So, we did it, we bought a lake house (insert wow face emoji here). Still kinda reeling from the whole thing. Doesn’t seem quite real. Closing was easy peasy. Actually, whole process has been that way which makes it just feel “right.”
We’ve been looking for a vacation property since August, after deciding we didn’t want to continue seasonal site camping and had some cash on hand to use as a down payment. We saw a lot of really terrible properties that wouldn’t have qualified for conventional financing or were more of a project than we were willing to take on.
We talked about finding a piece of land instead and holding on to it for a while, parking the camper. Then we met with a great realtor who told us to be patient and predicted we’d be under agreement by end of January.
Then it happened, John got a new listing alert and he was positive that This. Was. The. House. I wasn’t so sure looking at the pictures and seeing that there was only 900 sq. ft. I didn’t think it would be big enough. But the location on Newfound Lake and lot size of half an acre made it worth the look.
We went up a couple days later and when we pulled in, we knew this was the house we’d been waiting for. It was two streets away from the lake in the same area where John vacationed with a friend as a kid. It is a project for sure and in need of more than a little TLC, but we could instantly see our family here.
Our realtor Justine was in as much disbelief as we were – it checked all our boxes and was at the high end of our price range. She could tell we were excited. We put in the offer right away, over asking and time certain (meaning we required an answer within a period of time even though the listing said they weren’t considering offers until Feb. 1).
Imagine my surprise when John called the next day to say the offer was accepted! Seemed impossible. No counter offers or anything. The rest of the process went very smoothly. House appraised. No bumps or hiccups. And we are now the proud owners of a two-bedroom chalet in Bristol, NH.
We’ve been planning and talking and dreaming for the last six weeks. Now it’s time to start putting some of those plans into action. First step – cleaning out everything the previous owners left, assessing the property and then renovating the bathroom (we always install new toilets!).
Hope you’ll come along on this journey with us as we renovate our vacation home into a place where memories are made … Welcome!