We moved into our dream home a little over a year ago. For 15 years, we lived in a beautiful condo, and while we loved living there, we always wished for a single-family home with enough room to entertain big groups of people and host relatives and grow a dream garden.

Living in Gallatin County didn’t make attaining those dreams seem realistic, though. Still, we hung onto the dream of a new home.

My New Year’s Prayer

Instead of a resolution, I made a New Year’s prayer. I prayed that God would make things undeniably clear regarding a house. And I prayed that if He didn’t show me obviously that we should buy a home, He would help me be completely content where I was.

It seemed like a good prayer. But it also seemed like an impossible proposition. You know the saying, “When you know, you know?” Everyone nods their heads to it, but it also seems abstract and not quite tangible. So, how in the world would God show me if there was a house to buy?

It certainly wouldn’t be possible in the housing market of last winter.

The Impossible Housing Market

At the beginning of 2022, the housing market in the valley was out of control. You didn’t stand a chance of buying a house if you didn’t make a cash offer of tens of thousands over asking. We had been looking for a home for two years, and our Realtor told us in the fall that if we didn’t have our house on the market, a seller wouldn’t even consider our offer.

While there are tons of activities in Bozeman, living here can prove challenging. It’s such a great place to live, that everyone wants to buy a house here.

Since I didn’t relish the idea of selling our house and being homeless with five children until we found a house, we decided to put our house hunting on hold.

The God of the Impossible Housing Market

After a particularly trying stretch in which all three of our cars were out of commission, Rick was driving a rental, and I was stuck at home, my friend stopped for a visit. 

I told her about my prayer for the Lord to clearly show me if we should buy a house. And I said, “I should have been really specific and added, ‘Lord, if you don’t want us to have a house, please be very gentle about it.’” 

I was pretty convinced that our car situation was a sign that we needed to buy a car and not a house. 

That evening, I went to church, and my friend said, “Hey, wanna buy our house?” I loved their house, so I said, “Uhh, yeah, kind of.” 

The Out-of-Our-League House

The friends that asked if we wanted to buy their house had built it about five years before. I had been there a couple of times. The first time I went, when I came home, Rick asked me what it was like, and I replied, “It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s the kind of house we will never live in. Totally out of our league.”

I had worked in the church nursery with the homeowner, and we had talked about their new lot they were planning to build on and what they would sell their house for. I asked how big their house was, and when she told me, I said, “Oh, that would be perfect for us.”

Anyway, I texted J that we were definitely interested and to let us know when Rick and I could both look at it. It turned out that his and his wife’s phone numbers got mixed up, and he didn’t get my message. 

I was sure they had changed their minds about selling to us and didn’t want to be pushy, so I didn’t keep trying to contact him. But I did talk to his sister about it, and she told J, who, as it turned out, had not changed his mind.

Our Walk-Through

So, on a chilly winter evening, Rick and I went to look at our friends’ house. It was even more beautiful than I had remembered. And it had a full unfinished basement…more on that in a later post…with so many possibilities. 

When we returned to our car to go home, there was a gorgeous sunset, and deer were milling in the field across the street. Norman Rockwell could have done a painting there.

I turned to Rick and said, “Love! Love! love, love, love!” That’s how I felt about the house. 

The Impossible Became Possible

My parents had already had a trip planned to visit us, and when I met them at the airport, I said, “Guess what! We’re buying the house!” I had just heard from the lender that we were preapproved.

My parents were just in time to work their fingers to the bone and clear out 15 years of accumulated stuff and get our condo ready to be listed. God’s timing!

Rick’s parents came right over with a trailer, and our friends drove three hours from Missoula to lend a hand. It was a whirlwind.

One week from, when J asked if we wanted to buy the house, we got preapproved for a mortgage. One week after that, the house was listed. On the day of the listing, we got multiple incredible offers, one of which we accepted. Thirty days after listing, we closed.

The entire process, from the question, “Do you wanna buy our house,” to closing, was six weeks and two days. 

And in those six weeks, my parents visited, Rick’s parents visited, our friends visited, we went to Chico Hot Springs, we went to Spokane, the girls started horsemanship lessons, my brother visited, my best friend visited, and we had our regular daily life of home school, therapy, and skiing. 

Instead of competing with a ravenous market of buyers, we had a house handed to us on a silver platter! And our friends passed their entire savings from not using a Realtor on to us. 

Perfect Timing for Showings

Those six weeks are a blur in my memory. But the process couldn’t have gone smoother. We only showed our house for one day. And that one day, our friends were in Aruba, so we just hung out at their home all day. 

It’s not that easy to figure out what to do with five kids for a day, and our friend’s house worked perfectly for us. I can’t imagine having to keep a house show-ready and have our life disrupted for showings for months on end. The fact that we had one day of showings is simply miraculous.

Our Realtor, Beau Houston with Bozeman Real Estate Group was incredible. He was willing to join Honor the Brave which is a non-profit for first responders and military. If you’re thinking about buying or selling a house and qualify for Brave Benefits, you’d be crazy to not check out their program.

The Closing Miracle

Everything went smoothly until a last-minute hiccup. There was some confusion with Rick and his dad having the same name and some property ownership misunderstanding. By the time we got it all straightened out, it was Wednesday. By law, we must have the closing disclosure for three days before closing.

The condo closed on Friday, but three days from Wednesday was Saturday. And, of course, that’s the weekend, so we couldn’t close until Monday.

Normally that wouldn’t be the end of the world, but my grandma had passed away, and we needed to be in rural Minnesota for her funeral. We were leaving Sunday. Security Title company was going to find us a notary in Minnesota, but I don’t think they realized just how rural it is.

Our friends let us move into their/our house even though we hadn’t closed on it, so although we were technically homeless, we weren’t left stranded. 

When we closed on the condo, we got to chatting with the lady that did our closing. We explained the whole confusion leading up to the delay in closing. She assured us it would be OK and they’d find someone in Minnesota.

Then, an hour or so later, I got a call from the title company office. It was the lady who did our closing. She asked when we were leaving for Minnesota. When I told her we were going on Sunday, she said, “Well, I’m skiing with my grandkids tomorrow, but I could stop by and do your closing on the way.”

Are you kidding me? I didn’t even know that was a possibility! And that’s exactly what she did. Rick and I sat around our dining room table and closed on our house early on a Saturday morning. 

The weight that was lifted off my shoulders, knowing I could go to my Grandma’s funeral without the worry of closing, was incomprehensible. 

Follow for Home Renovation Tips! Just Kidding…But You’ll Still Want to Follow

As I said, the basement isn’t finished. I thought we’d get it done right away. But a year later, we hadn’t done a thing.

But just this week, we actually started! I am so excited. And you can count on me to give you many renovation updates. Believe me, we have zero experience and no expertise, but with the help of friends willing to share their knowledge and skills, we’re going to get it done.