Home Owners
We bought a house in Kingston mid pandemic back in November 2020. I cannot believe it’s been almost a year! I haven’t been great at uploading things on this blog since the quietness of being quarantined at home has slowly ebbed away. So, let’s start from the beginning. Max and I had been looking to buy a house upstate for almost 3 years now, we were never super serious or in too much of a rush about it, we were more looking for a perfect place. As we approached looking at more than 15 houses together (remember each time we were looking we had to drive at least an hour and a half to get there) we finally were cutting out a lot of things we knew we didn’t like. Too close to a cemetery? No. Right next to fellow neighbors? No. Too close to a highway? No. Small Ceilings? Mold? Needed a complete renovation? All no. Google Earth became our best friend, trust me, instead of wasting time going to a house visit check the immediate surroundings first. We once had to literally drive through a prison to get to a house we thought would be a good contender.
Fast forward a bit and during the pandemic we actually put offers on 2 different houses. Both fell through. Looking at the first one it was way too much of a project and we’re so happy we didn’t get that one. The second house was really something, 10 acres, super secluded, yet only 10 minutes from two bustling towns/cities upstate. The insides were pretty retro and needed work but the actual house itself was only 15 years old and came with new appliances. Someone out bid us and we were hesitant to pay more so we said no, a few times over last summer we regretted the decision but ultimately luck was on our side, the person who outbid us financing fell through and the owners of the house needed to sell in order to buy their new place that they were already in the process of closing on. We got extremely lucky during a time when the housing market has been in a shortage and were able to get the house at the price we offered originally.
The house hunting process is tough, other tools we used along the way were Realtor.com, a really good realtor we found from Berkshire Hathaway, eventually we needed a lawyer and we used a friend of a friend’s mortgage broker to secure a loan. During the process we had to get so much of our information together, credit checks, bank account statements, birth certificates. As a note always plan to have more than you think you need for the down payment, closing costs are no joke and there are all of these hidden fees that happen such as upfront needing to pay a good portion of taxes and a bunch of other random things I have already blacked out of my memory.
We closed in November 2020 and right away I got us into renovation mode, we were ripping out curtain rods, painting rooms, and getting the first floors flooring done within the first 3 months. With walls painted white and new light wood floors installed the place was a blank canvas. We got nice curtains and a few furniture pieces like our dining table but a good majority of our furniture was given to us by friends who were moving far away during the pandemic and didn’t want the hassle of selling/throwing away beds and couches and we got a lot from family as well. We spent all winter working on the house and enjoying it and by March 2020 we were ready for our first Airbnbers.
Max and I love upstate but our lives are still very much revolved around the NYC area so we knew that having the house was an investment, as well as something we could rent out to help off set the cost of having two homes. We’ve had 10 Airbnbers so far and been able to get up there plenty in between and so far that has been really working for us. Find our airbnb link here if you’re interested in renting and feel free to comment on this post - ask me any questions about the home buying process, renovation, homeownership or anything else!
