted to be where He wanted us.

So we looked at a lot of houses. It started out fun, but we quickly realized that there wasn't a lot to offer in our $100,000 budget, but we kept praying and kept looking.

Finally, we found a place that I really liked and put in a bid (it was a HUD home). We waited patiently and finally got back the word that we didn't get the bid. I was bummed, but the house did need a little work and it was kind of out of the way. So we sighed and moved on.

The next house I wanted, we put a bid on, but definitely didn't get that one either and then I found it - Our dream house.

It was beautiful and it probably should have been going for a good bit more than it was. Andrew was out of town, but Amy (my hero) and our real estate agent Mark went out to look at it. It was just as wonderful in real life as in the pictures and I was super excited...until we went into the garage and discovered that it was sinking into oblivion. There was a good 1 inch crack running the entire length of the garage wall and my step-dad (Bill-of-All-Trades) filled me in on the fact that it would be like a $50,000 job to fix it. Not exactly in our budget.

This was a harsh blow for me and kind of ruined the rest of my day.

But, I got over it when I later realized that in asking God to make it clear which house was for us, He would also make it very abundantly clear which ones weren't. Which He really had to, cuz He knows that I'm an impulse buyer and easily wooed by shiny new things.

So on that exciting new revelation I went back into the house hunt with new patience and renewed excitement. I didn't have to wait long though, because that weekend I found our home.

Andrew was still out of town so my mom (also my hero), Amy and Mark went with me to look at some more houses. The first one on our list had gone under contract since the day before so that was out. We then proceeded to the next house on our list which was a fixer-upper for sure and turned out to be more work than it was worth (starting to get bummed again). So we piled back into our cars and headed for the third house which I wasn't super interested in seeing, but decided to look at anyway since the others hadn't worked out and we only had one other one on the list.

So we get there and the house is ok, but kind of architecturally weird. Then we find that the garage has flooded and there's about an inch of standing water still there despite the lack of recent rain. So we go outside to see if we can figure out where the water is coming in and a man pulls up in the drive-way.

He was remodeling a house down the street and wanted to know how much they were asking for this one so he could list his for less. He said we were welcome to come take a look at it.

So we shrug our shoulders, decide that it can't hurt and head for the house with the brick mailbox. We get there and start to look around. I immediately shut down because I know that this man can ask $120,000 easily for this house. It was beautiful. All new carpet, fresh paint, new fixtures and lights and hardware. Huge yard with a detached garage/man cave. So I smile and tell them it's lovely and think to myself that we should leave before I let myself start to dream.

While I'm in this sad state, Mark (new hero) and the owner break away to talk numbers.

When we all meet back up, Mark gives me the we need to talk look so we go to another room and I knowingly say, "I can't afford this place, right?" and he looks at me with the big smile and says, "Actually..." My heart stops and I'm thinking I must have misheard him. So he tells me the story: He explained to the owner that Drew & I were on a tight budget and asked what his bottom dollar was. The owner said he would sell it for $105,000. (Here, I was thinking that it wouldn't be too hard to get our pre-qualification letter bumped up to 105). Then Mark tells me that he explained to the guy that we had a pre-qualifiaction letter for $100,000. He said that the guy hemmed and hawed for a bit, but then said that he could take 100. I couldn't believe it. Surely I was being punked. Then Mark proceeded to tell me that he had agreed to pay $4000 closing costs too! Needless to say that was obvious enough for me and we drew up a contract right then and there and signed it. (Now I remind you, Drew wasn't home for this, but he was getting home that night and signed the contract based solely on my recommendation - he did get to go the next day and look at it and loved it). So basically, if anything about that day had been different, we never would have run into the owner and we never would have found our house. The timing was nothing short of a miracle. Plus we were set for an April 15th closing which would give us 2 weeks to move out of our apartment and then we ended up closing on April 8th. So now we have a leisurely 3 weeks to move all our stuff :)

And that's the story of how God found our house for us.

I hope you stuck with it and made it to the end, cuz I think it's pretty great and I hope that it encouraged you to have faith that God listens to and answers prayers. It's not always in our time and it's not always the way we would have done it, but he does hear you!

Photo Cred: Amy