Welp, it's official - we bought another house!! After announcing our move to North Carolina back in June - we packed up, put most of our stuff in storage & got a short term lease apartment while we made the search for the perfect home for us to set up our southern roots! The housing market is crazy everywhere - but it's especially insane here in coastal Carolina! With this being a hot spot & everyone wanting to live close to the ocean - I mean it makes sense! Homes are extremely expensive & what's considered a "good deal" here - goes quick! It was a bit scary moving here without having a permanent home in place - but we allowed ourselves to just trust the process & that the right house was waiting for us & we were right.
As you all know - I blogged & shared about our fixer upper for years on social media & while the fixer upper life was a chapter of our lives - we knew it wasn't anything we wanted in our future. We loved our sweet little home back in Michigan - but, the work it needed was extensive. It felt like anything we did was just a cosmetic band aid when the truth was that the home needed just a full gut job. Once we identified we wanted to move to NC - we scaled back on fixing it up for us & more so focused on fixing it to sell. I commend anyone who has the patience, time and financials to keep up with a fixer upper! And to be very frank - Joanna Gaines is full of shit & it's not what she makes it out to be. 😅 A newer home was a HUGE goal for us this time around!
Fortunately for us - I have a cousin who's one of the best in the real estate business here in Wilmington, NC - Danielle, the owner of the Gillespie Real Estate Group. I cannot stress enough on how important it is to have the right team in place when it comes to this process! Our first time buying home experience left a very bad trauma scar (long story) & to be truthful - my husband & I both were so scared from the experience - it's what made us hesitant in going through it again. This time we made sure to choose the right realtors - for selling our home in Michigan - Amy Fulk & Danielle Gillespie for buying our home in NC. I never dreamed selling our house back in Michigan & buying a house here in North Carolina could be so easy. Back in Michigan - Amy was competitive, quick and knew her market. She told us what we needed to do to get our home ready to sell & the process was seamless. We sold our home quicker & for more than we even expected. Back in April when we decided to make steps to move - Danielle quickly got us in touch with her lender, Harrison from Cross Country Mortgage who helped us by offering expert advice to improve our credit score for better loan approval odds. We raised our credit score, got pre-approved & then we were ready to shop for houses with Danielle!
With Danielle's expert knowledge & searching - she helped us get a BRAND NEW home! Yes, that's right brand new! Considering the prices of the market, we were nervous if we'd be able to play ball at all! And we got nervous that another fixer upper might be more of our reality. 😢 Which was not ideal considering we moved down here to enjoy life not to spend all our free time doing house projects. We also didn't want to go house broke either by buying something way out of our budget! Lots to consider for sure! So we got with Danielle one evening to go look at houses! We took a trip out towards our favorite little coastal town of Southport, NC & found this little beauty nestled just outside of town being put up! Danielle swooped right in to seal the deal on this house for us! Once we got under contract - the fun began & we made some interior design changes to make it ours! All we had to do was wait for the house to be finished & we closed! During the process she hired top notch inspectors for our home that caught significant items before we closed & when her daughter was born right before we closed 😅 (Welcome Baby P! 👶💙) - another Rockstar from the Gillespie Group got right in to finish the deal- Brittney Roseberry! All done seamlessly! I cannot stress enough - get people who know what the hell they're doing! It does matter!
A new home, in our new town, with this new chapter of our lives - couldn't fit any better into our storyline! I will start to share more as we slowly make it ours & I can finally get back to posting interior design content! For now - we're popping some bubbly as we celebrate another massive milestone achieved! We are finally home here in North Carolina 💙
XOXOXO
Mrs. Northern Belle
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