Today we sold the first home that we ever bought (in 1988). It has been quite an emotional rollercoaster over the years, but God has had many lessons for us along the way. Here are my thoughts, as written on Closing Day:
As I sit here waiting patiently (I can do that now, since we finally have all of the paperwork in) for the closing on our townhouse, I am able to reflect on the blessings and lessons God has brought us through owning it these last 18 years. We are very thankful to finally be able to sell it, but we are also thankful for having owned it. Here are some of my thoughts as I reflect on this transaction.
Blessings:
This was the first home we ever bought. It fit our needs wonderfully for a few years and we brought three of our babies home when we lived there. One of our neighbors became a life long friend and she was a huge blessing to us while we lived there. We also had the opportunity to help her on numerous occasions. Bob and I learned the basics of home ownership through the purchase of this home and we learned how to make repairs that would have otherwise been done by a landlord.
Although having a train come within fifty feet of your back fence would be an irritant to a lot of folks, we have fond memories of it. When Trey was a baby, I could lay him down in his crib when the train came by and the gentle rocking would put him right to sleep. If he was out in the back yard when it came by, he would raise his hands up and put them on his cheeks, rather than his ears. He never seemed to understand that we were putting our hands on our ears to shut the sound out. Tessa insists that the house was much bigger when we lived there. Of course, that has everything to do with her being much smaller, though. She cannot understand how we got a small wading pool, her Little Tikes car and a swing on the back patio now, when she goes back to look at it again. She remembers wanting to be able to reach a certain spot on the fence and longing to be able to look over it when the train came by. Now, at 5ft 8in she simply stands there and gazes at the train while standing on the ground.
We were blessed to have good tenants the last few years we owned the townhome. A young international couple lived there for six years and we were able to provide them a good home for less than market value rent. In the end, we were able to sell the townhome at a good price to a young couple who were buying their first home. It was fun to see how excited they were about buying it, having slept very little the night before due to home buying jitters.
This was the first year that God allowed us to have the cash to spend on updating the home so that we could put it on the market. It was a real blessing to be able to do that, and we are so thankful to have gotten a good enough price out of it to pay ourselves back for the expenses and have a little left over. Now we have enough to pay the deductible for having our hail damaged roof replaced in our current home! Although we wanted so badly to sell the townhome in the past, it was apparent that this was the perfect time for us to put it on the market.
Lessons:
Along with the blessings, God taught us many lessons during the time that we owned the townhouse. First of all, we learned to prayerfully consider major purchases such as this (we did not include Him in the purchase). I admit that I ran headlong into this transaction, guided only by my emotions and desires. I suspect that I basically dragged Bob along behind me, too, since I was not a godly and submissive wife at that point in my life. We did not research the purchase much at all. Instead, I was blinded by a home larger than any we had ever had, with everything in it brand new.
We have learned that we spent way too much on the purchase of this home. Initially we planned on living there 4-5 years and then selling it and buying a “real home”, but when we did begin trying to put that plan into action we found that no one at all was interested in buying it for the price we had to ask. A number of times we put it on the market, both with a realtor and “For Sale By Owner”, yet we probably only had a handful of people actually look at it and no one seriously interested. This was due to the fact that we paid too much and were forced to put a price on it that no one else was willing to pay.
Being the first owners of a home is exciting, but we also discovered the drawbacks of working the “kinks” out of a new home (ie, dryer was not vented to the outside, causing moisture to build up between the ceiling and upstairs floor). Also, you never know how a neighborhood is going to age when you buy a new home. In our case, since each townhome was individually maintained, the upkeep was quite varied and spotty. It was also not determined who would maintained the grass in the entryway after all of the units were sold, so it was not well taken care of. I think it is safe for me to say that we have learned to always buy an older home in an established neighborhood.
Although it was never really in question, we learned that we do not want to be landlords, especially while living a long distance away. Renters inevitably do not take as good of care of a home as owners do, thus causing repairs to be necessary. We also learned to not use one particular property management company in our city.
I am certain that I will think of other blessings and lessons that God has taught us in the particular situation, and I will add those as they come to mind. I pray that we will indeed be thankful and learn the lessons that He has prepared for us along the way.
