Looking for an apartment for rent with children is hard, because most owners are sure that because of their energy they will spoil the room. So I got the idea that it's time to buy our own housing, which we ourselves will dispose of. In addition, I managed to accumulate a certain amount, which made my desire real. Due to lack of time and limited budget, I did not want to get involved with new buildings. So I decided to buy an apartment on the secondary market.

Panic-stricken, I was ready to invest in the first decent housing I could find. Therefore, the very next day I ran to view an apartment found on one of the specialized sites for the sale of real estate. It was a small three-room "Khrushchev" with a frankly outdated design, but it suited my budget and location.

It was then that I went through the divorce procedure and was waiting for a new passport. This delayed the signing of the preliminary contract and the transfer of the deposit. The realtor on the owners' side assured them that they had a potential client who was offering $1,000 more.

It was my first time buying a house and I had never worked with real estate agents, and it seemed to me that in this way she was simply manipulating and wanting to increase the value of the apartment in my eyes. But the owners were really in a hurry to sell the house, and a week later, when I called them again, they managed to sell the apartment to that client.

After that, my search dragged on, and for almost three weeks I could not find anything.

I was looking for at least something, but I got a dream space
I considered options only on Dorohozhichy in Kyiv, because there is a school and a kindergarten where my children go and which we like. In addition, you do not need to waste time on the road, you can spend more time together. The priority was apartments up to $50,000, which do not require repairs in the near future - the accumulated money was only enough to buy. I also planned to buy a house without the participation of a realtor.

Despite the limited budget, I did not want to "get" a loan. Therefore, at first I thought about buying a one-room apartment. Studying the market offers, I realized that the difference in price between one- and two-room options is insignificant. On average, the purchase required $55,000, almost all offers included another 5% real estate commission. But three-room apartments cost much more than I could afford.

After two weeks of searching, it turned out that within my budget it is difficult to find a decent two-room apartment that does not require additional renovation costs. Therefore, I had to change my own selection criteria: I began to study ads from realtors, consider three-room offers, and agreed to take out a loan for the missing amount. In fact, I've always wanted more family space than two rooms. Therefore, remembering the terrible conditions in the apartments I looked at, for the sake of our comfort, I decided to deal with banks.

A week before leaving the rental property, I settled on two options, the owners of which were already ready to sign a contract with me for the sale of housing. The first is an apartment of 60 sq. m with a modern renovation costing $65,000. The second is 72 "squares" for $69,000, renovated 10 years ago, but in which it is possible to live for some time without capital investments. I thought like this: the design can be changed, but the area cannot. Therefore, I chose more expensive housing.

Now I am very happy: we have three full-fledged rooms and two large balconies. The owners even left us the furniture. This is a dream home! We moved into a new apartment on October 15, 2020.