A young Monmouth County couple recently found their dream home – but they had no idea that the home had a special meaning to a loved one.

Lacey DeRosa and Dylan Amos are set to be married and were looking for their first home. They said that they were drawn to a newly renovated house in Howell with a modern look.

“We looked a lot online. This is only the second we looked at in person,” DeRosa says.

But what the couple did not know at the time is that this particular home is the same home that DeRosa’s father grew up in.

“She told me she looked at a house she really liked in Ramtown. ‘What street?’ I said. Lockwood Avenue. I’m like, ‘What number?’ I was in shock right there. I was like, ‘That’s my childhood home,’” says Glenn DeRosa.

Glen lived in the home for 18 years. It looked a little different in the 1970s than it does today. Lacey DeRosa says that she may not have been interested in the house if it still looked like it did when her dad lived there.

But she wanted the house the way it was now. The only problem is that other people wanted the house too.

“We got multiple offers. I’m like, ‘Ah, you know, they’re not going to get the house,’” says realtor Nick Rocco.

So, the couple wrote a letter to the homeowner explaining their link to the home. They included photos from when Lacey’s dad lived there. In the end – they got the house.

“He said the pictures, it meant a lot of the sellers of the home and that money isn’t’ everything,” says Rocco.

Glenn DeRosa says that he hopes that his daughter can make the same types of memories he made when he lived in the home.

“I remember it was a great place to grow up. I knew all the neighbors. I walked all these streets,” he says.