Before I get started with my post, I’d like to share something that’d been on my mind for a bit.
“Salvation is not about closing doors. Salvation is about opening them. That’s why Jesus knocks.” I have a whole blog post pivoting off that, but it’s not ready yet, so pardon while I fire up a tangent.
About a year ago I was still deep within the throws of trying to find a new place in GA. I’d gone through 30 houses in 2 months. I had offers accepted on 2, only to back out because the homes had some serious issues that were only highlighted AFTER I had driven/flown to GA and saw what the inspector exposed / the realtor hid. Zoom viewing fail.
The whole time, friends, family, and total strangers were saying “Why are you so quick to buy, maybe rent?” That was God trying to smack some sense into me. He knew better than I did, and was desperately trying to get me to realize it as such. It’s no coincidence that after I decided to rent, within a day I found the home I’ve lived in for the past year.
So the plan I had at that point (man plans, God laughs notwithstanding), was to rent for about a year and when my lease came up, buy a house, as I’d hoped by then the market would have gotten a little less silly. Shockingly enough, when interest rates and inflation spike, people are less likely to outbid me by throwing piles of cash at a place I want, sight unseen.
So yeah, the interest rates aren’t great, so homes have been staying on the market longer than they have been the past few years. Sellers have been lowering prices. They’ve been making concessions to buyers. Homes that were outside my comfortable purchase price range were entering my price range every day. That’s when I stumbled across this place:
It’s a mile from where I’m renting (3 if you drive and aren’t cutting through back yards), checks nearly every single box, and to say the process went smoothly would be an understatement. There are a handful of things I need to repair, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a home run when it comes to what I wanted when I moved south for the ever.
Now one prayer I’ve made since this entire process began went something like this…
“Lord, if this is in your will then please let it proceed – but if it is not in your will, please make it impossible.” He did just that back when I was trying to buy a year ago. Renting? A breeze. I said I’d looked at 30 houses over the course of two months. This time? I looked at a half dozen homes. This one was top of my list, the last I looked at. Now it’s mine. Praise God!
I’ve got another two weeks or so until I move in fully, in the mean time I’ll be moving stuff over, handling various repairs, and cleaning my rental in the hopes that I’ll get some of my security deposit back.
My Georgia adventure continues!
