A lot of you were asking about our new house in Raleigh – what area is it in, how we did decide on the area, how did we decide on the house itself, etc. So I figured I’d share more about the process in today’s blog.

After living in 3 homes now over the last 5-6 years, we have a pretty good understanding of what we want and need vs. don’t. For this particular move, we knew we wanted to buy a home that was ~50% less than what our current home in Denver costs. Reason being, a large part of us moving was to free up cash to use for other things so it didn’t make sense to move to Raleigh and buy a house just as expensive or even slightly less and be paying a similar mortgage (especially with the current rates).

Aside from budget, we also knew that we didn’t want a ton of sq. footage. What is considered a lot of sq. footage is totally relative – my sister lives in LA and so 2000 sq. feet is plenty of space to her. For us, our Denver house is 2300 sq. feet and our old Raleigh house was 4000 sq. feet. So we were looking for something 2000-3000 approximately. I should also mention as a side note, that layout played a big role in this also. As we all know, a house can feel much larger or smaller than it’s actual sq footage depending on the layout. But still, that was a ballpark of what we were looking for. We knew we wouldn’t mind having a little more space than we have now, but there are also a lot of things we’ve enjoyed about living in a “smaller” home (more on that here) so we were open/flexible.

Concerning the location, we have lived on the east side of Raleigh and North Raleigh and are very familiar with the rest of the areas/neighborhoods. That said, we knew that we didn’t want to live in North Raleigh again because it was too far away from the city center (North Hills was 20-25 minutes and downtown was 35 min). But we also knew that we needed to be realistic with our budget. The closer you get into Raleigh, the more expensive it is, so it’s all a balancing act. So while we knew we didn’t want to be so far North, we were flexible with what area as long as we were closer to either North Hills or Downtown to give us easier access to some of the main areas with shopping, restaurants, coffee, etc.

As far as the house itself – this is where Stephen and I were having a bit of a disagreement haha. In the past, we’ve always been open to buying a house that needed updates. Actually, we almost preferred it because we (well, I haha) love to design things with my personal style in mind. However, this time around, I wanted a house that didn’t need any work; I wanted something move in ready. Reason being is, any cash that we have right now, we had agreed to put it back into our businesses and pay off loans so I wasn’t about to take 80K and drop it on a new kitchen. We have other priorities right now and home projects that require a lot of money isn’t on the list. While Stephen agreed with this, he was like, why can’t we move into something that needs work and then just renovate in several years? I was basically like no, absolutely not LOL. I am someone that needs to be inspired by my environment and living a house with decor from the 2000s is not going to cut it. On top of that, I knew I wouldn’t have the time for larger projects. With starting my real estate career in Raleigh, that is my focus and I knew between balancing that with this current job (blogging), I wouldn’t have the time or energy for it. I wanted something move in ready but that we could still make it our own through smaller home updates/swaps. It’s not that Stephen was against this, but we didnt know if we could find this with our reduced budget and in a location we wanted.

So, we were looking for several weeks at various options and it was looking a little grim at first! Granted, it had only been a few weeks but given our wants/needs and how popular Raleigh has become, we knew we needed to be patient. That said, we had planned to stay with my parents in Wilmington, NC until we found something but then we came across the new build (that we ended up buying). It was a little more than we wanted to spend but it checked all the boxes in terms of location, updates, sq. footage, a yard for the dogs, etc. So given that and that it was the last house available in the neighborhood, we put in an offer ASAP! We found out the next day that our offer was accepted.

I think that covers just about everything regarding the new house! We move in August 17th so I’m very excited and looking forward to sharing with you all. Also, we haven’t even seen the house in person so we can all see it for the first time together! Haha xxClaire