News from a new Homeowner

So, closing happened, and now I'm a homeowner. It was great, I showed up at the lawyer's like I was told at 11am, and they turned me away saying it was scheduled for noon. I drove all the way back home, when I got a call from my agent telling me to come back. After getting back, I waited around for another 15 minutes, making it almost noon . . . Then I signed a bunch of paperwork, and went about my day.
Over the weekend I spent over $1,000 on a couple pieces of furniture and blinds for ALL the windows. I bought a new refrigerator for about $1,500 and a new bed for around $2,000. All of this is on credit . . . Gonna keep my expenses as low as I can so I can pay off that debt as quickly as possible. The bed is to be delivered today, the fridge tomorrow. Luckily, most of that was financed with zero interest if paid in by the deadline. I think I might start putting in some extra overtime once I'm done moving to get that debt paid down faster.
I'm going to be moving slowly over the next couple weeks, a carload at a time. We'll be spending a lot of time there over the weekends doing some general work on the place (installed a mailbox yesterday, need to clean the roof and gutters, install the blinds, etc).

Tomorrow is the day!

Yesterday I got the final number and got a cashier's check cut for the amount. I know where to go, and when to be there. I just need to remember a few things to bring with me when I go to the house for the first time. I need to bring a pen  and some paper (duh) and a tap measure. What else? I don't know. I need to figure out how big the master bedroom is and how much space I have for a fridge. I'm going to bring a few other things with me, stuff my mother is holding for me.

2 days to go

Two days until closing. I still have not been told where I'm supposed to go, I have emailed my realtor about that. I also have not received information about how much the check is supposed to be for, but I was told to expect it tomorrow.
What I do know is I have the entire day off work on Friday. I am supposed to be somewhere at 11am to start the closing process. I need to bring a cashiers check for an unknown amount of money.
I'm anxious, but in a good way, can't wait to get this over with and begin the next big thing. I'm nervous, but only a little at this point, I'm confident things will go well. And I'm calm, because I know this is almost done and at this point I have done everything I can, so there is nothing more for me to do.

3 Days Remain

Only three days till closing. I need to make sure to bring a tape measure with me because I plan on going straight to the house afterwards. I need to get a measurement for the fridge as well as determine what size bed I can use. I think I'll wait till after that to pack my first load of stuff to bring over.

Four days and counting

So there's only 4 days until closing. I think I'm going to use today to make a couple lists, what I need and what I want.

Need:
New Locks
Refrigerator
Bed
Dresser for The Boy
Desk for The Boy
Desk for me


Want:
New Dishes
Washer and Dryer
Freezer
Mini Fridge
Roomba

That's all I can think of, but I'm sure I'll grow this list over time.

Home Improvements anyone?

Haven't even closed on the house and already thinking about home improvement. What I want to do is build a paver patio behind the sun porch. I've been doing some research and found that it takes a lot of sand to do what I want. I think the project would be a lot of work, but I also think it could be a great addition to the house. As it stands now, there really isn't a good place for my grill.
It looks like I'd need to put a base of at least 4 inches of compacted sand below the pavers, and then fill in the cracks between the pavers with polymeric gelling sand. It would cost a couple hundred dollars to do, I could possibly even substitute gravel for the sand if it were cheaper.

Friday Update

Everything is moving along with the closing, so far I've dealt with everything I need.
I got utilities scheduled to be in my name the day after closing (as is required).
Finally have all the insurance stuff dealt with, which is a relief.
Other than that, there's not a whole lot to update on. I'm excited and nervous about closing.
There will be a lot of stuff I have to do after closing, I still need to contact an exterminator which I think I'll do today.

An update of sorts

Just thought I'd drop in and give an update on some stuff since it's been a while since I've posted. First, things seem to be going along swimmingly. The closing is scheduled to happen at 11am on the 30th. Insurance is dealt with, which is a relief.
The bank that's doing the mortgage has this thing they're doing which requires me to have a checking, savings, and credit card. What's cool is the credit card is a rewards card, where the rewards points go toward the principal on my mortgage. I don't have all the details, like how much each point gets me or whatever. But each dollar I spend earns me a point, unless it is on home improvement stuff (I'd assume that means purchases at Lowe's or Home Depot) I get two points.
Just got off the phone with the water company, scheduled switchover date to the day after closing.
Setup gas service online as well for the same day.
And now power is setup too. I hope that is all.

Stupid State Farm!

So, I'm back on the insurance issue again. Days after telling the agent I wanted to get insurance, they finally got back to me telling me they can't help me because I don't know the age of the roof and other systems! I gave them a second chance after having bad experience with them once before, but they've totally screwed me. I've contacted Nationwide now, and at the very least they'll be able to hook me with the FAIR plan.
The agent I spoke to seems to be confident that I'll be able to get a nationwide plan though, which means less money out of my pocket. I just wish the agent had said something sooner. I'm pretty sure that I even said something about the other insurers to State Farm, but oh well, screw them!
Update: After looking back, it took the State Farm agent 4 working days to even get back to me when I first requested we write the policy. I know for a fact that the age of the house was discussed, but also pretty sure that it was stated up front that I had no idea how old the major systems in the house are.
Needless to say, I wrote a scathing review of the agent on their google places page; quoted below:

I was severely disappointed with the service I got from this agent. I am purchasing a new house and this was the only insurer that I contacted that knew the age of the house and gave me a quote knowing I didn't have any information on the age of the systems within it. After agreeing to the quote I was told (after hearing nothing for 4 days) that they needed to know the age of the internal systems, and without that information they wouldn't be able to write me a policy. It blows me away that they knowingly wrote me a quote for insurance that they knew they wouldn't be able to write.

Friday Update

The closing date has been moved to the 30th, which gives me more time to move, so it's a good thing
The appraisal is in and all is good there.
I'm not going to focus so much on my credit scores now, just gonna post if they change.
All the overtime I worked for this paycheck has put me well over the amount estimated for closing, so I might actually have a little cash to buy some of the needed stuff when we move.
I still didn't do a monthly overview of my spending, but I think I'm going to just not do that for the next month or two as I've been focusing on not spending money, so I think I don't have to worry too much.

Oopsie! Update time.

So it's Monday, and I didn't get a chance to give you guys an update on Friday. Here comes one!

It looks like my lender is trying to move the closing date up to April 30th, according to her, it'll save me money, although I think it's more about their quotas and such.
I was asked for more documentation from the underwriter on the mortgage, and I was able to supply that yesterday.
My Credit Sesame has gone up to 771!
But my Credit Karma score is still at 766.
Not exactly sure how I came up with all those numbers last week, but I'm still looking good for the money for closing and down payment.
It appears I totally dropped the ball on my monthly overview of spending, I'll try to get that done tomorrow. Work has been very busy (and I've been working a ton of overtime to get more money) so I haven't had as much time to write as normal.

Late Update

So, it's Saturday, but the week isn't over so let's see where I stand!
Got a copy of the fully signed contract, so we're officially set to close on May 4th.
Mortgage is in process and I've gotten everything I need submitted.
Home inspection went swimmingly (is that the phrase?). Everything is good to go on that front.
My Credit Sesame still hasn't updated from 762.
Same goes with my Credit Karma score at 766.
Final estimated money to be paid by me at closing is $3,483.04 and I have $2,127.60 in savings for that, plus an extra $850 I can pull from other, less important things. Add on top of that the $400 for the loan application fee, and that leaves me with just over $100 I need to gather from here till then, which I think I might already have sitting in my checking account.

