Likely Boring Talk About Potential Home Buying
ADRENALINE!!
I just got a random phonecall from an angry customer at work. Sometimes those reach me since I work in the Legal Department, and if someone gets angry enough, they'll call and threaten to sue. I used to get those all the time when I worked for the web hosting company in Atlanta. This one was just "dialing for dollars" with our company phone numbers, hoping to hit someone in technical support. He was completely irrational. I've taken a lot of those calls over the years working in tech. Usually, they're just so frustrated, they just want to scream at someone, get all their frustration out. If you take the "make no sudden moves" approach conversationally, and just simply agree that it's frustrating, and keep repeating, "I really am trying to help you," eventually they calm down. So he did. But ADRENALINE SURGE! Nobody likes having someone scream at you! I got a round of, "Atta girl!" from the Cubicle Farm when I got off the phone for saintly behavior. WHEW!
Golden Opportunity
On Sunday, we went house hunting with Jose and Kristen. They want to move closer toward Golden, Colorado to make Jose's commute to his new job considerably easier. The area isn't a bad commute to where Ian and I work, so we're thinking we might follow them when our lease is up. Thinking ahead to whether we can afford to buy a house is largely what prompted the recent close examination of our finances. Frankly, I just don't know if we are in shape to buy a house in the current environment. Will lenders even give credit to someone to buy a house with little to no down payment anymore? I checked my FICO score last week -- 806, thank you very much! We still have yet to check Ian's. He doesn't have as much credit or credit history as I do, but it's all positive. His was over 720 when we checked two years ago, so I think he should be in quite good shape now. Still -- the early part of 2010 really did a number on our savings. I think it's possible that we might scrape up $5,000 to put down on a house, but doubtfully much more by next summer. I guess the only thing to do is talk with a mortgage broker and see what he thinks.
We found a neighborhood in north Golden which we liked, where we toured a 3-bedroom split-level house for $189,000. Ian and I both really liked it! Last night we went to dinner with NERO teammates, and it turns out that two of them live in that same neighborhood. Big win! We found about half-a-dozen houses for sale in the immediate area, with that one at the bottom of the price range. They go up to about $240K, and only get nicer from the one we already liked. Certainly we'd like to look toward the bottom of that price range rather than the top, but my point is largely that the house we liked was not a one-of-a-kind steal, that there are choices in that area. We won't be ready to buy until May/June (if we decide to buy in 2010 after all), but we've got a target area to search seriously now.
Among the reasons that we're willing to consider buying a house this year rather than wait yet another year while we rebuild our savings is that we think we can lower our monthly costs by buying rather than continuing to rent. "Think" is the key word there. As many of you understand, there are just so many factors to consider when looking to buy a house! "They" (meaning, naturally, the six foot tall ants in the pulp science-fiction movie, "THEM") try to fake you out with just how low your monthly mortgage payments would be at current crazy low interest rates (near 4.0%!) -- but of course the giant ants don't mention PMI, the increase from renter's to home owner's insurance, possible HOA fees, and of course property taxes -- let alone increased utilities. So there's a lot to consider. Right now we pay the gougingly harsh monthly rent of $1335, which is bound to go up at least $100/month next June. If we financed $220K, with PMI, +$75 more for home owner's insurance than what we pay now, and $1400/year in property taxes, that's still only $1500 a month at even 5.5% interest. And that's using toward the top of the range for all assorted choices. That's not bad at all! If we found something for under $220K (and there are a few), got a better interest rate, put anything at all down, all those figures go down from there at least a little bit. So... still not sure if it's doable; as I said, I don't even know if no down payment financing is available these days at all. It is worth seriously considering and looking into the idea, however.
Passport Out of Sadness
This is a bad pun.
Today all the regular employees from my company are going on a field trip to our new building. They all get to sign the back of the big sign that's going on the outside of the building, then they'll have lunch while watching the crane raise the sign. I am not an employee, however; I am a contractor. We're not invited. Nor are we invited to the upcoming Holiday Party, either! I was really bummed about both these things last week... especially since today is technically my 90-day anniversary working here. Then I found out that they're flying remote employees to one of the major cities for our Holiday Parties... and contractors? You're still not invited! Sad. At least they decided to have lunch catered for us today, which is a nice consolation.
Anyway, while all these shenanigans are going on today, I decided to finally go get my passport. I've never had one before. We're not planning any international trips at present, so no real rush for it -- just something that's been on Life's To Do List for years that I figure it's time to settle. Life gives you lemons and won't let you go to the happy barn raising, make lemonade -- that sort of thing!
