Finally, my house hunting has come to an end! It calls for a celebration which will happen in time, but meanwhile here are a few things I observe through this journey.

Before that, let’s first run through what happened over the last few years of the house hunting journey:

• 2019 👀
  • Started looking in December, but everything went quiet in the festive season. 🍃
• 2020 💉
  • Covid hits in March, which meant several quiet months until the end of the year.
  • There were still sales, and prices in fact increased instead of a bubble burst people expected over Covid.
• 2021 🔒
  • With Melbourne’s repeated lockdown, it was quite a challenge to keep up with all the rules of what’s allowed for inspection, auction etc.
  • Once I was even bidding at an online house auction for one which I hadn’t even had the chance to inspect yet! It’s incredible people did that.
• 2022 📈
  • May: the interest rates started to increase.
  • With the mild cooling down of the house prices, the high interest rates actually meant potential buyers were in a worse off situations as our borrowing capacity took a BIG dip way more than any drop in house prices.
• 2023 🤔
  • Reconsidering if I should buy at all. Paused for a few months.
  • October: started to look again. Included more surrounding suburbs.
• 2024 🎉
  • Compared to end of 2023, prices cooled down around February.
  • May: bought one! All my friends cheered and more excited than me I’m sure 😄

All the kindness that I do need! ❤️

I’m one of those most easily duped buyer, easily taken in by pretty facades and have no clue whatsover what to look for when it comes to a house i.e., the foundation, structural integrity, the little signs here and there, .. I have no sense of distance, or heights, and couldn’t even tell if the ground is level!

Hence I rely on others who know better. The number of times I’ve borrowed their eyeballs 👀 👀 👀 over the last couple of years had come to a point where I feel bad to ask! Some might feel they haven’t done much, but I appreciate it so much when I see those who genuinely have my interest, who go around looking at every corner of the house intently like it’s their own, ones who took time out of their busyness, ran to the house when they didn’t drive, or the one who travel from a distance, or when they took the time to just scroll through the screen with me slowly looking at potentials, those who think of details for my specific situations that didn’t even occur to me, who researched for me, guided me through the preparation for the auction day. And the support from my family in it all. So kind, generous and sweet, how blessed I am! 🙂

Things that will change in time⏳

As with everyone looking to buy, I had my idea of what I wanted for a home. When I first started, some of the more important ones are:

• ⛪ Nearby my church (in Surrey Hills or Mont Albert)
• 🚉 Walkable to the train station (within 1 km)
• 🏡 Not on the main road
• Single floor and no steps up/down
• Living room more spacious than my current one

Initially, I was really just thinking of moving suburb, i.e., from my current 2-bedrooms apartment to a 2-bedrooms apartment in another suburb. I ended up buying a 3-bedrooms house on a main road, in a different suburb, and 2 km away from the station.

I had relaxed the criteria over the last few years. If I had changed quicker, I would have found one sooner. But I guess that’s how it’s meant to be. As with other things in life, I only know what I want at the moment, but I don’t know what’s actually best for me. So, it’s good that my wants have to be changed in time accordingly to land me where I should be in the end.

The experience of peace in trust☺︎

On the matter of getting a house, I had trusted God quite simply from the start. And what a sweet experience it had been. It just meant I was spared of the anxiety, disappointments, and FOMO (which I had absolutely none of!).

That means when I did bid at an auction, I didn’t get carried away, and when I didn’t get the house, I just took simply it as it’s not meant for me and moved on along. Through the experience and people’s reactions on my behalf, I felt like people expected me to be a lot more keen than I was. While I really appeciate all the kind thoughts, I also felt like people took it too seriously, and some prayers too earnest, or too enthusiastically specific. It felt a little odd because it seemed people have more interest in it all than me!

What I observed about it is that when I have truly trusted God’s guidance and provision for any outcome through the journey, when His timing does come, there is a greater joy for having done so and seeing it come to pass (as compared to if I had instead been anxious and stressed over it, or wanting it too much. I may still get it in the end, but the joy wouldn’t have been as sweet as when I had gone through the journey trusting Him). In fact, I was ready for not getting it at all, i.e., I had thought ‘no’ as a possible answer from God, and ready to stop looking if led to such a situation – indeed I did pause for a while at some point when I thought perhaps it’s not a good idea after all. 🤷‍♀️

Even to be able to have a quiet confidence and trust in Him, I know the grace comes from Him. How good would it be if this could be the case in other areas of my life too – to trust Him quite simply and easily for whatever the outcome is.

The more notable things 🖋️

On the outset, people see the big change as: I have a new house now. While that is true and I’m truly thankful for it, here are the more notable things than just what the eyes can see.

A wider and deeper perspective

I said a number of times, ‘it’s just a house,’ for various reasons in different situations. That is true. The house is but a small piece of the puzzle in the grand scheme of things that is God’s great purpose. It is not at the centre of it, nor anywhere near it. And that’s the right way of looking at it.

It is not about the house, nor is it about me. Rather, it is an experience that showed me God’s faithfulness and the way He works through things and in my heart through the events in my life. Through it, He changed me in various ways, taught me things, and blessed me in many ways, for e.g., just the time I got to spend and my relationship with my sister because of the house hunting.

Kowing that’s the right perspective, the test is what fills my mind about the house? Do I look forward to use it for the good of the kingdom or for myself mostly?

Shift in thoughts on giving and receiving 🤲

One of the things I wrestled with was the implications on my financials with the purchase of this home. Through it, my thinking have changed about the resources I can give. It doesn’t have to just be regular donation and cash gifts. In the end, we do not take with us all we own in this life and what’s left behind would be of good use (and arguably of the most impact) when we die.

I also learnt that it is ok to receive and give thanks. The way God works differs for individuals. In my case, I’m placed where it is possible to do more with help that is available to me. Not everyone can, but I can. It is right not to live your life feeling entitled but rather sensibly and responsibly. As I had been reminded, it’s not as though I’m not receiving with an attitude that I deserve those privileges, but instead with humility, much considerations, caution, and thankfulness.

Reminder of the constant

You might be able to guess after reading up to this point of the post, if I were to pick one word to describe my feelings about the whole thing, it would be: thankful (to God, my family and friends).

While feeling thankful as I do now, I am also reminded that in good times like this, I need to remember that in bad times (when they come later), God is the same. That way, I will stay my heart at the right place, with God who remains the same. So I may enjoy the good times knowing that, and I am better prepared to face the bad times when they come later. He is the same God who is with me through it all.