In the midst of trying to stage our current home, we also recently took a trip to Montana to see if we could find a place that met all of our criteria:
-10+ acres
-open floor plan
-very energy efficient
-ideally off-grid (to minimize monthly expenses and be environmentally friendly)
-space from neighbors
-in our price range
-within 30-45 min of my future workplace
-in a good school district
-having both trees and open spaces
-southern exposure for gardens
-3 bedrooms
-storage space
-a garage (ideally with workshope space as well)
We saw one property on-line that we really liked, so had contacted that listing agent to have her set up tours of that home and some additional houses and properties. We figured there were three approaches we could take:
1. find a finished house/land that met all of our criteria
+ the easier option
-- also the most expensive
2. find a livable place to inhabit while Husband builds us a "dream house"
+ likely the cheapest option
-- not very relaxing for me to come home to at the end of the day
3. find property and rent a place in town while Husband builds
+ would give us lots of time to get it right
-- not that much cheaper, once rent prices are factored in
We decided to look into all options, from the "mansions" (#1) to the "shacks" (#2) to the "raw land" (#3).
We flew out late on a Wednesday night (arriving at the hotel around 10:30pm - WAAAAY past Kid's bedtime!), then met our awesome realtor bright and early on Thursday morning. She had a whirlwind day planned for us, including 10 back-to-back showings!
It was such an eye-opening day! We quickly learned that travel time is MUCH faster than expected on highways (thanks to 75-80mph speed limits in MT), and MUUUUUUUCCCCCCCHHHH slower than expected off the highways. Every property we looked at was on a dirt road! Basically, there are interstate highways, roads in town, and everything else is dirt. What a culture shift!
By the end of the day, we had pretty much ruled out the "shack" and "raw land" options, and we had a couple "mansion" options that we really liked. (For the record, I used the term "mansion" VERY liberally - these are all 2-3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2000 square foot max houses - still nice, but definitely only "mansions" in comparison to the "shacks" we were considering, not compared to your typical urban/suburban house!)
Our realtor met up with us again on Friday, as we saw two more "mansion" options, plus went back to our two front-runners from the day before in order to scope out the lands again.
Saturday we slept in a little bit (house hunting is exhausting work!) and then revisited another front runner, met the realtor to see three more houses, and finally revisited our definite front runner one last time.
By the end of the day, we revisited our wish list (above), and realized that only one option clearly checked all of the boxes. We were smitten! At the same time, we know that it can be dangerous to fall in love with a place before it's under contract, we we tried not to get our hopes up too high. Instead, we spent Sunday focusing on getting back home again, and doing some more manual labor to get our current house ready for the market.
On Monday we were ready to make an offer! But at the very last minute our bank pulled the financing from under our feet. Despite our excellent credit and the fact that we easily qualified for well over the asking price, they said they don't work with any off-grid houses. What?!?! Yeah, apparently having an extremely energy efficient house that is also environmentally friendly is a risk, not at asset?!?! UGH!
Our realtors gave us the numbers for a few local credit union who they said might do an "in house" real estate loan. Husband and I then proceeded to spend the day (between teaching and seeing patients, respectively) leaving messages, speaking to brokers, filling out applications, submitting documents, and basically flipping between the highest highs (of having felt ready to make an offer on the house we loved) to the lowest lows (of having felt betrayed by our bank and by the entire industry for taking such a backward approach to financial risk).
Then, at what felt like the 11th hour (but really was just about 5pm), we finally got the news that one credit union would prequalify us for a conventional loan with good terms and that a second credit union would "likely" approve us. (The other two basically said "um, hell to the no!") But hallelujah for the relief of having at least one option -- that meant that our offer could be back on the table!!!
After a couple back-and-forths in the negotiating process, we finally are under contract!!!! We are so excited for our new house in Montana!!
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