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Our New Home
Submitted by: Jaime-Lyn Ziegler
Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaI am a 31 year old mother of one (Avery) who is 15 months old. Married 1 year to a wonderful man (Chris).
Chris and I have been together for a total of 3 years this past February. We knew the moment we met that we were going to be together forever, but moving forward with our dreams slowly came to a halt when we were ready to buy our first home. We were struggling financially, because of a previous marriage in my case, and bad financial decisions we both made in the past. We basically gave up our dream of owning our own home the first year we met when the banks turned us down for a mortgage. We accepted the fact that we just would not be homeowners in the next few years because of our bad credit history.
Creditors began to phone our home daily wanting the money we owed them, but it just wasn’t there to give. We had bills piling up and I was on maternity leave with my son, Avery, and my husband was just not able to work enough to make ends meet. Fortunately, at the time, my mother was able to help us consolidate our bills, and we finally paid off the creditors. So our hopes had lifted. We were on the road to financial stability.
It has been over six months since my Mom helped us, and we have worked really hard paying down our debt. We wrote out a list of goals to accomplish and put it up on the fridge. The first and most important goal was to own a home by Spring 2009. We both felt that it was a realistic date since we were paying down our debts and my husband was working steady.
Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I took a drive to a town we wanted to live in because that is where he works, and he was tired of the 1 hour commute every day from the city. We drove around looking at homes, dreaming that one day one of those home could be ours. We stumbled upon a house at the end of the afternoon that we both liked, so I wrote down the MLS number to the home so we could look at it on the internet when we got home. The home was absolutely beautiful! It was what both of us had always wanted in a home, but the price was way out of our reach. They were asking $380,000. I had recently listened to The Secret on a CD, and thought, ‘This is what I am going to manifest to see if it actually works,’ as I was somewhat skeptical. I showed my husband the online pictures and told him that this house was going to be ours. He went away to work that week and I kept the website up on my computer every day, all day, and I looked at it numerous times thinking that it was going to be our home. I pictured us in the home, I pictured how I would arrange our furniture. I even pictured having my family over for Christmas dinner.
Two days later the price of the home dropped to $369,900. I just knew in my heart that this house was going to be ours. I noticed they had an open house that weekend, so I told my husband I was going to go get a better look. So I went with a friend on the Saturday. We were so impressed with the house I took my Mom and Dad out the next day to look again. My husband came home on Monday and we again went to look at the house. Earlier in the week we had put the wheels in motion to apply for a mortgage to see if we would qualify, considering we were paying our bills off. To our surprise we did, but only for $350,000. But I knew that it didn’t matter. I kept telling myself that the home would be ours and cost was no issue.
We made an offer on the home the next night. We offered $335,000, to leave room for negotiation, but the sellers lowest price was $362,900. I told the seller that our absolute max was $350,000, and told her that if they changed their mind to give us a call. I hung up the phone with the seller and told my husband not to worry because they would be calling us back to accept our offer. Two days later, we were on our way to look at other homes when I got an email from the seller saying that they wanted to accept our offer! We were so excited. But when our mortgage broker sent in our application to the insurer they turned us down because of our credit rating. We thought it was the end! It was the Thursday before the long weekend, and four more days before our conditions had to be removed. At the last minute, to our surprise, my mother offered to co-sign on the mortgage so we wouldn’t lose the home. Within hours, the mortgage was approved by the bank and off to the insurer it went again. The next day was our home inspection, so we were nervous wondering if the financing was going to be approved. My cell phone rang and it was the mortgage broker with good news. The financing went through and the house was ours. I went inside the home and took my husband upstairs for privacy and gave him a hug as I told him the house was ours! We both cried holding each other for a few minutes and let it sink in. I had manifested our home in a matter of 3 weeks and couldn’t believe all of the things that fell into place to make the home ours.
We move in September 30 with lots of time to plan my Christmas dinner with family! It felt so good to call our landlord and give him our months notice! I truly believe in The Secret, and my husband and I are now wondering what we are going to ask for next!