We Lost Our Home..

After my husband and I got married, we immediately started looking into purchasing a home. In Maryland, where we live, new developments are everywhere. So we decided to start looking into model homes. I mean, who wouldn’t love the idea of building your own house? You get to chose all the little details together and start your lives together in a brand new, never lived in before home! For us, at that time, that was the way to go.

So we started the process. We were approved for a mortgage and they started building. We were so excited! I loved going to the design center and picking out the counter tops, tile, carpet, appliances, and flooring. It was great, and I couldn’t wait to see the finished product. Every once in awhile my husband and I would visit the homesite to see the progress on our home. Though I was very excited, I couldn’t shake a weird feeling that I was having.

One day I went for a visit, shortly after they started building, and I noticed that our homesite sign was missing. I took some time to look around and it was still nowhere to be found. We brought this up to the builder, who said they’d replace it…but it bothered me. It bothered me mostly because of the feeling that I already had…that something was coming. I didn’t know what..but I knew it had to do with this house. It was more than just anxiety or even buyers remorse. It was as if something was telling me not to get too attached to this house. So I didn’t. By the way, they never did replace that sign.

Months later COVID hit the US and turned everything upside down. People were losing their jobs left and right but at the time we were spared. As a matter of fact, at that time I had just started a new job and was working 2 jobs. Even so, the financial outlook of this country and consequently the housing market was cloudy. Lenders were being more strict due to the uncertainty of this new COVID world.

Days after we did our final walk through for our beautiful home, the mortgage company called us. They told us that they were essentially dropping us. We were no longer approved. I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to make this work somehow. So we shopped around but only the best of the best applicants were being approved at that time. But eventually we found 1 lender that was willing to work with us. In the meantime, the builder had put our house on the market and sold it. That was no longer an option for us. So we went shopping for existing homes. At that time there were few homes on the market. Consequently, these homes had multiple offers which lowered the chances of you winning. Often times, we would get a redfin notification that a new house in our price range just hit the market. That same house would be pending sale by the time we toured it. Its a sellers market right now and the search became exhausting!

Then just when we were beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel, our financial situation changed. It was then that I knew that this wasn’t the right time. So we decided to put the house search on hold until the market changes and things turn around financially for us.

It was a hard decision for me because I really wanted a home. However, I am choosing to believe that God is fashioning it this way for a reason. I was supposed to learn some things along the way and I have. My relationship was supposed to get stronger as a result and it has. I was supposed to get a bigger and better house for a even better deal…and that part is coming. I believe it.