Order of Events

A few people have voiced their concern about the order in which things have been done in the process of buying this house. Specifically related to the home inspection and signing the contract. For the most part, they said I should have had the home inspected before I signed the contract to buy the house.
It makes sense that you don't want to commit to buying a house without knowing the house isn't in really bad shape and need a ton of repairs. It's good to know that you'll be buying a quality home.
The thing is, the contract itself stipulated that I had 10 days from the date it was signed that I could cancel it for any reason. That gave me the ability to lock in the home, keeping another from buying it before me, and the time I needed to get the home inspected, making sure that the house was something I actually wanted to buy.
I'm fairly sure this is a common thing, possibly even a state requirement, when buying a house. Everyone I've asked about it at least followed the same procedure as I did, putting in an offer, then having the home inspected after. With the 10 day window at the beginning of the contract to cancel for any reason, I felt confident in signing the contract before having the home professionally inspected.
Now, this is also the reason I was stressing so hard earlier. I only had a 10 day window to figure out everything. I had to know that there wouldn't be any major hurdles to buying the house, and if there were, I'd need to know right away. So I made sure I got all my paperwork into the lender right away, made sure I got the inspection done, made sure I could get insurance. Any one of those things going wrong could have meant I wouldn't be able to close on the house and if it happened after that 10 day window, bad things would happen.
At this point, I'm sure there's going to be more to stress over, there will be more things that pop up that I'll need to deal with. But right now, I've done everything I can do to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible, and I'll have to deal with anything else as it comes along.

Inspection? CHECK!

Alright, the inspection is complete! The house got a clean bill of health, with some very minor repairs that will need to be done soonish, but nothing pressing and absolutely nothing that be a deal-breaker.
Basically, there's some siding around the chimney that will need to be replaced, just one piece. In the sun room/patio, the windows need to be sealed, the roof needs a good cleaning and so do the gutters. The free-standing carport has a hole in the roof, it's not a big deal, can be patched over temporarily, and shouldn't be too hard to make a permanent fix.
The roof is nearing its lifespan, so I'll have to set aside some money to make sure that can be replaced when the time comes. The inspector didn't find anything wrong with the roof, it's full wood and not plywood, so that's good. He walked around up there and checked it from underneath and found no damage.
The water heater is a bit old, so that will be another cost, luckily replacing that will allow me to upgrade to a decently energy efficient model. Currently it's gas, and I may consider going with something electric, but I'm not ready to research that quite yet.
The heating and air system is a bit older as well, but it tested ok. I have to say I was really impressed with how well the air conditioning unit worked. Even with a door open to the outside, it was able cool the room enough to give me a chill.
There are also a few minor repairs that will need to be done, some sanding of doors and frames, lots of work outside in the yard, fixing lights (most likely just need some new bulbs), and of course the tiling around the floor in the master bath.
One thing to note, as part of the closing on the house, the seller has agreed to pay for 1 year of a home warranty. With the age of the house and some of the main systems, this will give me some peace of mind.

So very stressed

So, yesterday I started dealing with the mortgage paperwork. I read through all the documents on Sunday after I finally got them. Then as I was going back over them while I signed them, something seemed off. Looking at the numbers given by the bank, the money due up front from me was insanely huge. Like double the max money I had available to spend. So I tried to get a better idea from the lender about it, and turns out she completely flubbed the numbers. Left off $1,000 of the earnest money and put in the wrong information for a number of other areas. Now, the number is in a more appropriate place where I can handle it.
Even so, those wrong numbers caused me an enormous amount of undue stress. This whole thing is really throwing me for a loop. Luckily I've only got about a month of all this, then it'll become a different kind of stress.
I'm really worried about screwing something up, or something going totally wrong and me being out all the money I've put in and owing even more cause of something that could have been avoided.
On top of that, today is the inspection of the home. I'm going to try to put together a video of the home, like a walkthrough and introduction to the premises. Also, because I'm so worried about money and being ready to put money down on the house, I'm going to be working all weekend for overtime. I might actually just end up working everyday this month if I can. It's gonna suck, but in the end I think it will be worth it. Luckily I have 3 paychecks till the closing date, so I'll be able to sock away some money.
I'm just going to have to live off credit cards for the next month and spend as little actual money as I possibly can. I'll probably have to raid my Dragoncon savings for this year to make sure I have enough money at the end.

Weekly Standing

Another Friday means another weekly look back at what's transpired
Contract has been submitted to the seller, and I'm fairly certain it has been signed.
Mortgage documentation has been submitted to the lender.
Quote for homeowners has been received (but not in writing yet)
Appointment for a home inspection is setup for Tuesday
My Credit Sesame score is still 762.
My Credit Karma score is also still 766.

Mortgage win

Alright, after spending the last day collecting what was asked for, I was finally able to get it all to the lender. 38 pages in total, and that was short a page or two because I still haven't gotten the written quote for insurance yet. Luckily, the lender seemed to be ok with that, just knowing the insurer was enough to get the ball rolling.
Next step is she will be sending me back the mortgage packet, paperwork I need to look over, so I can read it over the weekend. I'm seriously stressing over all of this, but at the same time I think that's helping keep me on the ball. I'm usually a really big procrastinator, but if I put things off too much it'll end up costing me, so instead I'm getting everything done as quickly as I can to make sure there's wiggle room in case something bad happens.

Home inspection is a go!

Got ahold of the home inspector, we have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday at 4:30. Had to make sure my agent was on-board because they'll have to let us in. Next step is to figure out things I need to inquire about. I think I'll do an update to this post as I find things, but here are a few links I'm using to determine what I need to know:
Questions to ask during home inspection
Home inspection checklist
What to look for during a home inspection

Homeowner's Insurance Update

Ok, so I just got off the phone with State Farm and they saved my bacon! They quoted me at just over $1,000 for a year which is about in line with what I was expecting. Of course, if I get an alarm system installed and move my car insurance to them, my rate would go down, but for the time being I have my quote, which was the last piece of the puzzle for the mortgage.
I was really fearing I would have to go into the Georgia FAIR Plan, because that didn't sound like it would be a good thing. The FAIR Plan is insurance for people who need insurance but can't get it for one reason or another. Basically, the highest risk group gets to pay twice as much for less coverage.
Obviously, if that was my only option, I'd have to go with it, but luckily I can avoid that, at least for now. I'm sure I'll have to see about updating some parts of the house in the next few years, but those are expenses I can prepare for ahead of time. As those updates are done, my premiums will hopefully go down too, saving me more money in the long run.

Homeowner's Insurance

So, I got an e-mail with a list of all the stuff that the lender wanted as part of the mortgage process. It didn't take me long to get it all together, it's been less than 24 hours and I have everything, except one. Quote for homeowner's insurance, and it's a dog.
The Road so far:
I contacted Progressive, I have my car insurance through them. They were unable to help me, because the age of the house, I needed to know how long ago the major systems (heating, roof, electrical) were replaced, and I don't know. They sent me to one affiliate, but they couldn't insure me because the value of the house didn't match the market rate or something like that.
I also tried contacting Allstate, but they won't quote me homeowner's insurance without also quoting me for auto. I decided to put that off, because I don't want them to possibly ding my credit by running it more than it needs to be.
My next call is to a State Farm agent. I've been somewhat reticent to call them because of a bad experience with them in the past, but if they're able to give me what I need, history won't be enough to stop me from using them.
The real problem is homeowner's insurance isn't something you can get a quick and easy quote on the internet and I have to talk to a real live person to get a good quote fast. And it's still a little early and a lot of the nearby offices aren't even open yet.
I'll continue calling around and will update you on any new developments as they occur.

Home inspection

So, I have two inspectors in mind. One is recommended by my parents, he does general contracting work for them. The other is a service recommended by my realtor. It's a little bit of a hard decision because the guy has done some good work for my parents and I plan on seeing what he'll be able to do for me when I need stuff done, but from my reading, you need special licensing to be able to inspect a home for certain things (at least according to this article on about.com). The most important (other than the general home inspection) would be termites. Of course, the only real way I can know is to ask, and I will do that when I call him later today.
The other recommendation (the one from my realtor) is Inspect-All Services. They seem to be a good company, and have good reviews across the internet. Plus they can definitely do the inspections I want. The only problem is, I'm sure they'll be more expensive than my parent's contractor.
In the end though, I'll have to go with whichever I feel will do a better job, no matter the cost. Can you really put a price on peace of mind?

Now what?

