Six months ago (practically to the day) I posted on the trials and tribulations of my first-time house-hunting experience. Now, half a year later, I’m happy and relieved to announce that this experience has come to an end. I bought a house. After eight months of relentlessly refreshing realtor.com, weekends packed with open-house hopping, and multiple fruitless bidding wars, I’ve landed on my feet in unincorporated St. Louis. A thrilling ride, to say the least.
When it came to purchasing a house, everybody told me what to expect and how it would go. While I appreciate the advice, I’ve already found that my home-buying experience has been unique. I’ve been knocking the forewarned fastballs out of the park but the god of home ownership has a pretty wicked curveball as well. Indeed, my experience, like everyone else’s, has been unique. So in this blog series, I’d like to relay this chapter in my life from my perspective as it happens. First up, here’s how closing on my house went down:
I was told that the process of closing on a house took about a half hour. Sign some papers, get some keys. The Seol Taco Truck was stationed in the title company’s parking lot. They told me they would be there for another hour or so. Perfect. Inside, I met with my mortgage loan officer. She produced an enormous stack of papers out of her bag. I wondered if I would have to sign all of them. I did. I’m not making a joke when I say that, on the last few documents, the cramp in my hand rendered my signature barely legible. My mortgage loan officer was very thorough… no detail left untouched. While I was grateful for her meticulousness in explaining the process, I would be lying if I said my mind didn’t wander to the Korean taco truck out front. I hoped that they would still be there and I hoped that my wife was paying closer attention to the details than me.
The entire closing process took about an hour. We got the keys. We hugged. We took a few staged photos for Instagram. We missed the taco truck but the high of home ownership dulled my hunger. It was all over… except that it wasn’t. Check back soon to read about our reasonably smooth moving process.
