Our Experiences with Buying and Selling Real Estate

So my husband and I are on our third house and luckily we were able to (eventually) sell our last two houses.  All of our mortgages (and refinances) were different and left us with different experiences.

Our first house was a “grandma house” as I like to cal like to call it.  The house was straight out of the 50’s so of course we had to rehab it to update it.  Our dads are handy and know laborers so we were able to get most of the work done for free or at least at a reasonable price.  We definitely learned a lot about rehabbing and it actually strengthened our relationship.  We had to live were cheaply and in a construction zone in our own house.  Since this was our first house we were totally clueless but luckily had a great lawyer and title company to work with.  Our broker suggested a 5-year arm, which was fine with us since we didn’t plan on living in that house that long.

Our second house was a rehab house that we bought as an investment house when the market was doing well.  We couldn’t afford the two mortgages anymore so we put our first house on the market and it sold to the first couple that looked at it.  We grudgingly moved into that house for 15 months.  With this house we had a 30 year fixed rate and ended up having to take out a second mortgage on it to pay off some bills.

Finally, we moved into our current house, which we are dying in!  We took a lose on selling our second house but were able to get a good price on this house since they were also desperate to sell.  We have a 30 year fixed rate and since rates dropped shortly after we moved in we actually refinanced right away for a great rate.

While buying and selling a house can be scary, with the right people and motivation it will be just fine.  I wasn’t even thirty years old when all this was going on and it happened all within six years.  I admit I couldn’t have done it without my husband and the people that helped us along the way.

Mom and More Disclosure  This is a sponsored post written in behalf of a Missouri real estate company.  Please see my Disclosure Policy.