Contract is sign, so what's next? Well, I have to talk to my lender, get the mortgage going. I need to get the home inspected. One article even says I should contact the municipality to find out more about the home. So, today during lunch I will need to call my bank and talk to the mortgage guy. I sent him an e-mail last night, but have not yet gotten a response, so I need to find out the next steps there.
I also need to do some research about home inspections. Find out what I should do to make sure I have gotten a proper and thorough inspection, and questions to ask ahead of time to know the inspector will do what needs to be done. Then after work contact some people to get it scheduled.
Then maybe tomorrow I should see about contacting Lilburn (I'm guessing that would be the "municipality" I need to contact) about the property. Of course, I'm going off the suggestions of a blog I found from a couple years ago.
I also need to contact my insurance company and get homeowner's insurance. Luckily, I can do that anytime of day. I plan on continuing to use Progressive, since they do my car insurance already and should have reasonable costs.
I have e-mailed my agent to find out more about scheduling with her about getting the inspection done, can't get in without help.
I will also need to worry about utilities, but I have time before that has to be done. Luckily I don't plan on moving in immediately, but I do need the house to be somewhat livable right away. This is going to be an ordeal, that's for sure.
A couple more links that might be helpful:
Finishing Details
Post-contract Pitfalls
After the Contract is Signed

Future topic ideas

Inspections
Mortgage
Insurance
My current living situation and the move

Good news getting better!

Heard from the agent today and it's on. I have to run by the bank to get another cashier's check, and then deliver it to the agent, sign some papers, and then do all the rest of the stuff that comes with being under contract. Technically, I'm not yet in escrow, but tomorrow I think I will be!
I'm pretty sure the next steps are going to be to deal with the mortgage paperwork and schedule a home inspection. Hope to get that done by the end of the week, but gotta figure out what's involved and all that.
Other than that, I think everything is going according to plan. I'm still kind of nervous about this whole thing, but I know it's the right thing for me. I honestly can't wait to get on with the moving process, because that is going to take a while.

Weekly update

Sorry this is a little late, things were busy and hectic at work.
Spent my FSA money, just in time too! Got new glasses for my son.
I am now in the offer/counter-offer stage of the home buying process! Should know in a day or two if we're moving ahead on this.
My Credit Sesame score is still 762.
My Credit Karma score is also still 766.
I got a piece of mail from my mortgage lender and it said my Transunion score was 744

So far so good

Agent called and I got a response from the bank, they have provided a counter-offer to my revised offer. They want $80k with the rest staying the same basically, which is good news. It's still well within my price range, and HOLY SHIT! I just ran those numbers through a mortgage calculator at Bankrate.com and my monthly mortgage payment would be less than $400.
So yeah, back to what I was saying, I agreed to the changes. Only problem is, they want $1,500 in earnest, and I am only prepared to pay $1,000. Luckily, I have moved some money around and I should hopefully be able to get the extra $500 to them quickly enough to make it work.
I'm really excite about this, but at the same time I'm still really nervous and anxious. I'm still not going to pin my hopes on this, but I can't help but think everything is going to go my way. Moving and such may not quite fit the timing I was planning on, but I will definitely be able to work around it.

Don't count your chicken's before they're hatched

So my realtor called me today. It seems that someone else put an offer in on the house too. Unfortunately, there's no way to know what the offer was, but I had the option to either leave my offer as it is, revoke my offer, or change it.
I'm really new to this whole thing, so I don't know what to expect from a competing offer. I chose to ask my agent what they though, and she said I should increase my offer by $2,500. It didn't take me long to decide to do that. Even if she had said $5,000 I probably would have, but much more than that, and I might have decided to just keep looking.
The house is great, and even at the revised $77.5k it's still a steal. But I'm not going to get my hopes up and get attached to a house until it's closed. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong to keep a sale from going through, and I am a realist.
So, according to my agent, we will know tomorrow if my offer is accepted, and until then, I can only hope. But it won't be the end of the world if I have to keep looking, I'm certain the right house is out there just waiting for me, even if it takes a few tries.

The check is ready

Just spoke to the 'rents and the check is ready. I will be going by there after work really quick to pick it up and then run it over to the agent and all will be good with the world.
She did say she verified that the offer was presented to the bank this morning and we should know by tomorrow (if not today). After this, we have 30 days to get everything done and taken care of, so it'll be a rush to the finish, and god, this is stressing me out a bit.
I knew this was big, and I recently came to realize how big it is, but it just seems even bigger than ever! I am really excited though, finally a house I'll be able to call my own.

We have an offer!

So, after a little deliberation and some work, I came to the decision to put in an offer on the house on Casco! The house is in great shape inside, with a lot of room for the things I need, as well as some great space for holding get-togethers. The landscape will need some work, there are a large number of trees that I will want removed and a little remodeling I can see wanting, but in all, the house is perfect for me.
The house is a 3 bedroom 2 bath with brick on all sides. One part appears to be an addition that is actually hardy-plank. New carpets, cabinets, kitchen, appliances, and other stuff. There is a large fireside family room that is just awesome. There is a finished basement with a lot of unfinished space for storage.
I had my agent put in an offer, but one thing no one happened to mention to me is that I needed to be able to get a check in the hands of the seller for earnest right away, and all the money I have for the house is in a savings account. Because of that it will take days to get the money anywhere I can get a check. Luckily my parents were willing to front me money while I do this.
After work I have to run to my parent's to pick up the check and then back out to the realtor to pass it along. Don't know if my offer was accepted yet, but having the money at the ready is important for this, and any future endeavor if this offer doesn't go through.

More House Hunting

So, I got another list of 17 houses, and looked through them all. Picked out 9 that I found interesting, and when the time came, only 4 of them were actually available to show. The rest were already under contract or something. Yesterday we went out and looked at all 4 of them.
The first house we went to was Kylman. The house was built in 1995 and was on the market for $100k. In all it was too small and would require too much work to get it livable for the price they wanted.
The second house was Casco. A much older house, built in 1965 with an asking price of $75k. The yard and landscaping outside are horrible, but something that can easily be fixed. The house itself is in great condition, and the interior was recently redone. The photos don't do it much justice, but the house was nice. It was the first house my son gave a total thumbs up to.
The Third house was Teresa. Built in 1982, the asking price was $80k. The house was in good condition, hardwoods everywhere. Yard wasn't bad, but had a huge deck out back that totally needed to be replaced. Other than that, the rest of the place appeared to be in pristine shape.
Last, we visited Four Winds. It was built in 1980 and is on the market for $90k. One of the things that drew me to the house was that it had a pool and a hot tub. For the price you couldn't beat it. But after some research, I came to realize that owning a pool increases your monthly expenses way too much outside my comfort zone. The house itself was nice, lots of space and in decent condition, but the pool made money a concern.
I did decide to put an offer in on one of these houses, check back later for that info!

Looked at some houses

Went out today and looked at two houses. For the sake of this, we'll call them Cole and Bethesda, just to make it easier to decipher what I'm saying.
Cole is a 2188 square foot house that was built in 1977. It is currently on the market for around $85k. The house looked interesting, I saw a lot of potential in it, large front yard with a decent sized backyard that is completely fenced in. It is a split level that has a second kitchen in lower portion, almost as if it could be rented out as an apartment. There is no garage or carport.
The house wasn't in great shape, whole place needs to have the walls redone (paint, wallpaper) and new floors. The outside has some issues too, and needs some work. I liked the size of the place for the price, and the layout is nice, but it seems like there's just too much work that needs to be done for the price. If it were 10-20k less, I'd definitely consider buying it and using that money to improve it.
Bethesda is a 2027 square foot house that was built in 1999. It is currently on the market for around $108k. It is in really nice condition and a good size. The neighborhood is completely secluded and withing walking distance of a really big park. It has a nice enclosed back yard, a big FROG and 3 bedrooms. There's a living/dining combo (I think) as well as a separate dining room that could be used as an office. There is a nice big 2 car garage with automatic door, lots of space for a car (or two) and a work area.
The house itself is great, but the price is a little bit higher than I would want to pay, if it were $10k or so less, I would be all over it. Right now it is up for short sale, so it is possible the house won't get any cheaper.
If I had to choose one of the two I would probably go with Cole. At that price I could probably get it in much better shape paying the $20k difference between the two. The size, layout, and area all fit my needs, but I'm hoping to find something that's just right.
My agent has sent me another group of 17 listings. Of them, I picked out 9 to go look at on Monday. There are a few that I think could easily be the perfect place for me, but I really need to look them over before saying more about them.

Friday again!

