Newlyweds Pursue (And Grab a Piece of) The American Dream

2008-05-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

By: Kristen Forbes

[This article was published in the Beaverton Valley Times, Lake Oswego Review, West Linn Tidings and Tigard-Tualatin-Sherwood Times on May 1, 2008].

Ah, to be young newlyweds purchasing their first home. The excitement of starting a new life together, the thrill of claiming ownership, the triumph of hitting a milestone in the great totem pole of adulthood…

Oh, and the stress. As two young couples who just became first-time home owners can attest, buying that first home can be a crazy and overwhelming process. Yet, it is a process with a pretty enticing end result, one that both couples agree was worth every second of worry, frustration and hassle.

“Searching for a home is such an emotional process,” Teresa Weitz, 21, explains. She and her husband Jason, 20, are about to close on the deal for their townhome in Sherwood. “Every time your offer on a home that you feel in love with gets rejected, a little of yourself goes with it. There’s so much waiting and anticipation. It’s such a let-down and absolutely heartbreaking when you’re turned down after you have already fantasized about what it would be like to live there and create your future there.”

“I kind of think it seemed even longer and more frustrating because it was our first time and we didn’t know a lot of the process,” Jeremy Lindquist, 23, says. He and his wife Shelsi, 21, recently moved into a house in Wilsonville. “I think after you go through it once, you have more realistic expectations. For us, we expected it to just happen like that.”

Shelsi admits that what first got them thinking about buying a house was watching reality shows on television that depicted couples quickly going through the process. “We were watching shows where it was like: Oh, they made an offer. Here’s the keys!”

The reality, for both couples, went a little more like this: Make an offer. Get rejected. Make another offer. Wait.

They weren’t alone in this process. Both couples began their searches on the Internet. Both couples utilized the services of real estate broker David Caldwell, who works for Windermere Realty Group in Lake Oswego . Everyone is thankful he was there to help.

“I knew David before he became a real estate agent,” Teresa says. “We had already established a relationship, outside of that realm, so I knew I could always trust him to be working for me, in my best interest.”

Teresa and Jason, who have been married since August of 2006, have been planning this for a long time. Immediately after getting married, the couple moved in with Teresa’s parents and saved their money. Both were waiting tables at the time – Teresa still is, in Tigard, also while attending Portland State University, while Jason now works as an editor at a video production company in Oregon City.

“We knew early on that we never wanted to throw money down the drain paying rent, so we lived with my parents since we got married and have been pining to get out ever since. I would say it was definitely worth the wait, though, with the amount of money we were able to save,” Teresa says.

For Jeremy and Shelsi, things moved quicker than originally anticipated. The couple, who married in October of 2007, had been talking about buying a home in a few years. But then, after casually talking to Caldwell about this, he suggested they go talk to a mortgage broker now. They went, thinking they had nothing to lose.

“David said to just go talk to this guy and see what he can do for you,” Jeremy explains. “At the very least, he can tell you what you need to get done in order to buy a house later.”

To their surprise, he said he could approve them for a loan now. They began looking right away.

Their criteria? They wanted a place with a yard big enough to accommodate their dogs. They wanted a detached house, preferably a fixer-upper, in an up-and-coming neighborhood and within their price range.

Ideally, Shelsi says, they would have liked to live in Tigard or Tualatin. After ruling those areas out for being too expensive, they narrowed their search to areas like Oregon City, Sherwood, Gresham, Newberg and Wilsonville.

The house they selected came as a surprise.

Shelsi says they almost overlooked it entirely. “We had seen this one on the Internet and we thought –”

“—The pictures were terrible,” Jeremy says, completing her sentence.

“Yeah, terrible. It just looked like a dump,” Shelsi says.

After deciding against a house in Sherwood that would have required a complete remodel, they found themselves looking at this Wilsonville house they had originally discounted. They liked it and a day later, they made an offer.

Shelsi notes that when they first started looking, they’d rule places out for having too small of a kitchen or not enough square feet – and yet the home they ended up buying has a smaller kitchen and less square feet than most of the houses they began looking at.

“The first house you look at, you come in with all these expectations of what you want, thinking you can get that,” Shelsi says. “And by the end of it, you kind of are more realistic.”

The two can see this house being where they start a family, but acknowledge they’d have to move to something bigger once they start having more than one kid (Shelsi wants four and Jeremy wants two, so for now they’ve both agreed on three). Shelsi would like to stay home and raise a family. Jeremy plans on testing to be a Portland firefighter in June. Since firefighting is so competitive, he’d also like to get a business degree.

For now, they both wait tables in Tigard.

Teresa and Jason, who had been saving their money for nearly two years, concentrated on homes with three bedrooms and at least two baths, minimal work required, a backyard and a garage, and a safe neighborhood.

“It was really hard for us,” Teresa acknowledges, “looking at all the houses in Lake Oswego and surrounding areas like West Linn and Tigard, and realizing they were way out of our price range. It was difficult for us to accept the fact that we wouldn’t be able to buy a house where we grew up.”

They looked in Oregon City, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin and Beaverton, before deciding on a Sherwood townhome where everything was finished – counter tops, wood floors, etc. They wanted a house, Teresa says, that would be big enough for a family, if they decide to start one.

And after living with her parents for the past several years, family is something Teresa understands well.

“One of the most challenging things about the whole process was trying to convince our family that we were responsible enough and ready to own our own home at such a young age. They were only looking out for our best interest, but it gets frustrating after awhile, always having to prove yourself to them.”

The frustration was worth it, Teresa says. “Knowing that you own the roof over your head is really gratifying. I’m so proud that we were able to buy a house at our young age. We are excited to move in and put everything just how we like it. We look forward to the privacy that our own home will afford us and are looking forward to our new future together.”

Shelsi and Jeremy echo her sentiments.

“We got tired of paying bills and not having it go toward something,” Jeremy says. “This way, the money that we put into the house is an investment and we’ll make it back later.”

“It was stressful, but it was very fulfilling,” Shelsi says. “Now that we’re in the house, it was totally worth it.”

Real estate broker David Caldwell can be reached at (503) 453-2886. His Web site is http://www.davidcaldwellhomes.com/ . Windermere Realty Group is located at 3689 Carman Drive in Lake Oswego.

Kristen Forbes is a freelance writer living in Tigard. To view her blog, visit http://www.krissymick.blogspot.com/ .

Newlyweds Pursue ... The American Dream

Newlyweds Pursue (And Grab a Piece of) The American Dream