Making A Plan

    

    When Jake and I knew this journey was without a doubt what we wanted we knew the next step would be to find a realtor. We knew of a few good realtors that came highly recommended, but they were not well known for what we were looking for. They were more about the fancy houses. It was not the style or anything close to what we had wanted. Jake happened to stumble across this guy named Ryan on Facebook who had listed a property we were interested in nearby. We thought why not give him a try; he is advertising the exact type of land we are looking for and in the right areas. 

    When we first met Ryan, we knew immediately that he was our guy to make things happen. A couple fun facts we liked off the bat about Ryan was he was self-employed, a parent, and had had pigs before. This guy understood us. Ryan has been great this whole journey. We have known him for roughly two years now. He has taken the time to get to know both my husband and I’s likes and dislikes and what we were comfortable compromising on. This man has had no easy task. My husband was wanting mostly woods. Where I wanted more pasture. The "view" was a big deal to me. Whereas good hunting grounds was a big deal to Jake. 

     

      Ryan helped us every part of the way ensuring we understood our options and when it came time the tasks, we needed to fulfill to be able to put in offers. Ryan helped us from budgeting discussions to also ensuring we knew all our top lender options and how it worked. When we realized this dream would not be possible without selling our house to have a reasonable down payment Ryan even helped us with that. I feel like Ryan has come to having more titles than just realtor. He has become someone we absolutely trust with all our decisions in this process. 

    My husband and I both made accounts with Zillow and Redfin. I personally like the organization on the Redfin app the best because not only was I able to filter my searches better, I also was able to categorize what I saved in separate groups, attach comments, save multiple commutes, and my husband and I both were able to link the same account with different emails. Using these apps, Facebook, and Ryan’s expertise we started filtering through the properties we were highly interested in. 

    Next Ryan would take us on the showings, and we would discuss pros and cons, what we could afford, and what the townships would allow. Ryan would take care of any questions we had and always answered promptly. 

    We have looked at land all over west Michigan it seems. We did entertain looking at land with existing houses on them. Most of the houses without us even looking at them we had already decided from looking at photos we would want to flip. In today's market that was just not something we wanted to do. Now had the houses been nice enough to rent out we may have entertained that idea but again the prices in today's market were just too high to do that and build. So, we checked that possibility off the list. We looked at land with existing barns on them and of course vacant land as well. Our favorite properties usually consisted of 50/50 woods and pasture with some form of water access such as a creek or a pond. Needless to say, we were not the only ones who favored those properties. So, they came and went. With every property that did not work out it was a hit to our confidence level on if the right property was out there. Ryan was always honest, kind, and reassuring that it may take time, but it is out there. We just had to be patient and keep looking. Something would eventually fit. 

    Well, I am here to tell you that after roughly 2 years of searching and only two months in a camper our man Ryan was right! Finally, an offer we submitted on roughly 40 acres of beautiful land was accepted!! Now our journey can really start developing into a dream come true. I can't wait to tell you more about the property and our plans. God is good!