T$
I just got a random phonecall from an angry customer at work. Sometimes those reach me since I work in the Legal Department, and if someone gets angry enough, they'll call and threaten to sue. I used to get those all the time when I worked for the web hosting company in Atlanta. This one was just "dialing for dollars" with our company phone numbers, hoping to hit someone in technical support. He was completely irrational. I've taken a lot of those calls over the years working in tech. Usually, they're just so frustrated, they just want to scream at someone, get all their frustration out. If you take the "make no sudden moves" approach conversationally, and just simply agree that it's frustrating, and keep repeating, "I really am trying to help you," eventually they calm down. So he did. But ADRENALINE SURGE! Nobody likes having someone scream at you! I got a round of, "Atta girl!" from the Cubicle Farm when I got off the phone for saintly behavior. WHEW!
Golden Opportunity
On Sunday, we went house hunting with Jose and Kristen. They want to move closer toward Golden, Colorado to make Jose's commute to his new job considerably easier. The area isn't a bad commute to where Ian and I work, so we're thinking we might follow them when our lease is up. Thinking ahead to whether we can afford to buy a house is largely what prompted the recent close examination of our finances. Frankly, I just don't know if we are in shape to buy a house in the current environment. Will lenders even give credit to someone to buy a house with little to no down payment anymore? I checked my FICO score last week -- 806, thank you very much! We still have yet to check Ian's. He doesn't have as much credit or credit history as I do, but it's all positive. His was over 720 when we checked two years ago, so I think he should be in quite good shape now. Still -- the early part of 2010 really did a number on our savings. I think it's possible that we might scrape up $5,000 to put down on a house, but doubtfully much more by next summer. I guess the only thing to do is talk with a mortgage broker and see what he thinks.
We found a neighborhood in north Golden which we liked, where we toured a 3-bedroom split-level house for $189,000. Ian and I both really liked it! Last night we went to dinner with NERO teammates, and it turns out that two of them live in that same neighborhood. Big win! We found about half-a-dozen houses for sale in the immediate area, with that one at the bottom of the price range. They go up to about $240K, and only get nicer from the one we already liked. Certainly we'd like to look toward the bottom of that price range rather than the top, but my point is largely that the house we liked was not a one-of-a-kind steal, that there are choices in that area. We won't be ready to buy until May/June (if we decide to buy in 2010 after all), but we've got a target area to search seriously now.
Among the reasons that we're willing to consider buying a house this year rather than wait yet another year while we rebuild our savings is that we think we can lower our monthly costs by buying rather than continuing to rent. "Think" is the key word there. As many of you understand, there are just so many factors to consider when looking to buy a house! "They" (meaning, naturally, the six foot tall ants in the pulp science-fiction movie, "THEM") try to fake you out with just how low your monthly mortgage payments would be at current crazy low interest rates (near 4.0%!) -- but of course the giant ants don't mention PMI, the increase from renter's to home owner's insurance, possible HOA fees, and of course property taxes -- let alone increased utilities. So there's a lot to consider. Right now we pay the gougingly harsh monthly rent of $1335, which is bound to go up at least $100/month next June. If we financed $220K, with PMI, +$75 more for home owner's insurance than what we pay now, and $1400/year in property taxes, that's still only $1500 a month at even 5.5% interest. And that's using toward the top of the range for all assorted choices. That's not bad at all! If we found something for under $220K (and there are a few), got a better interest rate, put anything at all down, all those figures go down from there at least a little bit. So... still not sure if it's doable; as I said, I don't even know if no down payment financing is available these days at all. It is worth seriously considering and looking into the idea, however.
Passport Out of Sadness
This is a bad pun.
Today all the regular employees from my company are going on a field trip to our new building. They all get to sign the back of the big sign that's going on the outside of the building, then they'll have lunch while watching the crane raise the sign. I am not an employee, however; I am a contractor. We're not invited. Nor are we invited to the upcoming Holiday Party, either! I was really bummed about both these things last week... especially since today is technically my 90-day anniversary working here. Then I found out that they're flying remote employees to one of the major cities for our Holiday Parties... and contractors? You're still not invited! Sad. At least they decided to have lunch catered for us today, which is a nice consolation.
Anyway, while all these shenanigans are going on today, I decided to finally go get my passport. I've never had one before. We're not planning any international trips at present, so no real rush for it -- just something that's been on Life's To Do List for years that I figure it's time to settle. Life gives you lemons and won't let you go to the happy barn raising, make lemonade -- that sort of thing!
T$