How Did We Get Here?

So here we sit on the eve of our move, sweaty, a little dusty, and circled by two cats about to lose their minds. Perhaps this all started when my wife and I first met, or maybe when we started saving for a house. But really, this all started at our wedding when we agreed to wait one year and then search out the town and the house where we would spend our next forty to seventy years.

This guy is pissed

At the start of 2019 I picked up a copy of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home and read it on my Kindle (which has just celebrated its sixth birthday). I can guarantee you that this book is not a gripping read, but it made me feel less terrified when we dove into this a year later.

After reviewing our first year of combined finances and setting a budget, we dove into interviewing real estate agents. By this point we had decided that Alameda Island was where we wanted to live, so when we met Amy Loughran it made all of the other agents seem disappointing. Everyone we met was great, but Amy is the top buyers agent in Alameda, and her knowledge, experience, and connections in the area made her a clear match for us.

Next, we dove into finding a mortgage broker. Again, we quickly found a match in Hunter Marckwardt and his team, who were super quick to respond, very experienced and easy to work with.

So we looked at houses, found one we wanted, and our team held our hands through the process. We closed in 19 days instead of 18, but in the middle of the worst pandemic since the Spanish flu, so that seems pretty damn good to me.

We need to get out of here