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Today, a married mother of 6 shares her family’s journey to leave Houston and find a home big enough in Pittsburgh.

Who is the homebuyer?

Age 40 

Pronouns: She/her

Household setup: Married with six kids 

Occupation: Psycho-therapist

Household Income: $140,000+

What is the home like?

Location: Pittsburgh

Neighborhood: Bellevue

Rooms: 5 bedrooms, 3 and two half bathrooms

Square footage: 5,500 square feet

What was the budget?

Max Budget: $350,000

Asking Price: $325,000

Closing Price: $240,000

Mortgage: $1,908

Closing Costs: $9,600

Inside the homebuying process

What was your home experience when you were growing up?

They owned, and we moved a few times. Homeownership was something I always figured I would do.

Why did you start thinking about buying?

We’re from Houston and have owned two homes there consecutively. But we got sick of the how hot and muggy the city is. So we looked around. My husband actually created a spreadsheet to determine where to move.

Was weather the only reason you wanted to move?

We didn’t just want it to be colder. We didn’t want it to be too cold. We didn’t want to trade being inside for six months of summer for being inside six months of winter. Minnesota was out. We couldn’t afford Colorado or California. Also, we are Anglican, and wanted to live somewhere that we could attend church. It’s not like being Catholic where it’s super easy to find a church. We needed a medium-size city with good hospitals and some culture. We didn’t need all the culture that Houston had, but small towns were out. We also wanted at least our neighborhood to be walkable.

How did a spreadsheet help you choose Pittsburgh?

We decided if we moved, it had to be a lot better, not just a little cooler. We wanted a place where you could go outside in the summer and enjoy being outside. We also wanted very little humidity. So, he input the average winter and summer temperatures, the humidity, the number of Anglican churches and the walkability score. Then he weighted each category to reflect how important that was to us. Pittsburgh came up as number one. 

Did you have any non-negotiables?

The biggest thing was price. After that, we needed it to be big enough. We had 4 bedrooms in Houston, and that felt small. We were hoping for 5 bedrooms or more–which is hard to find at this price. We also wanted 3,000 square feet or more, a decent-sized yard, and walkable. We knew we’d compromise on some things if we got others.

How many homes did you see in person?

We looked at about 20 houses online. We also looked all over Pittsburgh. Then we came up to visit in October 2023 and saw 8 houses in person. 

Did you make any other offers?

In January 2024, we realized one of the houses we had seen the previous October was still for sale. We made an offer when suddenly my husband had a stroke. We had to withdraw and cancel the contract. We were still in the inspection period, thankfully. We didn’t know if he would walk again but he made a wonderful recovery.

Then what happened?

That summer, we returned and spent a month in Bellevue to see if that neighborhood felt right for us. We weren’t planning on moving until the following year, but then we saw this. It was such an unusual listing. It had been a doctor’s office in the 1980s, had 5,500 square feet and was in our price range. It was enormous, and had a finished basement. There were pictures online but they weren’t great. We decided to take a look but our expectations were low.

How did you know this was the one?

It had everything we wanted–plus a yard and two-car garage. We couldn’t believe the size of this place.

What offer did you make?

It had been on the market for a year. Around the time we looked, they had received another offer. From what I gathered, those buyers were investors offering cash. At first, we lost to these guys. Then they backed out–I’m guessing because the costs to renovate were too high. Because of this, our realtor had let us know we could make a low offer. We offered $250,000 and ended up getting $10,000 in concessions.

What loan did you use?

We included an extra $100,000 for renovations in our loan, so the total amount before down payment was $340,000. We only put 5% down.

Where did the down payment come from?

We didn’t list our Houston house straight away, and then when we did, it took forever to sell. My parents gave us a bridge loan. Their interest rates weren’t as high as the banks’, and they made some money off of us. We all benefitted. 

With the construction loan, how did you decide on $100,000?

It was the max that we could qualify for. We also had a contractor come out and give an estimate for all the things we wanted to do, like ripping up the bright red carpet. We put in new appliances, but the rest of the kitchen we left. We took out the sinks in the patient rooms.

What other renovations did you have done?

We replaced the toilets after we thought about how many people had used them. Some of the patient rooms had wallpaper, and it was cheaper to put up thin sheets of drywall than remove the wallpaper.

How many bedrooms does the house have?

That’s a hard question to answer. The layout is unusual. The first floor is all patient rooms. The second floor is the kitchen, dining room and master bedroom. The third floor is four bedrooms, which our kids share.

Did you consider making the patient rooms into bigger spaces?

We decided not to knock out any walls. We now have a series of small rooms: a parlor, our offices, the library and random rooms we don’t even know what to do with.

Besides the patient rooms, are there any quirks to the home?

The bathrooms have stained glass windows. The weirdest thing is that there had been a butler’s staircase. The previous owners closed it off so now it leads nowhere. We call it the haunted staircase.

Is it weird to live in a doctor’s office? Does it look like a doctor’s office?

It doesn’t look like one anymore. Only the overhang over the front door makes it look like an office. Still, we have had people walk in and ask to see the doctor. That happened so much that we had to install an automatic lock to keep people from wandering in.

What do you love most about your home?

It feels like we got a cool mansion. It’s not technically a mansion, but it feels that way to us.