{{ The Bakers - Part 1}}

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

I’m excited to have you join me as we journey with the Bakers through their real estate adventure.  Not one individual or family is exactly the same although there are always things we can find in common and we can always learn from one another.  So this leads me to introducing you to the Bakers; a young family who decided to simplify their lives and was willing to do what it took to make that happen while always keeping their families needs in mind.   When thinking about profiling one of my client’s stories I didn’t have to think twice about whom I wanted it to be on. The Baker’s journey is an inspiring one and when I asked Lisa if she would be willing to diarize the up’s and down’s and all that we learned together she agreed! Thanks Lisa! Not only was I able to work alongside them by helping and guiding them through the tough decisions they had to make I also learned a thing or two from this family.  The simplified life is a rare find in today’s world and is like an untapped resource; you don’t truly know its beauty until you find it. I hope you enjoy…

“Why, Why, Why?”

Before we begin, we wanted to thank Lacey for her hard work, guidance and patience.  Ours was a true journey and our search went from one extreme to the other.

We aren’t authorities on real estate, or much for that matter, but we have learned some lessons along the way.  If you don’t really want to read our ramblings and just want the "Cole’s Notes" version just scan down and look for the ***.  These are the lessons learned. 

Our real estate journey began about six years ago when we purchased our second home in the Murrayville community of Langley.  At that time the market had yet to skyrocket and even though the home was new and we had to pay GST we paid much less than we would now.  We chose real estate as our “investment” of choice and decided to put the bulk of our financial investment into our home.  We believe that real estate can give you one of the best returns on your money and we have multiple friends and family members whose real estate track record supports this idea (***learn from others who have been successful***).

At the time we had one child and the thought of ever wanting to sell our new home was far from our minds.  We finished the basement ourselves (***make/save money by doing as much as you can yourself***) and rented it out as a mortgage helper (***find a way to generate extra income if possible***).

Fast forward five and half years later and what do you know….we ARE thinking of selling our house.  And in a flash it happened – we were up for sale! To be honest, everyone we knew probably thought we were a bit crazy and slightly irrational.  However, we were in complete unity on our decision (***if you’re a couple BE UNIFIED in all BIG decisions***) and felt God calling us to simplify life, free up equity we had gained in the last five years and most importantly lower our mortgage to allow Matt to potentially make a job shift.

 
So with those as our “goals” we embarked on the joys of keeping a house spit spot for showings, searching out new potential homes and keeping the coffee pot hot to keep us caffeinated and ready for the late night negotiations…and boy, did we need it!