The Victorian

And there she was - the ultimate house.  I could hear angels singing, light shined down from above.

• Built in 1829
• 5700 sq ft
• .8 acres
• 14' ceilings
• Guest house, finished basement and attic
• 15 min. outside of the city
• At the bottom of our price range (only $225k)
• Absolutely beautiful

We couldn't say no to a bedroom that looked like this:

Or a huge garden with chicken potential like this:

Checkout the full virtual tour which was posted when the house was listed a few years ago.

Like most things that are too good to be true, the house had a few issues:

• Foreclosure - Since Bank of America was the seller, we had to wait a few days before getting any type of response (bureaucracy.)
• MOLD in the basement - The house was foreclosed on in November 2011.  We looked at it 4 months later and during that time, the electricity had been cutoff.  After a heavy rain, the basement flooded but the sump pump did not have power to pump the water out.  Estimated cost to repair = $10,000
• No kitchen - The previous owners took every piece of cabinetry - even the kitchen sink!  We saw this as an opportunity to build our perfect kitchen with a blank slate.  However, it meant normal loans did not apply.   Estimated cost = $25,000 - $40,000

• Possibly haunted - Civil War ghosts are popular in Richmond, VA, what can I say?

Our first realtor told us that no mortgage company would EVER approve us for a house that needed this much work.  Seriously?  The only way you could buy this house is if you paid cash??  Thankfully we did our own research and Wells Fargo qualified us for a Conventional Renovation loan which included $225k for the mortgage with $50k in renovations, so $275k (more details on other options later.)  

After the bank sent the pre-approval letter to our realtor, we crossed our fingers.  There was another offer on the house but we were willing to pay full price so it had to be ours.  

Did I mention two rooms had built-in bookshelves and huge pocket doors?  My Pinterest activity escalated as I decorated each room.

Sadly, the bank accepted the other offer for $185k.  You may be asking yourself, "But isn't that lower than what you offered?"  Yes.  Yes, it is.   Perhaps it was a cash offer, we do not know.

Life.  Often times, upsetting things happen to you that don't make sense or are out of your control.  We mourned the loss of this house but had to dust ourselves off and Move On.  Leave the negativity behind and keep the lessons learned.  

•  Unless you have a signed contract, do not pay for a home inspection.  We lost $500 because we didn't know any better and our realtor did not advise us otherwise.  Since there could have been other major problems unknown with such an old house, we wanted to avoid getting a contract on a house that needed $200k worth of work.  Apparently, you can get out of a contract after the home inspection so we did not need to have the inspection done beforehand.
• It's ok to change realtors if they aren't working out.  Even if they are a friend of yours.
• Ask the home inspector lots of questions.  They are a great resource, you are paying them and their job is to protect you.
• Shop around for a mortgage that works for you!