This is the first time I’m hunting for a house to buy instead of just renting. Big deal stuff right here.

House hunting trip

In May I spent a week in Juneau shopping for a new place to live. I texted my realtor upon landing in Juneau, and was ready to go see two houses before I even checked into my Air Bnb.

Wish list

I went into the search with a few criteria which I think are pretty reasonable (naturally).

MUST HAVES

• Minimum 2 Bedrooms / 1.5 Bathrooms
• Move-in ready (aesthetics are no big deal, but I have to be able to live there safely and comfortably right away)
• Sunlight

REALLY WANTS

• Covered parking
• Outdoor space
• Dog-friendly
• Low-maintenance yard
• Access to bike trails
• Lots of windows
• No wood stove (it’s a Juneau thing)
• View of mountains or water
• Close to the bus route
• Easy access to basics like groceries

BONUS

• Garage
• Deck
• Fenced yard
• Under budget
• Room I could rent out
• No carpeting
• 2-story
• Paved driveway

The hunt

The first thing I learned was that houses look different in person than in photos online. Overall I wasn’t terribly impressed. To be fair, I had just moved out of a brand new luxury apartment in downtown Denver with fancy things like undermounted sinks and an electronic door key, so just about anything was primed to look dated. In addition, I was also looking for more space for about the same amount of monthly payment, so a downgrade in luxuries was a given.

Before even arriving I learned that the market in Juneau (a city of 30,000) is very small in my price range, and thus moves quickly. Search my criteria on Zillow and you might get 6 houses. It certainly makes things a little less complicated, but definitely means you have to be decisive.

The options

House Hunters style, I started naming the houses we looked at.

BETTY BAY

A quirky 2 story duplex with a bay window, and in need of a lot of work. The first place I saw, where I met my realtor in person for the first time. A pretty easy “no” for me. Everything was a little bit broken, and that was just the stuff I could see. Had a very sunny fenced yard, and really close to a river, but looked like too much work. Next.

WOOD DUCK

This one was a favorite online. In person it was a little worse-off that it appeared, and had enough question marks in the past inspection reports that it did not make the cut. There were some questions about water intrusion, the deck’s structural integrity, and the fact that 2/3 bedrooms had a generously sloping floor, meaning if you weren’t careful with the furniture you could wake up with all of the blood rushing to your head. It was very sunny and had a cool view, but made me a bit nervous with the work. Next.

POND VIEW

This one was great. Bigger than I expected, but a good value. Oh also it had a huge deck overlooking a pond and mountains, and a tree house. The back deck and open airy living room were inspiring. So inspiring that I put in an offer, above my initial budget. Unfortunately we were beat by another offer, and had to start over. Next.

DOWNTOWN CONDO

I was hesitant to go for condos because they seem to have high HOA fees which cuts down on my return, and most do not allow dogs. In addition, the condo communities don’t seem to offer much in the way of amenities, or even covered parking, garages, outdoor space, etc.. Nonetheless, I decided I ought to check out a condo downtown (near the city center in HH parlance) since that was most analogous to my previous living situation. The condo I looked at was cavelike, and had an even more severely sloping floor than the wood duck place. Given a running start you could easily roll from the front door all the way to the back of the apartment and out onto the patio. Next.

Running out of time

Discouraged after my offer on the Pond View house fell through, I was not feeling optimistic about finding a place before my house hunting week ended. A week is not a long time, but I was determined to find a place quickly since Juneau is not a very spread out place, and I wanted to avoid temporary living since I don’t plan on being here forever.

My realtor took me to two more houses. The first one was pretty nice, but was on Douglas Island (longish trek for groceries etc.), and on a hilly gravel road off a high-speed highway (not ideal for biking). The second one was in the valley, near a bus stop, in good condition (but dated), had a huge yard and ample storage and garage space… need I go on?

Waiting

I put in an offer on the house. I ended up competing with another bid, and won the house by placing an escalation clause in my offer (I will beat the other person’s offer by $xxx up to $xxx,xxx total). Great!

One problem – I can’t move in until August 1 because of some business the owners need to take care of. I accepted.

We got an inspection, made a list of some repairs, and the sellers agreed to do all of them. I got an appraisal, and we adjusted the final sale price down to the appraised amount.

Since May I’ve been living in a hotel, waiting to move into my new house. This week, on Wednesday July 31st, I got the keys to my house at last!

The house.

This is my house!

Location: Quiet cul de sac in Mendenhall Valley with access to trails, bike paths, and a river.

Layout: Ranch style, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, attached garage.

Yard: Large, wild yard with a mossy “lawn”, lots of trees, wild blueberry bushes, two sheds, and a bench swing!

Busy homeowner

So… now I’m super busy cleaning and unpacking and whatnot. Turns out I should have been writing more while I was sitting around my hotel room with free internet.

I plan on updating more once I get internet service to the house, and get the basic cleaning and unpacking stuff sorted out.