How Real Estate Blessed My Family.

*Originally Published 4/13/21
I’ve been pondering the crazy real estate market; and it is truly crazy!! After selling my own home in January and then doing a lease back with our buyers until we found a new home, I realize more than ever how homeownership is not something to take for granted. With costs of building going up, more buyers on the market than homes and having been one of the many offering every cent you have in the bank to win the house but then you don’t win, and this is a cycle that repeats over and over again, I am more than thankful to be moved into a home. My home cost way more than I wanted it to, and it is smaller than I planned but I am so thankful to be here!!!
Being a homeowner has many benefits. But I wanted to take a moment to share a very personal side of Real Estate.

In 2015 two of my children began to struggle with anxiety and/or depression. We sought help from the best of the best. My hubby and I didn’t realize back then this would be one very long road. For a while, things seemed to improve a little. In 2016 we decided to sell our home and get a little closer to our doctor’s offices since we seemed to be taking many trips to visit. In 2017 my 2 children who were dealing with depression and anxiety started to struggle more. There were suicide attempts, hospital stays, outpatient programs, teen pregnancy including high risk and bed rests with weekly visits to the doctor, mental health appointments and the list could go on. The medical debt was taking a huge toll on our family. By 2018 we were in a bad place. We could meet our bills but nothing more and we knew more bills from medical needs would be coming. We felt impressed to create a 2-step plan. The market was in a pretty good place in 2018. We could sell our home and make enough to pay about half of our debts. Then the plan was to rent someplace as cheap as we could find to finish paying off the debts and then save for a down payment. So, we put our home on the market and sold for about what we hoped. Once we were under contract we started looking at where we would live. Renting didn’t seem right anymore and so when we found a 3100 square foot townhome close by, we made an offer and was able to buy it. We weren’t sure how the 2nd part of our 2-step plan would work now that we had another mortgage which was bigger than what rent would have been. We became to think we wouldn’t be able to fully get out from under all the debt and would be living in a townhome for many years. But then something happened. The real estate market changed!! In early 2020 I checked to see where we were with the possibility of selling and making enough to finish our step 2. The answer at that time was a big NO. We didn’t have enough equity to make step 2 possible.
Time went by, we were like everyone else in 2020…trying to find things to do at home. I decided it would be a good time to finally do something I had been wanting to do for many years…I went to school, studied hard, took a test, and became a licensed Realtor. By August 2020 I was settled in a great brokerage and was learning the ropes. Sometime in December I decided to do a CMA on my own home to see where we were with equity. To my surprise we were in a good place. By January, our home was worth 33.33% more than what we paid for it just 2 years before. After having our townhome on the market for 5 days we were under contract. Things went very smoothly, and we closed on the sell of our home a month later. What a huge blessing and relief it was to be able to pay all the expenses of selling a home, pay off what we had left in debt and still have a tiny bit to put down on a home. We looked and looked at homes to buy, made many offers with no luck. Finally in February we had an offer on a home accepted. In March we were able to move into a brand-new home with zero medical debt hanging over our heads. We are starting all over again in paying for a home but, after all we had been through, just the fact that we could be where we are as a family is a wonderful gift!!!

People buy and sell homes for many reasons. For my family and I real estate saved us and helped us get on a better path. I know there are many stories like mine out there. I just wanted to take a moment to point out a positive about the crazy market and share how real estate helped my family deal with the financial aftermath of crisis and trauma. I’m also happy to report my children are doing much better!

It is my hope that everyone searching for a home or for healing finds it this year!!
Brenda Horrocks, Realtor