A Dallas couple is settling into their dream home that they never saw coming. With a $400,000 budget, but not pre-approved for a mortgage, Nader Huneidi and his partner, Cecilia Gonzalez, set out to see what they could find and ended up saving $50,000 upfront.
“We thought we might have to settle for fewer bedrooms or sacrifice some features to stay within budget,” Huneidi told Realtor.com®. “But we always kept the faith that we would qualify for the home our family needed.”
Their search stretched over six months, mostly in what he calls the “lookie-loo phase”—browsing listings and weighing options without being ready to commit. They focused on Aubrey, TX, and Princeton, TX—two communities north of Dallas that offered new homes in growing neighborhoods. The August median list price in the Dallas metro is $430,000.
Finding the right fit
At one point, the family applied for a home in Aubrey—a smaller property with two fewer bedrooms than they wanted, but they were pre-qualified now and considered moving forward…