Searching for our first home

Maybe it's just us. But, buying a house isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm really just referring to the process of finding "the one."

When we decided we were moving back to Florida it was pretty much known we were going to buy our first house. We were excited. I mean, I watch even House Hunters and Property Virgins that I thought this would be a piece of cake. 

Must haves:
- 3 bedrooms
- 2 bathrooms
- Pool with lanai
- Big Kitchen (preferably upgraded)
- Open Floor Plan
- Entertainment space outside
- 2 car garage
- Indoor laundry room

Seems simple enough, right? 

Wrong. 

A couple of weeks into house hunting we realized this process wasn't going to be fun. It's a seller's market and the options in our budget are slim, which means homes go fast. 

We put an offer on a house and then a bidding war happened. We lost the house. In the end, it really wasn't the location we wanted so it was a blessing in disguise. 

Hundreds more pages on Zillow (and Realtor and Trulia), dozens of Open Houses, dozens more showings with our Realtor.. (and on, and on, and on) we found a house we LOVED. Prime location, great outdoor space, no rear neighbors.. There wasn't much to complain about. We were confident we were going to get this house and bid aggressively. A few hours later.. another buyer went over list price and got the house. I could've cried. I always told myself I wasn't going to get attached to a house but I did. It was a let down. I couldn't look at another house the same. 

There's so many things I wish people would've told us about buying a house. What to look for, what you can easily change, yada, yada, yada. 

So, I decided to blog a little about our journey. It hasn't been easy. We've argued, we've been frustrated, depressed, happy, excited. But, in the end, I hope our advice can help someone else!

Stay tuned!