Here we go!
Long weekend again, so hopefully I'll finally get that FSA money spent.
I now have $3,856.51 in savings for down payment and closing costs.
My Credit Sesame score is now up to 762!
My Credit Karma score is still 766.
Looked at a couple of houses and neighborhoods, going to look at them tomorrow.

Looking at houses

So, the agent sent me a listing of a few houses that were on the market that matched what I was looking for. I looked them over, and at first didn't see anything that looked like what I wanted. But at the time, I was at work, and the agent was on the phone and I just felt kinda rushed, didn't really get a chance to look. So I took some time and looked over them again and found 3 that I thought might actually interest me.
Yesterday, The Boy and I drove past them all. Checked out the neighborhood and the general house from the road, to get an idea if they're really be something worth looking deeper into.
The first house we drove past (3485 Bethesda) was a more recently built house, it was in a subdivision that was very secluded. The houses there were a little bit close together for my tastes, but it seemed like a good place. It was walking distance from a park, but the commute might not be the best. This house warranted a look around inside.
The second house (498 Cole) was a bit older, it was off a semi-main road, not a whole lot of traffic, but there's potential there could be. It had a rather large yard, front and back, and lots of space around it. We didn't get to look too close because of traffic, but I would like to go see the house more.
The third house (657 Mountainbrooke) was in a secluded neighborhood that is directly off a very busy main road. This house wasn't in good shape, the front yard was mostly weeds, and the back appeared to be too much dirt. There was an odd island in the front that looked like it would be hell to maintain. The house backed up to a small lake, which looked like it would be a bad thing in the summer and just breed mosquitoes.
Of the three, I've informed my agent that I'd like to go see two of them, so hopefully we'll get a chance to look back at them this weekend.

Real Estate Agents, Take 2!

So I talked to both agents that were recommended to me. One I met in person, and she was great, I felt very at ease with her and she seemed like she would do a great job in finding me a house. I was immediately impressed with her and she really knew her stuff. She was recommended to me by a co-worker who just found a house using her.
The second is an acquaintance of my step-father. They are both members of the local Elk's Lodge. He used to be a commercial realtor and has recently moved into the foreclosure market. I spoke to him over the phone, and he seemed like a good guy, but we just didn't click. He sent me an e-mail of a bunch of listings he had on file, almost none of which seemed to really fit me.
I told the first agent that I had to talk to this guy and I would get back with her after that. I never did, so she e-mailed me, basically saying that since she didn't hear from me she assumed I decided to go with the other guy. I e-mailed her back and set the record straight and apologized for not getting back earlier and that I wanted to work with her.
I haven't heard back from the guy my step-father recommended other than that one e-mail, which shows me that I have made the right choice. As a matter of fact, there is a new e-mail in my inbox right now from them about some houses on the market.

A month in review

Here we are again, looking over spending in the month of February. I've gone through everything and it all appeared to be categorized correctly.
Comparing my spending this month and last there isn't a huge difference. There does not appear to be any one area I can easily cut my spending. There was a shift in the number of times I bought food out, reduced that by about 25%.
I spent less on my car, but last month was higher because of my birthday. I did spend more on utilities, but I think that is because it has been colder and I had to use my heater more. After all the work I put into looking at my spending last month, I don't really feel I need to dig deep into it this month. I think my spending is pretty well under control, but there's a lot of bills I can't control right now.

Long weekend ahead

We got news!
Oh my god, I really MUST spend the money in my FSA, I'm running out of time.
I totally forgot to do another monthly review! Look forward to February's review next week.
I now have $3,829.17 in savings for down payment and closing costs.
My Credit Sesame score has not updated yet and is still at 754.
Also my Credit Karma score hasn't changed from 766.
I finally submitted my mortgage application and was approved for up to $130,000 but requested the letter state $100,000.
I spoke to a real estate agent, and have an appointment tomorrow to meet her.

Finding a Realtor

With the good news about the loan pre-approval it's time to find a real estate agent. Realtor? Realty agent? Real estate agent? I don't know. So I did some asking around, and you know what I found?
Every single person I talked to found their agent through a friend. They were either friends, friends of friends, relatives, or recommended by others. It seems that realty is a social job, everyone has a recommendation or knows someone. Asking the question about how people found their real estate agent got me so many recommendations and responses.
Now, my step-father used to buy and sell real estate when he lived in California, and he's given me some tips and suggestions. He says he's got a guy who is ready and willing to help me out.
My coworker just moved into a new house within the past couple months, and he's got an agent that he absolutely loved and suggested I get ahold of her. She did a great job of finding them a house and goes above and beyond for her clients.
My brother used a friend's mother who was a real estate agent. A close friend used his aunt. Another friend's was recommended by their parents. The list goes on. . .
But with all these recommendations from people, how do you choose which agent to go with?
Really the only answer is to talk to them, each and every one, until you find one that really seems to fit your needs. Know what you're looking for in a house, what area you want to move to, what price range you want to spend. Interview them, ask them questions, find out what sets them apart from others. Don't just settle, purchasing a house it a big decision, and every part leading up to the purchase is just as important as which house you buy.
So what am I going to do? I'm going to contact each of the real estate agents I have been suggested.

And the verdict is . . .

So, as I was stepping out to lunch, my phone rang from a number I didn't know. It was Tom calling me about the mortgage. He had a chance to look it over and found everything to be in order, and I was approved for up to a $130,000 mortgage. He told me that my credit score was good, I guess they run it against all three bureaus, and they were 701, 745 and 790. Averaged at about 742 (I do so wish it were just a bit higher), so that was great.
He asked me about what amount I was actually looking to spend, because as it turns out if my approval is for too much higher than the amount of the house I wanted it would give me less bargaining power. So I told him $100,000 was the max I was considering spending (at least for now, until I actually start looking around at houses). So he told me he'd be firing a pre-approval letter off to me shortly.
With all this in mind, I'm thinking to myself "This is really happening." I know I was going through all this stuff leading up to where I am (and to where I'm going), but until now there really was nothing, I was planning ahead, doing stuff to prepare, but now the search actually begins.
I did hear back from the credit union, but their response left a little to be desired, so I'm going to see about calling them instead. It does seem like I really don't have to though, as I'll have a letter, and I'm certain the credit union would have the same requirements, so I might wait a bit before getting back in touch with them.
The approval is valid for only 60 days, which is unfortunate, but the timing might work out well, since if I start the process of actually buying a house near the end of the period, I'll be right in line with when I was hoping to move.
Tom did say that he couldn't give me an actual rate on the loan, but that I could expect around 4% on a 30 year fixed.
Next step, find a realtor. . . .

The Saga Continues

I have done it! I submitted the first mortgage pre-qualification form. The evil form, the one that badly designed. I did find a way around having to fill it out by hand, and I didn't have to reformat the whole thing either, so that's good.
I did find a couple of the things they asked odd. Like wanting account numbers for where my money resides and such. But I figure they need to be able to contact the other bank and verify that what I'm saying is accurate.
Filling in that form made me look at some stuff I hadn't thought a lot about. I did not realize that I have over $25,000 in retirement savings, and that my car, even though it's a couple years old, is still holding its value really well.
So I filled out the form, printed, signed it, scanned it and then e-mailed it to the loan officer. Almost immediately I got a reply too! I was surprised to get a response so quickly, I'm assuming they're not getting a lot of mortgage applications lately.
After all that, I sent out an e-mail to my credit union in the hopes to get this process started with them as well. I'm hoping that they'll be able to make me a better deal than the bank, but we'll just have to wait and see.
So, there you have it, this dreaded thing of filling out the paperwork and getting the process going in earnest has boiled down to me worrying for nothing. I really don't know why I kept putting this off, but the idea just filled me with a bit of dread.

