Finding the Perfect Home

After being shown one house, Tim fell in love with the place instantly. The searching part of the moving process had taken him less than an hour.

Join Tim on his journey to find his perfect home in Waverly:

Last May, my Minnesota landlords told me they were selling the house I’d been renting from them for over five years.

They’d been planning this for some time, so it came as no surprise. They offered it to me first, but it was a full-on fixer-upper.

Taking stock, I realized I was not the guy to remodel it, lacking the skill, patience, and money to complete the task in my lifetime.

Not wanting another rental sold out from under me, I was suddenly in the market for a house. I’d owned three of them in my life, my first many years ago in Waverly, and figured I was going out to try to find my last home, the one to serve me for the duration.
I was not optimistic.

I made a call to my friend Kathy, an extraordinary realtor and wife of my Wartburg Cotta house-brother Jerome. She told me there was only one dwelling listed in Waverly matching my needs (modest) and my budget (also modest). It was within walking distance of where I was living.

The housing boom was ending. Interest rates were inching back up. We had to move quickly.

She referred me to the realty company representing the house in Waverly; I set up an immediate showing.

The first thing I noticed as I got out of the car in front of a very blue three-bedroom ranch was a metal roof, great. Inside, there were lovely wooden floors, a modern kitchen, Bosch appliances, fireplaces and bathrooms upstairs and down. Good-sized rooms. A new furnace and air-conditioner. A large, finished family room downstairs. Lots of closet and storage space.

There was a huge oak tree in a fern-brimmed backyard. It would have taken decades for me to grow one that majestic. In fact, there were trees of all kinds scattered around the property. And the neighborhood was charming, full of families with children. It seemed quiet and homey.

The woman who was renting it, a Wartburg professor, said it was a pleasure to live there. She had a cat. I have two cats, Tuffy and Dolly. I noted a small, sunny room off the kitchen leading to sliding glass doors opening to the back patio, a perfect space for cats. I fell in love with the place instantly. I felt no need to look anywhere else. The searching part of the process had taken less than an hour.

I told the realtor I was very interested. Kathy came up from Cedar Falls the next day to view it – we made a counter offer. We got an inspector to inspect. I arranged for financing, which only took an hour at a local credit union. In a matter of weeks, we were closing. I moved in July 1.
I hired movers with a big truck from Cedar Falls to deal with the heavy stuff. Friends and family helped with the boxes and such. And I hired a Wartburg student to help for a day when I found myself behind schedule at the last minute. She was awesome, really bailed me out. Still, I mostly moved the boxes myself with my SUV. I made many trips. I needed the exercise after a year of medical challenges that had atrophied my upper body. Lifting boxes was the perfect thing to help me get back some muscle tone. Amazing how things work out.

I’m still unpacking but am almost finished. And I’m looking forward to getting back on the tennis courts again this spring after a year of forced hiatus. I’ll be rusty, but I’ll be there.

The W has also been instrumental in assisting my recovery. The resources of Waverly made house buying easy. Great people were everywhere in the process, professional people who knew what they were doing. All were women. Everything’s good, and I’m settling in.

Tim Schumacher
Feb 15, 2023

Tim’s Published Article Here