October 18th, 2021

This month marks 1 year since we bought our first home! On one hand, I cannot believe it's already been an entire year and on the other hand it feels like we have lived here all our lives. I feel so blessed every day that we've been able to make this house into our home. It is super comfortable for us and our fur babies, they basically have their own rooms (technically guest rooms). I get asked questions all of the time about our house and the process it took to get here. I thought I would write a quick post with FAQ's about buying our first home. If I left anything out that you want to know, leave a comment!

• Are you married? Not yet! You do not have to be married or have joint finances to purchase a home together. You can still both have legal ties to the property without having any to each other.
• Are you both on the loan? Nope! We literally could not have done this without the other. Scottie gets weekly paychecks and does his taxes like most of you do, very normal, but he didn't have a ton of cash saved up, also very normal. However, I am technically an independent contractor and my pay is commission based, so my taxes look very different. This makes it a little bit harder for me to get a standard loan. What we did is put Scottie on the loan and I "gifted" the down payment. We both brought different important financial pieces to the table.
• Are you both on the title? Yes! So this goes back to the first question: being on the title means we both own the house, whereas he is the only one on the loan. If something happens to Scottie, I still retain possession of the property and will become responsible for the remainder of the loan.
• How do you split up bills? Equally! We both put in the same amount every month to go towards bills (mortgage, water, trash, electric, groceries, pets, etc.)
• Was buying a home with your significant other hard? YES! It was extremely challenging to find a house that we both agreed on, we probaboy looked for 6 months casually before really figuring out what was most inportant to each of us. I see this all of the time with couples who are house-hunting. It is a very emotional experiencr and my biggest piece of advice is to remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinions (harder than it sounds to remember when you're arguing in the car about move-in ready homes vs. a fixer upper) Communication is key! If there is something about a house that you honestly hate or cannot live with, tell your partner. You both will have to compromise. Just remember why you're going through this together.
• Did you always want to live in Tappahannock? Never heard of it until we saw the house we are in now. We both agreed on moving away from the city, out to a more rural area. He wanted land, I wanted a garden and a beautiful farmhouse. We looked in Amelia, Louisa, Goochland, Powhatan but couldn't find what we wanted. My comfort zone was only about an hour away from Richmond so we expanded our search and on the very edge of our hour radius search was a brick rancher on 2 acres waterfront. Never in a million years did we think we could afford a waterfront property so even though it was a little more than an hour away we went to see it. We fell in love! You don't always end up with exactly what you think you want, so be open when you're searching!