our story

Moving Update: Michael is in Miami!

April 12, 2022 /

We closed on our condo!

Earlier this week, Michael flew to Miami to finish all of our paperwork for our condo. After months of work, we are officially homeowners!

As I type this, I am on a video call with Michael. He is in Miami, and I am in New York. He is in the living room of our condo showing me the view out of our window. It feels so surreal that this has actually happened.

How We Got Here

I don’t want to be too repetitive because we have shared a lot about this journey so far. However, the last time we talked about our move, we had just returned from a weekend in Miami. We were waiting to see what would happen with an offer that we had put on a condo while we were there. Since then a lot has changed.

We put an offer on three different condos that fell through. Each time the offer fell through for a different reason. One unit didn’t come with a parking space and one got bought right after we put in our offer. It was definitely an emotional ride. We were feeling really discouraged when Michael sent us the weirdest listing I had ever seen.

Michael sent me the link to a listing that only had three photos that were small and blurry. The building was pretty old, and we hadn’t heard about it before. The post included very minimal information. I loved the location, and the unit had a lot of square footage. But still, what a weird listing.

Our friend, who we purchased our condo with, immediately turned down the listing. He hated that the building was so old. There are so many beautiful new buildings in Brickell, why would we go with this one? Michael kept pushing for it, and secretly I was really curious. So, we asked our real estate agent to do some research on it. There was no harm in finding out more.

Our agent reached out and almost immediately got a video back of the condo. It was awesome! The living room looked huge, and it seemed like it had been updated pretty recently. Hopefully, the terrible listing would stop anyone else from purchasing the unit, but we needed to get someone there to see it in person ASAP. Our agent went to see the building that weekend.

We worried that the unit would look different in person or that the building would look like it was falling apart. Our agent loved it though!

He sent us another video and told us to talk it out and decide on next steps. The idea of putting an offer on a first home without seeing it felt kind of weird, but also we didn’t want to miss out if this was the hidden gem it seemed to be.

So, our friend that we are buying with went to visit. He had Michael and I on a video call as he visited the unit and toured the rest of the building. Honestly, it was perfect. We couldn’t find a single flaw. Without ever being there, we put in an offer!

What Did Closing Look Like?

When I flew out to Miami for our closing, I had no idea what to expect. I’d set up almost everything over the phone from New York, so I’d never even set foot in the office where we’d be making the biggest financial commitment of our lives.

Like every other step of this process, there was some stress involved. The morning we were supposed to close, we had still not received any confirmation of our wire transfers (remote payments used to move large amounts of money quickly). Without these, we basically hadn’t paid for our home yet. If we got pushed to the next day, we’d have to amend the contract with the seller, and this change could even let the seller shop around for other buyers. We knew from our appraisal that we’d found a steal, so we spent the morning calling the credit union that was so sluggishly handling our transfer.

An hour before our closing, we finally received word that the money had been sent. We rushed straight to the office to sign, and we talked the whole way about how excited we were to finally close!

When we arrived, we were sent to sit in a spare conference room at the law office. They were totally flooded with closings, everyone was moving to Florida! What followed was over three hours of papers, disclosures, documents, and a few fountain pens’ worth of signatures. But we barely noticed since we were so excited to finally be at the end of this hellacious journey.

When we’d finally finished, Collin and I each got a copy of our deed. We danced to the parking lot, picked up our keys as soon as we could, and set up an air mattress to sleep on in the otherwise completely barren condo. But it was our empty condo now!

What We Are Doing Now

Now, Michael is in Miami, and I still have not seen our home in person. I can already tell that it is everything that I was looking for and more. I am feeling more excited than ever to get down there.

Michael’s plan was to spend a week in the condo cleaning it very thoroughly, exploring the building and surrounding area, help Collin start to move in, and pick up some furniture and necessities.

Michael walked into our condo the evening that we closed and there was water pouring out of the faucet into the sink. This was his first time seeing the unit and he was so confused. Apparently something happened since the last people moved out and it had caused a leak. Michael told the builging management and they closed off our cold water and gave us the number to a plumber. Michael has sinced called the plumber and is surviving on very fast showers that finish before the water gets too hot.

Micheal has done an incredible job getting our home all cleaned up. He has scrubbed everything down, including our giant windows that cover the entire wall in every room. He has also been loving the little store inside our building, which he has visited for lunch everyday. One afternoon he ventured out to a grill down the street for lunch.

The area seems perfect for us! We are within walking distance to the city without being in the middle of everything. We are also right near the beach. Michael has been surprised by how often he gets to practice his Spanish skills at the local stores and restaurants. So far, everything is going great!

We Are So Excited!

One thing that has really stood out for Michael during his visit so far is how well our building is run and how kind everyone is. He has made an effort to learn everyone’s name, and has really appreciated how great the valet workers and office people have been. He has also met some other people who live in our building, including two neighbors, and everyone has been very welcoming! He even got an email inviting us to a building Easter Egg Hunt that is coming up. How sweet is that!?

The unit itself is everything we have have been dreaming of. Seeing Michael in our home over the phone makes t me so happy for what is to come. We have a big balcony with a great view, and our first room together which is big enough for a king sized bed, and a huge living room for friends and family to stay in when they visit, and beautiful hardwood floors that make the unit look do nice! Also, we do not already have a washer and dryer, however after a consultation we know that adding one will be easy.

We have really lucked out in the area of furniture! We have free furniture from several family and friends that are going to be perfect in our new home. This has took some stress off of figuring out and paying for furniture, which is really awesome!

Next Steps For Us

We are so excited! After everything that we have put into this journey, we finally have a home!

Next up is our big move where we finally get to take all of our stuff and drive down the coast all the way from Long Island, New York, to Miami, Flordia. We will definitely be documenting all of this here on our blog and on our Youtube channel. It is so crazy that after years of being in a long distance relationship, we will finally spend every night in bed together and every morning waking up together ready to take on the day.

We could not be happier with our new home and we cannot wait to get all settled in!

You May Also Like

How To Bond Over Choosing Your Top Baby Names With Your Partner

March 19, 2022

The Story of How We Met

January 27, 2022

8 Most Important Lessons That We Have Learned About Real Estate

April 4, 2022

968 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *