The Haps

Two weeks ago, my dog Zippy graduated from training camp.
On Saturday, I turned 33.
Today, I became a homeowner.
Four months from now, I will be looking for another job.

Life is full of new adventures!

Might as well spill the beans

I had previously mentioned that the boyfriend and I were officially looking for a house. That was a little while ago. Well, I'm here to report that we have, in fact, found a house, our offer approved, and are now in escrow. My, how things move FAST when you're buying a first place!

We've seen a good deal of houses. Most of them just didn't hit the spot for some reason or another. We saw big homes in far-out places, funny-smelling homes, homes with too many floors, homes with no floors, homes that fit the bill but had zero backyard, "freeway close" homes... all that fun stuff. Erik and I went into it wanting the following: single-family home, three bedrooms, a bath or two, a two-car garage, not an insane commute to work, hardwood floors, gas range, fireplace, respectable backyard, etc. We also did not want a fixer-upper. We wanted something move-in ready, ideally fitting our more contemporary aesthetic.

A home popped up one day and nothing about it seemed too radical, but our realtor had previewed it earlier and thought it was "fabulous", so we ducked out of work a little early to see it. I clearly remember quietly mouthing "I really LIKE this!" to Erik as we were touring it. Newly-remodeled kitchen, hardwoods in half the place, and a nice big garage and backyard. The next day, we put in an offer.

Unfortunately, that house didn't pan out. It was at the top of our price range, and we basically had to offer that to compete with another offer already on the table. The seller's agent asked ours what might help us out if they were to counter to us, and basically she told them we wouldn't budge, because we really wouldn't. So the other offer won out. It was a little bit of a bummer, but not completely unexpected.

Cut to a week or two later, and I find this listing on Redfin where the interior looks kinda funky. Architecture unlike any of the other regional architecture we'd seen. Both Erik and I decided we wanted to see it, more out of curiosity than anything else, and put it on the short list to view that weekend. And we liked what we saw! Even though it's clearly not a match, aesthetically, the place is huge (1600 sq. ft.), it has a workable layout, a nice-sized backyard, a ginormous master bedroom, and is in a good-looking neighborhood only 4 miles from where we live now. We would need to put in hardwoods, and change out some old doors and such, but it met all of our move-in ready requirements. So we put in an offer. And they countered. And we accepted their counter.

This past weekend we had the inspection, and now we're in the middle of negotiating repairs. Nothing too major, but it'd be nice to have some of the issues that came up addressed before we move in. There is an issue with some ceramic tile that was improperly installed, which is a bit of a bummer because it's currently in more than half the house. A knock-down of the purchase price would have been awesome, but I don't think that's going to happen. It will just motivate us a bit more to get those hardwoods installed sooner, right?

So hopefully this inspection mess will wrangle itself within the next few days, then we can have our lender order up the appraisal. And then, hopefully, what we've elected to purchase the home for won't be way more than the bank thinks it's worth, and that will be settled as well. Then we will just have to lock in our interest rate and let the escrow company and our lender do their job until closing - which hopefully will be at the end of June. And then we'll be homeowners. O.M.G.

That's all for "the facts", now down to "the feelings". MAN, this home buying thing is really taking a toll on me! I'm a bit of a control freak (if Erik reads this he will undoubtedly burst out laughing or crying at that statement), and relegating tasks and entrusting people like a realtor and a mortgage broker are pretty tough things for me. I think I've studied up pretty well - just enough to be dangerous, anyways. And when I see my realtor or mortgage broker do things that I've read are, well, not what you want them to do, I get ancy. And when I see typos in applications or bad grammar in contracts I get pretty miffed. I lose confidence pretty easily in these people, and I don't know if that's really a reflection on them, or that I'm just too demanding a client.

Poor Erik, though. I mean, buying a house is a rough and confusing time for anyone, but Erik has ME in the equation, which certainly escalates matters. And it feels like we've inadvertently picked the worst possible time to purchase - not from a market standpoint, but because Erik was in the middle of a big development push at work, we started our dog at daily training camp last week, etc. It's just one thing after another. The stress level is certainly very very high.

But, hopefully it will be over soon. At least the buying part. I've been warned that the first six months of homeownership can be some of the scariest times, financially. And I think my previous post (a credit scoring rant) clearly illustrates how maniacal I am about money. *Exhale* It'll all work out in the end.

Random Credit Scoring Rant

I'll admit it, in my early 20's I was a little financially irresponsible. Mistake #1: Not understanding how to use my credit. Mistake #2: Working at a job that didn't offer health insurance. Those two mistakes, combined together, made 1997 the worst financial year of my life.

It took me a loooooong time to get my credit score to the sparkly, glistening number it is today. It took a lot of self-education, and a lot of self-discipline. The downside is now I'm a little obsessive about my credit scores, specifically maintaining the shiny, happy FICO score I have. I don't think that's necessarily a BAD thing, others think I place too much importance on it. They can eat it! :P

Anyhow, Erik and I are starting to officially consider home-ownership. "Starting", in this regard, equals many years on my part watching the housing markets, and trying to get myself as prepared as possible, and now the market seems to be turning for the better, so we're making contacts. The few people I know who have purchased homes recently (in the last 5-10 years) have remarked as it being the most confusing and stressful purchases they've made. I don't like making confusing purchases. I like to feel empowered.

So anyways, we're starting to interview real estate agents and lenders/mortgage brokers. Here's my issue, and maybe it's a non-issue, but it refers back to my sparkly credit rating. Some of you may know this already, but there's all sorts of things that can affect your credit score negatively. Sure, missing payments is one thing that will mess you up. Having maxed-out credit cards is another. Taking out a new loan will also ding you. And guess what? Paying OFF a loan (like a car loan) will decrease your score as well. Weird, ain't it?

The one thing that negatively affects your credit that I currently have the biggest problem with, in principle, is INQUIRIES. An inquiry is when a lender or service-provider checks your credit report to determine if you're worthy of their services. All those credit card pre-approvals you get in the mail? They don't count. Checking your own credit report? Not a problem for you, thankfully.

But guess what? When you put in an application to rent an apartment, THAT'S a ding (thanks, Montebello apartments!). And say you plug in your social online at one of those "Have Lenders Give You Competitive Auto Loan Quotes!". That could mean MULTIPLE dings. Sure, I don't suffer gladly those fools who apply for every department store credit card offered them, but on large purchases, like a car, or a house, the credit reporting agencies (or the Fair Isaacs Corporation's score algorithm) actually make it so a responsible person looking to find the best rate available to them will have their score REDUCED by anywhere from 5 to 50 points, in some situations.

So here's the rub. To start looking at homes, every real estate agent will recommend you get pre-approved for a loan. It helps you understand your buying power better and gives you an additional leg to stand on in a multiple-offer situation. Sure, that's reasonable. But you don't want to take the first loan you're offered. So you shop around, right? The credit reporting agencies actually allow for this (or so they SAY). They say that multiple inquiries within a 14 day period of time will only count as one. Okay, fine.

So say we shop around for two weeks and decide that a certain lender has the best rate, and we get a pre-approval letter, and start looking. Only we don't find anything for a few months. This is totally possible. But the pre-approval letter doesn't mean you're locked into a rate, or even really guaranteed a loan. These are weird times right now, and mortgage rules are really wonky. What it comes down to is that the lender MAY in-fact need to run your credit again. And then there's another ding. And say the rate is crazy, and you decide you need to shop around again.

You see where I'm going with this, right? Say my score is all shiny right now, but after a first round of shopping it drops 5-10 points. Then the next time it's checked, the score is lower because of those inquiries from before, so there might be a chance I have to take a higher rate for my lower credit score... See, my score is sufficiently high that I don't THINK this will REALLY be a problem, but what if I was on the cusp? What if I was at 722 (720 being the typical cutoff for A-grade loan offers) and the first inquiries reduced my score to 717? That could increase a loan APR by some percentage (even .25%), but that could mean THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of additional monies paid in interest over the life of the loan.

It just bothers me. The more I learned about credit scores, and how they come up with them, and how your TransUnion score might be different from your Experian score, and that your Equifax might be different from both of those, and how paying off the rest of my auto loan, even though it will decrease my debt-to-income ratio, would make my credit score go DOWN... the more I despised the system. And now, in dealing with trying to a) determine our buying power while b) keeping our scores in tip-top shape, it's causing me a bit of trepidation.

Am I over-thinking this? *Sigh* Probably.

Best Video Ever?

Okay, um, I just stumbled upon this music video which MAY be the best video ever. Amy Sedaris + Dolly Parton???? Um, YES PLEASE!!!

Are there any costumes better than Dolly's costumes?? Sequined riding suit with top hat and a whip? OMG. Anyways, I've wasted too much time blogging this, I'd better get to livin'.

Limping Into the Latter Half of the First Decade of the 21st Century

After work, Erik is going to pick me up a new iMac while I play with the doggie. I am one excited dork right now.