The School Bus That Told Me We Were Home

The School Bus That Told Me We Were Home
Penned by a recent Vermont Real Estate Company buyer

I made a voice note of most of this on the Monday after our offer was accepted, so I wouldn’t lose the feeling. Now that we’ve been in our home a full year, it felt like the right time to share it.

I couldn’t be more grateful for our experience with Vermont Real Estate Company. Mostly, though, I’m writing this for other buyers. Because if you’re anything like us, you have no idea the emotional toll the search is taking on you.

And I don’t just mean the year of actively looking. Open houses. Rejected offers. Waiting to hear back. Waiting for a price drop on a house that felt overpriced.

I mean the 12 years before that. We lived in a community I loved, with amazing resources, but I was never sure it would be our forever place. Some people don’t look for that. Some people like moving around and trying new things, and to be clear, I’m not someone who dislikes change. I just didn’t realize how much I wanted to stay somewhere.

It finally hit me on the most ordinary errand. Our new house went under contract on a Friday. That Monday morning, I was driving to the car dealership for routine maintenance when a school bus pulled up next to me.

It wasn’t even a bus from our new town. We were still living in our old house, anxiously waiting for closing and reading every Reddit thread we could find about getting ready to move. But that yellow bus with the black lettering and the black stripes got me. Wow. We finally get to put down roots.

For 12 years, I loved where we lived, but I always held a little back. Now I knew where my daughter would go to school. We were committed. We were here. Instead of wondering which district would be best for her, I could picture her as a little kindergartner at Monkton Central School.

We found our community. There are two apple orchards a half mile down our road, and they’re our orchards now. A year in, they know our three-year-old by name, because she orders her cider donuts every weekend.

None of this should have surprised me. I’ve worked closely with real estate for over a decade in my profession, and I still wouldn’t have known this overwhelming feeling of relief and a forever future until we bought our first family home. My first home was a condo I bought on my own as a single woman, and I knew it wasn’t forever. This was different. This property spoke to our souls. Even with a month to go before moving day, I wanted to make the drive out after work every day just to be there.

That feeling is worth holding out for. So find an agent who wants to help you find it. One who walks the property with you at the open house and says, “You have to buy this house. You have to live here. I see your daughter growing up here. I see my daughter running in this field with yours.” Our agent knew this home was meant to be our before we did.

That’s what we found with Vermont Real Estate Company. I hope you find it too.