Want Vs. Need

So, the contract for my mobile phone is finally up and I was planning on buying a new one and changing carriers to save some money. But after doing some research I realized it wasn't the best move. A new phone would set me back a couple hundred dollars and I can't find a better plan with my existing carrier that is less expensive. I could buy a new phone, switch carriers, and save money month-to-month, but it would take me at least six months to pay off the phone from the savings I'd get. In the long term, it makes sense to do it, but in the short term, I'd have to put it on a credit card and would carry a balance for a little while until I got it paid off.
I do really want a new phone, and I could do it easily, but I don't really NEED a new phone. I used the lessons I learned earlier about smart spending and ran through the decision process. After much consideration and debate, there really aren't any phones out there at a decent price with a carrier I want. I could upgrade to something, it might be better, but the money spent wouldn't be worth as much because the upgrade wouldn't be as great.
I've had this phone for two years now, but the phones available at a price-point I'm willing to spend just aren't what I want. There's no way that I'm going to spend so much money on a phone that was released a year ago just to save a bit of money on my phone bill every month. Especially when there's probably going to be a whole new phone out there soon that I'd prefer. Only if there was a really good phone that just jumped out at me as the one I wanted would I consider going through with it at this point.

Friday Roundup

Here we go again, not a whole lot is different though.
I have been procrastinating with the FSA but really need to get around to spending that money.
I now have $3,804.17 in savings for down payment and closing costs.
My Credit Sesame score has not fluctuated from 754.
Also my Credit Karma score hasn't changed from 766.
I've also been putting off applying for a mortgage, but I WILL do that next week! You betcha!

Market Research

Today we're going to talk more about free money. Yes yes, I know that there is no such thing as free money, but market research is about as close as you can get. Last night I got paid more than I do at my day job for just a few hours. All I had to do was show up and tell someone my feelings on the topic at hand.
The really interesting thing about all this is that not a lot of people know about this. It is easy cash (yes, I said cash, not check or anything, just cash in hand at the end) for telling someone how you feel about a certain topic. What I took part in last night is what is known as a focus group; a few people who meet certain criteria are chosen and put together in a room to talk about a topic for a couple hours.
There are other forms of market research, I once took part in a group that took two nights; I sat there listening to parts of songs for two hours and filled in a multiple-choice sheet about each one. Another time I was fed different versions of a chicken sandwich and wrote down my opinions on them. It doesn't matter where you live, there are opportunities to take part in market research all over the country.
And there is even a lot of stuff you can do online to make money filling out surveys. Taking surveys online for money can be risky though, there are a lot of scams and sites that just aren't legitimate, so you'll need vet any site you're interested in.
If you're interested in making money by giving your opinion, please feel free to leave comments below and I'll gladly pass along any information I have, as well as help you find what you're looking for.

Another weekly roundup

So, where we at this week?
I have been way lazy with my FSA. I really need to spend that money before it's too late.
I now have $3,779.17 in savings for down payment and closing costs.
My Credit Sesame score is still sitting pretty at 754.
My Credit Karma score is still listed at 766.
I have spoken to my friend and looked over the form I got, now I just need to get it filled out and talk to the other bank I was considering going with.

The worst form ever

So, I got a form from the bank that sent me the flyer about a deal for mortgage pre-qualification, and boy do they want to know a lot. I really don't mind filling out forms, but this one is dumb. As an IT guy, it bothers me when someone wants something filled out and goes about it the wrong way. Why would I want to get a word document that I have to fill out by hand, then mail, fax, or scan back to the sender instead of one I can fill out and just send back electronically?
The lines to fill in are just underscores, so typing displaces the lines and totally messes up the document. What does that mean? I MUST fill it out by hand or go through an ordeal trying to fix the document after filling it all in. You would think that one of the big banks would be kind enough to invest in a pdf document that could be filled in and submitted, but unfortunately, no.
So, what do you think I should do, fill it out by hand and fax it back in? Scan it back? Fill it electronically? Or just ignore the bank altogether? I was told by a friend that I should limit the number of banks I apply to, so I don't have to go with this bank. But I was planning on it, in the hopes that they keep this deal going long enough for me to take advantage of it.

That's too bad

So, my son is almost done with middle school, and next year he'll be moving on to high school. We had been hoping he would get into a magnet school in our county. Yesterday was the random lottery that chose who would be enlisted and who would be on the waiting list, and my son didn't make the cut. It was completely random, nothing could be done to influence the outcome.
You may be wondering how this is a matter for this blog, well the reason is because it might actually affect my choice of housing. For one, it means that I have the choice to stay in the same school district and have my son go to school with kids he already knows. Doing so will limit the choices of houses and neighborhoods available.
Of course, I haven't talked to my son yet about this aspect of it, but he may not care if he stays with the students he's been at school with for the past 3 years. If that's the case, I could choose any other area, even outside the county like I was originally considering.
Obviously, the choice of where we move affects not only me, so I will have to consult with him before we actually start looking at houses.

One more Friday

So here we are again, time to look at where I stand in relation to where I'm going.
I've still not touched that FSA and really need to get something done with the $358 in there.
I now have $3,754.17 in savings for down payment and closing costs.
My Credit Sesame score has gone down, it is now at 754. I don't know exactly why, but it might have to do with the recent credit card I started a couple months ago. I'm not sure exactly how quickly things like that affect the score, but of the things they list that may affect it. I'm still over 740, which is good. I also had a decent amount of debt on one credit card, which may have also decreased my score, but that has been paid down decently by now.
I just signed up for a new service Credit Karma, and my score listed there is 766 which is great! This score seems similar to the Credit Sesame score, and I think it is pretty close to an official credit score.
I spoke to my first lender yesterday! I haven't filled out any paperwork yet, because I'm waiting to hear back from my friend about how I should do this, but I'm at least on my way!

Lunch by the numbers

A while back I used to eat out for lunch everyday. I was lucky to spend less than $5 for fast food and I was even luckier if I ever ate healthy. It was a dark time in my life, then I had to start watching my budget, so I went down an even darker path, I ate Ramen noodles for lunch. Every. Single. Day. It was cheap, there's no doubt about that, but it was supremely unhealthy, and not very good.
So I did some research and came up with a cost-effective alternative. Sub sandwiches. Now I've never really done the math, so we're going to do it together. I know you can go out and buy a 6in sub from Subway, so we'll use them for comparison. All my prices I'm basing off what I've found at my local Sam's Club too. Let's dive right in . . .
We're going to base our costs off one of the more popular sandwiches, a club. That is 3 different meats, some cheese, lettuce, tomato, and some condiments.
First, we need bread, you can buy 6 footlong rolls for only $4, so for one sandwich, that's only 33c. Next we add our meat, which costs roughly $8 for about 10 servings, so that's 80c per sandwich per meat, we're looking at 3 types of meat, which is $2.40 total.
That brings us so far to a total of $2.73. Now we need some cheese, that's about $9, and you can get 30 full sandwiches out of that, so that's another 30c bringing us to just over $3. Now we need our lettuce. Personally, I prefer to pay a little more and buy the pre-packaged shredded lettuce, that runs about $2 for a week's worth, but you can save money by buying a whole head of lettuce. So, if I were to make it, my lettuce would add another 40c on to the cost, bringing us to $3.43.
"What about the condiments?" You might ask. Well, who doesn't have mustard or mayo in their house? Luckily, condiments seem to last forever, so their cost would be just pennies per sandwich.
"What if you want something special?" Now you might be thinking how you might want more things on your sandwich, like onions, cucumbers or jalapenos, well you can do that, it just means you need to buy them. They will obviously increase the price for the sandwich, but it is highly doubtful you'll make it cost more than you'd pay at Subway.
Personally, I much prefer having a sub sandwich for lunch everyday, made just the way I like it. And it's even better that it's home-made. It might take a little bit of time and effort, but I think the savings and piece of mind go a long way.
What things do you do to save money on everyday expenses?

Working for a living

So, a couple of Youtube Commentators I watch recently went on about happiness in their work, and it got me thinking. Obviously, everyone has to do something for their money. Everyone does something different, but for most of us, we work.
There are two main schools of through when it comes to working. One is that it is a necessary evil, a means to an end. That end being money to spend on things we want and need. The other is work can be enjoyable and it is possible to not only survive, but thrive doing what you love. Obviously, no one is 100% happy with their job, there's always something that they would change if they could, or someone they don't get along with at the office.
But how does a person actually find happiness at work? And I'm not talking about the corporate initiatives to improve employee morale to get more out of them. I'm talking about doing what you love while making money to live. The answer is hard work.
There are people making good money just uploading videos to Youtube, and they make it look easy, but it's not. Sure, they may have a lot of fun doing it, and love the content they're putting out, but it takes a lot of time and effort to get the most out of it. The biggest and hardest part is the beginning, just getting content that people want to see, and even after that, getting people to actually see it. After that, it takes planning for future content, demographic analysis, and timing.
There are a lot of other dream jobs that have similar hurdles, like game development, blogging, or even graphic design. Working in the industry in a larger corporation could help get you closer to the job you actually want, but whatever your dream job is, remember that it may be possible if you're willing to put in enough work.
What about you? What do you wish you could do and how can you get where you want to be?

