In July (2018) my husband and I had been going on our 3rd summer of having first-time home buyer’s remorse. Is that a thing? I think it is a thing. If it isn’t, we definitely made it a thing. Quickly after buying our first home we knew that it was missing some of the things we really wanted in our forever home. I will get into more of those in a later post, but for now we will focus on one of the most important – privacy.
Our home was on a nice street. For the most part it was pretty quiet, but while we were the only house on our side of the road, there were 7 across the way. Now hear me out. I’m a pretty social person; I truly enjoy the art of mingling and I hardly ever hesitate to engage in small talk, but I really wanted nothing more than to be able to sit on my front porch or walk to my mailbox without feeling like I was being watched. Is that too much to ask!? No. We decided it wasn’t.
Okay, okay, back to where this started and where this blog post is supposed to be headed (insert shrugging emoji here). With the thought of building a home merely just a dream, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to start looking for a piece of property that would not only keep us from being too close to any neighbors, but would also allow us more yard space to take advantage of in the future.
Our first house was on a smaller lot. At a third of an acre, it was considered one of the larger lots in the area.. but it was still too small. It was also very unlevel, making most of the space difficult to make use of. We knew we wanted at least an acre for our forever home. A level, one acre piece of land would be great! So much yard for our little guy and our pup to play in, and so much space between us.. and anyone else! And so the search began.
Over the next couple months our dream of building became a reality and it was time to get serious about purchasing some property. We came across a few lots we really liked, but as soon as we discovered them, they were scooped up just as quickly.
Through our searches, we realized a corner lot would allow us some extra space and also keep one less neighbor from being too close to us. So, being the person I am, I decided Google Maps would be my best friend. I used the satellite view to search the specific areas we were interested in and I researched every corner lot that could be our potential forever yard!
After writing down a handful of addresses, that were not currently listed for sale, I used my innate detective skills to research the owners of the properties! My plan included offering the owners a price they couldn’t resist and we would have our forever yard soon enough. Or so I thought. While I was able to find names of property owners and where they lived, I wasn’t able to find their contact information other than mailing addresses. Who had time to correspond via snail mail? Not this chick! Boo! This was not going as planned.
Then it was like the stars aligned and all was right in the world. We fell in love with the most peaceful property we had visited. It was the most level, lightly wooded, beautiful lot. I mean, look at it. It is dreamy. I am not ashamed to admit my obsession.
Not only was it the perfect corner lot, it was 5x larger than our previous yard! 1.28 acres? Yes, please! I typed the address in our local property appraiser’s website and to our surprise, the lot was owned by a real estate corporation! Not to mention, the corporation’s office was less than an hour away in a town we frequently visit! I was so excited knowing I could easily find the corporation’s phone number and because this particular lot was not listed for sale, nobody was going to scoop this one up!
We submitted our offer on a Friday and we were told we would have our answer the following Monday. Except it was almost 2 weeks before we got an acceptance or a counter. According to the brokers we spoke with, the “big guy” was out of the country and we would have to wait for his return to know whether they would sell the property to us. After our long wait, we finally got the call that they countered just slightly above what we offered and we accepted! A few days later, on November 1, 2018, we closed!
Welcome to our front yard!
So, that’s the story. If you’re still reading, thank you! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you continue to follow our Dream Home Journey!
Have a happy day!
