If at first you don't succeed...

Mr. Pony and I are eagerly anticipating the purchase of our first home. More room to spread out, more room for storage, more room for me to display my eclectic souvenir collection... Just more room in general. We are looking forward to all the joys of home ownership, but we've already discovered some of the pitfalls awaiting prospective buyers.

First off, we are both under 25, so the first thing my parents said was 'You are much too young', end of story. We've gotten past that, and they are now supportive, as are Mr. P's parents, but that was the undercurrent as we started the search process. Then, after viewing 20(ish) homes, we found one we loved, put in an offer and *huzzah* we won! We spent a joyful couple of days until the dreaded home inspection occurred, and which point we found that there were some issues with the foundation that, in a few years, would need extensive work- to the tune of $15-20K. I have since reattached my lower jaw to my skull, but that was a big shock for innocent, home-buying us.

So we made the decision, which was actually more painful than it should have been, to just walk away. Better to put out for the inspection and walk away than just buy the house now and be out a ton later! It felt like we were giving up on something, rather than making a solid decision about our future- silly, I know.

However, we haven't given up. We've found a few other houses that we like, and are likely to make an offer on another house this weekend, proving to ourselves that there was no point in getting all depressed about losing out on the first house- there are other fish in the see (or houses in the neighborhood, as it turns out). So we shall see how this goes. Home buying- isn't it grand?

'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Don't give up too easily; persistence pays off in the end.' - Thomas H. Palmer

Picture from Las Vegas Buyer Agent.