When to look for a loan

So, I've got the money from my tax refund now, which means the next step in buying a house is going to be getting a loan. Technically, it's getting pre-approved for a mortgage. I know that mortgage pre-approvals have a expiry date, it's not like when you're pre-approved you can wait 3 years to actually buy a house, but what kind of deadline is there?
Well, with a little bit of google-fu, I've found that it can vary, but normally it is good for 3-4 months. With the timeline I have in place, I'm hoping to have a house by the end of May. I could close a bit earlier, so that's not an issue, so even if I were to get pre-approved for only 3 months, I think I'd be ok.
Interestingly enough, I got an e-mail from Credit Sesame linking to an article "When is the right time to apply for a mortgage?" And according to the article the best time to apply is the first week of the month. So for me, I need to talk to a bank NOW or wait till next month, and I don't think I'm prepared to wait that long.
So, with money in the bank, it's time to contact my credit union and see what they can do for me. I'll give you guys updates on the process as I have them!

future topic ideas

Lunch by the numbers

A week in review

Here's another Friday, and it's time to look at where I stand. This week, I didn't post as much as I would have hoped for a few different reasons that I won't go into here.
I really need to get with the FSA thing and spend that money. I still have that $358 in my FSA from last year.
My refund came through! Because of that I now have a whopping $3,723.54 saved in the house fund.
Credit Sesame still hasn't updated for February yet, so I'm still sitting at 772, but it should give me a new score in a day or two.
I still haven't talked to any lenders yet, but now that I have my refund I'm ready to start. I think in the next week I'll call the guy who sent me that hand-addressed envelope.

Monthly review

So, it's a new month, which means it is time for me to look at where all my money is going and adjust my spending, and expectations, accordingly. I figure I'll go down the list from biggest to smallest expenditures, and as always I'll not be giving you exact figures, but I will give you percents to give you an idea of what I'm doing. Mind you, all of these numbers are just on money spent, nothing about my savings.
So first, I went through all my transactions for the last month in Mint and verified that they were all correct and accurately categorized. Then I clicked on my trending tab and Viola! All the information I need.
At the top of the list, as expected, is housing. Rent. Hasn't changed, can't be changed, nothing big there, except it's my largest overall expenditure almost every month, totaling almost 29% of my money spent in January! This is one big reason I'm really looking forward to buying a house, spending that much money to get nothing in return is just crazy. I will admit, that since I'm renting from my parents and basically paying the mortgage on their second house is on positive thing in there.
Second on the list is Auto! This one is a bit higher than normal because my birthday is coming up and I had to pay my tag fees and such. But as it stands this past month this category took up 27% of my spending. I expect that without the added fee, this category will be 75% of what it is now.
My third highest category of spending is Bills and Utilities. This category was 18.1% of my total spending. That might seem high, and really it is. There are 4 things in total in this category, each taking about 25%. They are Gas, Power, Cell phones, and Television (actually, this is both internet and tv). Now, at this point in time, I can't do much of anything about these bills. I do everything I can to conserve energy at home and even keep the place cooler than my son likes, but it's winter and the heat will have to run. I'm in a contract with my current phone carrier, which will be ending really soon, and when it does I will be switching plans at the very least, or even carriers if I find a really good deal. As for television and internet, I absolutely refuse to consider changing my internet, but I may see what I can do to reduce the cost of my tv service.
A close 4th is Food and Dining at 18%! Now, I feel I did really good this past month on that one. I have been saving a ton of money shopping sales and using coupons. I'll admit, I have probably missed out on a few coupons, and I'm sure I can work harder to find more of them, but when I go to the grocery store and only pay 75% of what I would have without coupons, I feel good! Now, I did say food and dining, the food was over 80% which means I spent less than 20% (or around 3% of overall spending) on eating out at restaurants. I have had issues in the past where I would spend a lot more money than I wanted in this category, and seeing these numbers makes me feel good.
And, last but not least is entertainment. 5% of my spending in January was on video games and Netflix. I'm sure I could change my spending in this category, but it was actually larger than normal this past month as well because I paid for a full year of one service up-front, saving money in the long run. But, even if I did spend 5% of my money in this category, I wouldn't be too upset.
Of course, there's also another few percent left over of my spending which is just random stuff, like office supplies and interest charges. Overall, I think I had a successful month, and looking over these numbers makes me realize that I've already done a lot of work streamlining my spending. Even though I don't actively employ the process outlined in the You Need A Budget (The Book), I still follow the basic tenets behind it.

Odd happenings

So the strangest thing happened to me over the weekend. I got a hand-addressed envelope in the mail! You may think it's odd that I find that interesting, but really, how often does that happen? I told my friends about it, and they were all like, "Are you sure it wasn't auto-penned?" Nope, this was genuinely hand written.
It was from a bank too, a bank that I have dealings with actually. The bank my car loan is through. Inside this hand-addressed envelope was a printer advertisement for a mortgage special they have going until the end of February. Stapled onto the page was a business card from a local banker with them, and the (I'm assuming) national phone number that was printed on the sheet was blacked out.
Now, the deal actually seems really promising, something I'd be very willing to consider. The only real problem is, it has a deadline that comes before I'm going to be ready to actually buy a house. I'm sure there are some strings attached that they don't disclose on the form, or some other downside I didn't see (This is one of those larger national banks), but for the most part it seemed like a good deal.
The deal is actually so good, I've almost considered contacting the guy, just to see if they would be able to extend it till my deadline.
But what I find most interesting about this whole thing is, why did this guy feel like it was worth his time to hand-address an envelope to mail it to me? Is it possible he googled me and found this site and decided I might be a good candidate for a mortgage? Or is it just one of those random things where there is no meaning?
If I do decide to contact him about the deal, I'm going to ask. . . .

Friday already?

So, it's Friday again, and it's time to give you guys an update on where I am.
I still have that $358 in my FSA from last year, and I have been lazy about spending it, but I have until March, so I've got time.
I've now have $703.54 saved for the house fund.
Turns out that my tax refund is now expected this upcoming Wednesday.
My credit sesame score is holding steady at 772, but that's partly because it only updates once a month.
I have not contacted any lenders about a mortgage, or any realtors about finding a house yet. I did talk to a friend about the upcoming process and gained a little insight.
I have also been able to use the sharing option on Credit Sesame, you can see my badge at the bottom of the column on the right.

My Financial Past

So, I've alluded to this a little in previous posts, but I figure I should give you guys a rundown on what has brought me to where I am now. I have worked for as long as I can remember. My parents were avid sci-fi fans and we went to conventions to sell merchandise in the dealers rooms, and many times I'd be left in charge of the table. Outside of that, I had a paper route and in my off time I would help my mother collect UPCs and coupons.
We were a very thrifty family. My mother had coupons for everything, she would trade with people through the mail even. We had filing cabinets full of UPCs saved in case there was a future rebate. I was taught at an early age the value of a dollar and how to stretch your money, but it never really sunk in.
At around 10 years old, my family moved down to Georgia. Things worked differently here, kids didn't have paper routes. It wasn't until I was 15 that I really started working again. I would go and help out at the local comic book store in exchange for credit I could use to buy comics with. It was good work, I loved the people and had a great time.
A little while later, when I got my own car, I had bills to pay, so I needed real money. After that I worked a few different jobs; I worked at a few fast food restaurants and even did a stint in retail. After high school, it was time for me to move out on my own, and like every other grown-up, I got credit!
That was a bad idea. Eventually, I was maxed out on all my credit cards and overdrafting my checking account all the time. In the end, at age 21, I was near bankruptcy, although somehow I never quite got there. I defaulted on 3 or 4 different credit cards, and eventually had no credit and only lived off what I made each paycheck.
You'd think I would have learned from that, but it wasn't until 2-3 years ago that I finally changed my life. I found Quickenonline, and it saved me. The feature that let you put in recurring bills and estimate your bank account on any given day was all it took for me to stop overdrafting. I would estimate that over the course of 10 years, I paid at least $9,000 in overdraft fees. Not to mention all the other fees on credit cards for being over the limit and only paying minimum payments.
But my story doesn't end there, because eventually, those defaulted credit cards drop off your credit report. And what happens then? You can get more credit cards. And I did, and I wasn't smart the second time either. I never let the cards go over the limit, but I carried balances, for a long time. And I'm sure I've paid my fair share of interest these past few years. But then something changed, I got to claim a dependent on my taxes, and my return was HUGE! And I paid off my credit cards! And now I barely carry any balance from month to month, and pay off most of my cards each month.
This all goes to show that no matter how bad you are financially now, there's always hope. You just have to be willing to make changes. I could have fixed all my problems sooner, if I had only tried. All it took was being able to estimate my bills and see where all my money was going for me to realize how to fix it. If I had just started keeping a paper ledger so many years ago and actually kept on top of it, I would have been fine. But I was lazy, and didn't do it. But now I check my bank accounts every few days, watch my bills and make sure they're all paid on time, and you can too.

