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Make it Stop

April 27th, 2012 at 03:56 am

Why do near perfect houses keep coming on the market in the neighborhoods we want to buy in? It's like if they all sell before we are ready, what is going to be left when we are ready? It makes me just a little bit crazy. This one is four blocks from my mother's house, right school district, right price range and appropriately priced, a gorgeous Craftsman (my favorite style) 4 bed 2 bath with hardwood floors and a yard the size of a postage stamp so barely any maintenance at all, but a great back deck. It has two bedrooms on the main floor and two upstairs, so accessibility is good, too. *sighs*

And I have to drive by it four times a day five days a week so it's going to be right there in my brain all the time. It's the shortest route to the schools so I'm not going to not drive by it and waste gas going a different way. But it is taunting me. The only really good thing about it is that it is for sale by owner so chances are it will linger on the market. A lot of folks do not want to deal with someone not using a realtor because of all the extra hassle involved. Me, I don't care.

We have $1,526.94 left to pay off to get our debt to income ratio at 45%, which is where they want it to be to qualify for a 2.9% mortgage at our credit union. Our credit scores are already in the right range. Tomorrow I will make the car payment, another VISA payment, and the AMEX payment. Then on Monday when the money arrives from ING, I will make an additional VISA payment. So we will be below that 45% range by Monday, though it may not trickle through to the credit bureaux until mid May. Not that it matters with no down payment money, but it is one more step in the right direction.

So...question. Does it make sense at all to do a 3% down loan if I am going to make double payments (not just double principal payments, but doubling the first payment with all the extra going to principal) until we've paid off 20% of the loan or is that just asking for trouble? We will have that much money available once the credit card is paid off in a month or two. Or should I stomp on my desire to get out of here and buy a house "right now" and get that 20% saved up. It will take us about a year, less if we sell our house.

How do we ever get past our wants prompting us to think they are needs? I know I could save 3% down in just a few months, but that is probably a stupid thing to do. And it's not like I've even seen the inside of this house. Gah. If we just stay here another year we will be so much further ahead. We'll be out of debt except for the car and the under $18K mortgage (which will go away when we sell the house). We'll be another year gone on the car and I'll have been making extra, extra principal payments on it, too. We'll have an EF of better quality and we'll have the downpayment saved. Life will be less stressful. Okay, I think I've talked myself out of trying to do anything rash or stupid. Trying. But not wanting.

I can do this. I don't need to throw my hard work away on impatient desire. *deep breaths*

Okay, and for the DEC, money spent today was $374.91 for a new twin mattress, box springs, and Hollywood frame for DS. We borrowed Mom's truck and brought it home ourselves and plan to put the old mattress on the curb with a free sign, so no delivery or disposal fees tacked on.

Speaking of wants, but not of wants that make me irrational, while we were at the furniture store waiting for the paperwork, etc., I sat in a lovely recliner in front of a giant screen TV. 70 inches of HDTV beauty. It was playing a scene of ocean waves crashing into a gorgeous tropical beach. I wanted to go there. It was like taking a mini-vacation in my head. I am happy with the big screen TV we have, but that thing is going on my future wants list way down the road, or something like it. We don't go to movies more than once a year usually, but we like to rent them and that thing would be great for the big sci-fi blockbusters.

It was surprisingly not horrifically expensive. Under $3000. I remember when you had to pay that for a 30 inch cathode ray TV with nowhere near this kind of quality. We never did, but I remember when. And there would be an installation fee, because that thing has to be mounted to the wall studs and we'd want it done right. It's on the dreams list, but it's not even in the top ten. And it's a much easier want to squelch than the house thing.

And is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the new article columnist seems to be very into brand names and very anti-generics? It's getting to be a theme.

5 Responses to “Make it Stop”

  1. baselle Says:
    1335501216

    Its why I'm not even looking yet.
    I've been in the rental for 12 years, but I'm not even going to look yet.
    I would love a house large enough for a small workshop, but I'm not even going to look yet.
    I would love a little bit of yard to plant everything as an edible. Blueberries, raspberries, herbs, a little garden. But I'm not even going to look yet.
    I'm going to be turning 50, which would mean that the mortgage should be short ... I don't want to be paying off a mortgage when I'm 80. But I'm not even going to look yet.
    200K, which is my budget, is a lot of money ... except during house hunting. Someday 200K will be a lot of money again. The question is when.

    I guess if it gets too bad, I could always move to the farmette and live there. I already own 1/2 of that.

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1335506715

    LOL How firmly are you telling yourself you are not even going to look yet? Very, very firmly. I just like to dream and I love to look at houses. I mean, we looked at houses as a hobby before we ever even got married just because we both love houses and architecture and stuff. It's hard to look and not touch, so to speak, when you are this close. But yes, worked too hard to get almost out of debt, shouldn't be in such a rush to take on a huge one again.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1335530173

    I can relate LR. I'm looking online at houses in the area we are moving to. We haven't even sold this house! I have vitually zero down payment if I don't sell this one. So many nice pretty homes.

    It does get easy to talk ones self into buying before things are right financially. We qualify for a VA loan, which means no money down. I don't know if I could do that. It doesn't seem right financially.

    Keep focused on how it would feel to have a house AND things right financially and you'll do just fine!

  4. LuckyRobin Says:
    1335649119

    Yeah, part of me would love a no money down loan but it's not the rational, smart, planner in me. It's the "I want NOW, NOW, NOW," part of me. Never good to give into that one.

  5. baselle Says:
    1335667141

    Not only am I not telling, I'm physically rarely looking. Every so often I check prices on the flyers and MLS. Both of us are at least aligned to a small house - 2 bed/2 bath, even 1.5bath. The smaller, the easier to clean, heat and the less you can hoard. Smile For laughs we would even buy a total teardown, tear it down, and install a pre-fab.

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