Tag: Unfinsihed Mrs

House Hunting Part 2
Home and Decor · New Adventures

House Hunting Part 2

rdominico4 Comments

For other parts in the House Hunting Series–Part 1, Part 3, Part 4

Before I jump into today’s post, can I just tell you how tired I am from this weekend? I spent this past weekend running 4 American Girl Fashion Shows as a fundraising event for my job at the Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem. I worked 30 hours this weekend and I am just so exhausted, even 4 days later. Thank God it’s over!

Continuing with my House Hunting Series…

Part 2: Looking at Houses and Working with a Realtor

Last week, I told you that Josh and I had been using websites like Zillow to look at prospective houses online. This is a great resource that can give you a better idea of which houses in the area that you want to visit.  Being able to browse online also gives you the opportunity to house hunt without first hiring a realtor.

Now, when you find a house to look at, if it’s listed through a realtor, you’d normally contact the realtor on the listing to make an appointment to see the home.

You’ll go to the house and the realtor will meet you there to let you in. The house will smell like cookies and there might be soft music playing in the background. The realtor will tell you to take your time looking through the rooms. He or she will give you charming little tidbits about the house and let you know what a great deal the house is! Everything will just seem so peachy and you might love the house! The issue you’ll run into with this method of house hunting is that you’re (probably) dealing with the seller’s agent (the realtor working for the homeowner).

The realtor who is on the listing, made the appointment for you, lit the cookie candle and created the tranquil playlist has a very vested interest in you purchasing that particular house. The first house we looked at was shown to us by the seller’s agent. She was very nice but really didn’t want to talk about possible issues with the house and she beat around the bush when we asked for the seller’s disclosure (a document listing all the known issues with the house and some of the house history).

We got a better idea of what we wanted in our house, so we re-evaluated our search criteria. We also realized that we really wanted our own expert representation, so we asked around and found an agent we wanted to work with—Jason.

Jason opened up a new search site for us—an MLS ListingBook site. We were able to take a look at houses in the areas we wanted, with the search parameters we wanted, in real time as other agents posted them. When we found houses we wanted to see, we’d go through Jason to make our appointments and he would show us the house. He was also an NC State graduate, so we knew he was trustworthy.

Jason would let us go through a house, he would ask us questions about what we liked and didn’t like about the house, and then he would offer his own opinion. He gave us good advice and brought up things we wouldn’t have thought of on our own.

We knew we wanted him to represent us right away, but through all his hard work setting up appoints and finding answers to the questions we had, he never pressured us or even asked us to sign a contract to work with him. That was a complete 180 from when we were talking to other realtors. It was really refreshing.

I definitely recommend working with a realtor during your house hunt, especially when you’re looking for your first house. The best part of having a buyer’s agent is you don’t (normally) pay for their services. Most of the time their commission is paid by the seller during closing. So really, why wouldn’t you work with a professional?

Be on the lookout for the next post in my House Hunting series–Step 3: Finding THE House.

If you’re in the market for a house, recently bought a home, or want to own a house in the future—leave a comment and tell me about your experience or let me know if you have any questions!

–Mrs. Dominico

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From Ms. to Mrs.
Wedding and Marriage

From Ms. to Mrs.

rdominico2 Comments

 

 

I have always dreamed about being a Mrs. Most little girls dream of being Mrs. Teen Heartthrob or will doodle in their notebooks about being Mrs. Whoever-They-Have-a-Crush-On or Mrs. What’s-His-Name-They’re-Dating. When you’re in college (especially in a sorority) you start to consider what your monogram will look like as you decide whether you’re going to get serious with a boy (just kidding…ish).

And when Josh and I started dating, it was no different. I dreamed about being Mrs. Josh Dominico. I practiced my signature, perused various monogram scripts to find the perfect one to highlight my initials, and I practiced introducing myself as Rachel Dominico.

When we got engaged, I had no hesitations as I began to transition to being Rachel Dominico. When I thought about changing my name all I felt was thrilled that I was finally going to be Mrs. Dominico. I even created a new Gmail account with my new name and began using that full time.

Before we got married, I started a job and I had to fill out all the legal paperwork as Rachel Ward. When I inquired about how to change my name once we were married, a mere 2 weeks later, I found that the process was pretty complicated. Not only would I have to complete several pages of paperwork and trek all over campus for the proper signatures, but they would have to alter my work email address which, apparently, took several weeks. So after talking with Josh, I just decided that at work I would stay Rachel Ward.

We got married and then I started looking into changing my name. First we had to wait for our marriage license to be mailed to us. Then I needed to go to the Social Security Office to apply for a new Social Security Card to change my name. Then I would have to wait another 3 weeks for that to be mailed to me. Then I would need to go to the DMV to get my license changed. Once all that was done, I then needed to change my name on all other important things, such as bank accounts, insurance, and my passport.  All that just so I could have the pleasure of legally signing my name as Rachel Dominico.

Well my job was a strict 8am-5pm job that I had to be at every single day and there was very little room to take time off during the day to go to the Social Security Office and the DMV. I tried 2 or 3 times to go during my lunch break, but I never could get seen. Months went by and I was offered a new job at the end of September and decided I would give myself time between quitting my old job and starting my new job.

So finally during the first week of October, I went to change my name. After waiting for hours in government buildings surrounded by the most interesting characters, I was legally Rachel Ward Dominico. And it felt really weird.

During my months of trying to change my name, I found myself less and less determined to do so. I was thrilled to be Mrs. Dominico and thrilled to be Josh’s wife, but the idea of casting aside the name that had carried me through since birth seemed really sad.

I had been Rachel Lauren Ward my entire life. It felt like giving up my identity, like I was becoming someone else. And when you get married you do, in a sense, become someone new. But I didn’t feel like I could just abandon Rachel Ward—she was someone I was really proud to be. It seems so strange to me even now that after years of wanting to be a Mrs., I was reluctant to let go of the Ms.

Eventually I realized that my name has nothing to do with who I am. My identity is my own regardless of what people call me. But I did have the opportunity to recreate myself with my new name, so I made some goals for my “new” identity that I’m working to keep them. And I dropped my middle name and kept my maiden name to become Rachel Ward Dominico. I can still be Rachel Ward while I’m Mrs. Dominico and I’m determined to make her someone I can be proud of.

–Mrs. Rachel Ward Dominico

Remember to like The Unfinished Mrs on Facebook, follow on Twitter and on Bloglovin