The urge to spend is strong.

Saving money isn't just about not spending it. One mistake a lot of people make when trying to save money is to outlaw all frivolous spending. What that does is make the urge to spend even stronger. When creating a budget, it is important to not just leave a little wiggle room, but to also budget in money you can spend freely with no worry, Mad Money.
When you have money you don't have to account for, not a lot, but $5-$10 per week, it makes it easier to stay within budget. You're able to buy the small things you like, and more resistant to the urge to buy things you don't need. Of course, adding in an entertainment budget can help too. Setting aside a segment of your budget to do fun things, like go the movies, play mini-golf, or whatever, will help you feel less restricted, making you less likely to want to "fight back" against the restraints of your budget.
Of course, even with an money built into a budget for entertainment, and some extra mad money will still not keep the urge to spend down, and that's where my previous entry comes in, Saving more, spending less. It's important to be able to determine if a purchase really is worth the money in the long run.
What happens when you find one that doesn't fall in your budget that really is worthwhile? Change your budget, simple as that. Part of having a good budget is the ability to change it so that you can get what you want and what you need without resorting to bad decisions.

That's not good news . . .

So, I have this friend who works at a bank. I figured she'd make a great resource with the process, working in a financial institution and having gone through the process herself. So I gave her the rundown on where I was and how far along in the process I am.
So far I seemed to be right on the money, trying the credit union first for the mortgage, what kinda things will be required of me to qualify, the type of loan I'd need, stuff like that. But then there's the bad news. I'd need more like $6,000 and not the ~$3,000 I have. Closing costs increase the amount of money you need up-front to buy a house.
So here I am with cash to put down on a house, but not enough to pay those damned closing costs. Whatever shall I do? Well, I can try to find more money, but that might be tough. When it comes time to close, I'll have a little more money, but not enough to cover that wide a gap.
Can I just pay the closing costs and not put any money down? I'd heard of people doing that before, but that's part of what's caused the economy to go down the toilet, so you can't do that anymore.
How about rolling the closing costs into the loan? Not exactly. I can't do it myself, but if the seller were to pay the closing costs, then add that onto the sale price of the house, which will in turn roll it into the mortgage.
So it's not great news. Although I kinda expected something like this, I still feel confident that I'll make it through the process. And with this being a buyer's market, I'm certain I'll find a seller willing to work with me to get the house of of their hands and into mine!

Free Money! Free Stuff!

Part of my mantra is free is always good. There are a lot of ways to find great deals on things, but sometimes it can be a bit harder to find it for free. There are a lot of sites out there that offer free stuff, and a lot of scams too. So I'm just going to cover things I personally use.
The biggest best way to get free money or free stuff? A rewards credit card. You got one? No? Well, if you get approved, the Amazon rewards card from Chase is pretty good. That's the one I use mostly. Now, how does a credit card mean free? Simple. Every month, you have bills you pay. Insurance, water, electricity, whatever. These are bills you pay every single month without fail. So, since you're already forking out that cash every month, why not pass it through your rewards card first?
What you do is pay the bill with the credit card, then send the money you'd have have used to pay the bill to the credit card company instead. This way you're not carrying a balance (carrying a balance on your credit cards completely works against you) and you're earning 1-3% back. It's crazy simple, but I never thought about it until I read an article on doing this a few months ago.
Another site I use to get something extra for the things I do is MyPoints. This site is like a rewards card in that you earn points for things you do online. There are a lot of sites that you might buy something from, and if you go through the Mypoints link, you'll earn points that can be redeemed for giftcards at all sorts of different places. I have been a member of the site for over 13 years. Over those years I have earned hundreds of dollars worth of free gift cards. They even offer the option to earn points by answering a question everyday or even searching the internet with their toolbar.
Another option to get free stuff is old-school. It's as simple as writing a letter to a company. Not something I've done recently, but I'm tempted to start doing it again. Just write a letter (preferably snail mail, e-mail doesn't seem to work as well) and shoot it off to them. A great example of this is The $39 Experiment. The idea of mailing a letter to a company is just so rare these days I'd think you'd be even more likely to get something for nothing. Obviously, you have to pay for the postage, paper and envelope, but it still might not be much compared to what you get in return.
I'd love for you to share with me your favorite ways to get free money and stuff!

My weekly update

So, it's Friday, and I figure it's a great time to give you guys an update on where I am.
I still have that $358 in my FSA from last year, and I plan on trying to use that up by the end of the weekend. My HR reps have confirmed that there is a grace period until the end of march to use that.
I've now got $678.54 saved for the house fund, just got paid today.
I have filed my 2011 taxes, and am expecting an estimated $3,000 refund next week.
My credit sesame score is holding steady at 772
I have not contacted any lenders about a mortgage, or any realtors about finding a house yet.
I suspended my exterminator today to save a little more money for a service I won't need.

Saving more, spending less

Part of being financially responsible is not wasting money. Every day, you make choices on how to spend your money, and each choice will either benefit you or it won't. It is important to think about everything you buy and all the money you spend. Do you really need to get the name brand frozen pizza, or will the store brand be just as good?
Some decisions are easy, it's hard to really tell much difference between one brand of bleach and the next, but some are harder. I personally don't like macaroni and cheese unless it's Kraft. I've tried other brands, and none have lived up to the quality of the name brand.
Every time you spend money, you need to think before you buy. It's really important to stop buying on impulse. A great article on So Over Debt describes a great process of determining if a purchase will really be good for you in the long run. This process goes for purchases of every size, whether it's a new car or a pack of gum.
Another great way to save money is to use coupons. I'm sure you've all heard of those extreme couponers who are able to save like 90% on their purchases. I wouldn't expect people to go that far, but if you're gonna go and buy a new toothbrush, there are coupons easily accessible across the internet for that and many other things.
Also, a lot of stores have some sort of savings club. One example is Kroger Plus, with that card you can save money on everyday purchases, and they'll even mail you coupons from time to time, plus they allow you to load electronic coupons on your card for later use. The program is free, and easy to use.
Now I'd like to ask, what do you do to save money from day-to-day?

Flexible Spending Accounts and you

My employer offers the opportunity to save money by way of a Flexible Spending Account, or FSA. An FSA allows you to put money in, before taxes are taken out of your paycheck, and set it aside to pay off certain types of expenses. My employer offers one for both medical and childcare expenses.
The obvious benefit to doing this is being able to pay your medical expenses with money that you don't have to pay taxes on. Doing so can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars per year. The one drawback is that if you don't spend the money in that year, it is gone, and you cannot get it back.
I choose to contribute $500 annually to my FSA, which I can then use to pay for things like co-pay, prescriptions, glasses, even some over-the-counter drugs and medical supplies. Each provider has their own list of exactly what will qualify as a valid medical expense for their FSA, and a lot of it is regulated. In the past, most over-the-counter drugs were covered flat out, but this past year the rules were changed, so you must have a doctor's prescription for them to be covered.
There are still many supplies that a lot of FSA will cover without the need for a doctor's not though. These include bandages, braces, gauze, heating pads, saline solution, supports, thermometers and more. It is important for anyone to verify these with their provider before purchase though.
Last year, I expected my medical expenses to be much larger, and only used a small portion of my FSA, leaving me with over $300 in the account. With it being 2012, I thought I was out of luck. However, after talking to my human resources representative, I've found out there is an extension for the healthcare FSA, and I have until March 15 to incur claims! So now, I must figure out how to spend this money as quickly and efficiently as possible. As the saying goes: waste not, want not.

