Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Need to Move and the Impending Timeline

After writing the post about beginning our home search I realized the rest of the story would make a lot more sense if readers knew why we need to move and what our timeline is...

In a nutshell, we have been making our 1 bedroom and a loft townhouse work with our 2-1/2 year daughter, but we are about to completely run out of room come March 2014 when our second daughter is due to arrive.

When my husband (boyfriend at the time) and I bought our townhouse in March 2007, we planned on staying in it about 3 to 5 years. As most people know March of 2007 was right before the market plummeted. We were responsible first time home owners and put our 20% down. Then we watched it all crash and burn before our very eyes. We knew the situation sucked, but kept a positive attitude that the market would make it's way back, and when the time came that we had to move (had children) we'd most likely be able to at least get our down payment back.

Well, that time has now come. When our first daughter was born we moved our selves out of the only bedroom into the upstairs open-air loft and gave her the room with a door. We turned our small dining area into a "play" area, and the 3 of us have been pretty cozy ever since.

This past July we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we were going to be having baby #2, and the count-down to finding a new home began to tick immediately. With the holidays taking up a large chunk of time right before the baby comes, it would be ideal to find a place before the holidays hit, and move in before I'm too huge and stressed out to help with the moving situation.

As for our current townhouse...we may sell, we may rent, but right now we are still waiting for the real estate gods to wave their magic wands and fix the market.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

The Home Search Begins: The Quest for the "Urban Suburban" Lifestyle

We began our home search in early August 2013. We knew we were not going to be the easiest of clients for our realtors because we had our minds set on a very specific type of house and neighborhood.

We wanted the "urban suburban" lifestyle, or in other words, a suburb with a downtown. You know...the train station, a coffee shop, unique little boutiques, a yoga studio, and a breakfast spot where we would surely become regulars. We wanted to be walking distance to most everything, with ample space for our growing family in a charming historic home, and a little backyard that was big enough to enjoy, but not too much to maintain. But most of all, a home that was already updated and move-in-ready: NOT.A.FIXER.UPPER.

After a short time considering the surrounding downtown areas we could from (Arlington Heights, Elmhurst, Libertyville, and Long Grove) we settled on the village of Barrington. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the home prices were some of the most affordable, and despite being in Cook Couny, so were the taxes. With a top rated school system and one of our favorite suburban downtowns, we had found our spot.