How does employment affect a mortgage?

So, an interesting question was posed today, "How does changing employers affect a mortgage?" I was curious, so I did a little research and even called my bank.
The simple answer, at least for me, would be that it wouldn't. For any normal person, as long as they're staying in basically the same line of work, changing jobs won't make a huge difference on their ability to qualify for a mortgage. Obviously, your lending institution might have different rules, but my bank said that all they would need would be 30 days worth of pay stubs, basically to prove how much money you're making.
For some people, changing jobs can have a disastrous impact on the qualification process though. If your income is based off commissions, or a lot of your income is based off bonuses, it might be a good idea to put off changing jobs until after you purchase your new home. It is also recommended to put of becoming self-employed or changing jobs if you only work part time.
The reasons for this is the way lenders calculate your income. For the most part, they like to average your income for the past two years, and if your income varies from month-to-month in your new job, they won't have as much data to make their calculations and it may look bad.

Tax prep for 2012

So, I just filed my taxes yesterday, and already know what my estimated return is going to be. And now it's time to think about this year's taxes. Some people think it might be too early, but it all depends on how you look at taxes. Sure, it's nice to have this big check come to you once a year, it's like free money, right?
No, it's lost money. By getting money back from taxes, you are in essence giving the federal government a free loan. The money would do you more good if you reduce your withholdings and put that extra money into a savings account. As an example, if I were to pay the exact amount I owe in taxes every paycheck instead of the amount I have been, I would be getting at least $100 more per paycheck. If I then take that money and put it into my Roth IRA, I'd be nearly maxing it out each year. Or I could take that money and put it into a vacation fund, and have a few really nice getaways every year. Alternatively, you could take the money and put it into a savings account that you'll never touch except for emergencies, and then you'd be prepared for a lot of life's pitfalls.
Personally, I plan to adjust my withholdings, and max out my Roth IRA contributions. The amount of money I'll be getting from the change won't quite cover the contributions to my retirement fund, but the difference will be minimal and I'm certain I'll be able to handle it.
The one hurdle I have right now is making the actual change. I have to get in contact with human resources at my employer, and so far my luck with that isn't very good.

Tax Time!

Yay! W-2 is finally available! So, right now I'm doing my taxes, and things are looking great. Now, I know it's pretty easy to file taxes with a 1040ez, but I like the added benefit of using online filing, and since most places now let you file your federal taxes on line for free, I prefer it. And, because of how easy and free the federal returns are, I don't mind paying a little money to file my state returns electronically too.
I'm sure many people have their own favorite electronic tax company, but I prefer TaxACT Online. The price for filing state taxes is not too bad and I've used them to file for the past 6 years. I started with them because they were one of the first that I found that allowed free federal e-file before it was the norm.
So, I bet you want some numbers, I won't give you everything, but my combined federal and state refund will be over $3,000. This now gives me a hard number to use for a down payment for a house.
Now that my taxes are filed, I just have to wait for a return. I've got notifications setup to e-mail and text me when something changes, so I'll be ready in an instant.

Future topic ideas

Finding a realtor
Tax Time!
Tax prep for 2012

Save it or spend it?

So, after my earlier post, I had a thought about all the money I have set aside for retirement; I might actually be able to take some money out of my 401(k) for the down payment on a house. It really does sound like a good idea, would allow me to buy a better house, without paying a whole lot more per month. So, before I even looked into the requirements and hurdles I'd have to jump through to get the money, I decided instead to look at the impact doing that would have on my retirement.
I popped on over to Bankrate.com's calculators and checked out the difference between how much I'd have saved for retirement if I started with what I have, or $10,000 less (for the down payment). Obviously, all the numbers are fudged a bit, I have no idea how much any of it will be worth, but with the numbers that were already filled in, by having $10,000 less in my retirement account I would end up with over $100,000 less when I retire.
If I adjust the annual rate of return down, it makes an even bigger impact in the percentage of money I lose over time. At half the return rate, it eats away almost half the money I have saved. Now, none of these calculations take into account any ongoing savings, because those numbers won't change one way or another based on this choice.
So, is it worth taking $10,000 out of my 401(k) for the down payment on a house? No, not at all. Putting that extra amount of money down on a house would save me just around $20,000. But keeping it in my retirement account will net me a lot more than that.

Saving for the future

So, here I am, 33 years old and thinking about retirement. You might think I'm too young to be thinking about retirement, and you couldn't be more wrong. Everyone, no matter how young should be working towards a comfortable retirement. ING has this cool tool that lets you enter a bit of information and compare your retirement savings against other people based on your age, gender, income, etc. So, I put in my information and come back with just over 1,000 people like me who filled out the form, and compared to them, I'm doing great. On average, people like me have barely socked away $10k for retirement, and I'm over double that amount.
To be honest, all the money I have set aside for retirement has been within the past year. The first, best, most important thing you can do to save for your retirement is start early. If I had started saving for retirement when I was first offered a 401(k) I would have so much more money waiting for me. A great article I found at Clark Howard's site compares what it takes to retire a millionaire. The later you start, the more you have to save every month to make up for it. If you save $2000 a year (that's only $167 a month) for 7 years starting at age 15, you will have over $1 million by the time you reach 65. If you keep saving for the full 50 years starting at 15, you will have over $2 million!
According to the site I need to save between $5,000 and $10,000 a year to be a millionaire when I want to retire. How in the world will I do that? Well, I haven't completely figured that out yet, but to start, if your company has a 401(k), use it! Max that sucker out as much as you can for your employer match (if there is one). I had the opportunity to do that many years ago when I was much younger and stupid with money. I chose not to contribute and in doing so wasted free money. If your employer offers a match on funds invested, even if it's only 50% match of up to 6% base salary, and you don't take full advantage of it, you're basically saying No to a raise of 3%!
Beyond your employer's 401(k) you have other investment options. Some are more complicated than others, and some require more money to start. Clark's site has a good list of investment options broken down by how much money you need to get started.
I chose to start a Roth IRA. I knew for a while that was what I wanted to do for my personal retirement account, the tax benefits are better than other investment options, and I liked the fact that I'd be using post-tax dollars to invest. I chose the Vanguard STAR because from the research I did, it appeared to do well historically, and I had heard good things about the fund.
The problem was, I didn't have $1,000 to start the fund, and I felt overwhelmed trying to save up that much money. It actually took me a couple years to finally start the fund after I had decided I was going to. Eventually, I ended up taking the money from my tax returns one year and used those to begin. I could have chosen a fund that required less money to start, but I felt that the Vanguard STAR was the best choice for me.
After getting the fund started, the rest was easy, I have the fund automatically taking money out every paycheck, and can simply increase that over time until I reach the maximum amount of money I can invest per year.
Everyone has to make their own decisions when it comes to retirement, but I urge anyone who isn't doing anything about it to start right away. The sooner you start saving, the more money you'll have!

How do I save money?

Now, this topic could be read in a couple of different ways, so I'll try to cover savings, money you stash away for a rainy day or specific purposed. I'll cover ways to actually save money day-to-day in another topic.
So, how do you start saving? It's really hard to do when you live paycheck to paycheck. By the time you get your paycheck, almost every dime from the last one is gone. There doesn't seem to be any wiggle room, how can you save money you don't have? Well, the best way is to never have the money to begin with. Do you really think you'll notice a huge difference if you get $25 less from your paycheck? I doubt it, because I don't. So, when you get paid, set aside $25 in a savings account.
If you get your checks direct deposited, it's even easier, because all you have to do is tell your employer to deposit the $25 in one account and the rest in another, you never see or touch it. Personally, I have 4 different savings account, and I sock away $25-50 into each one of those accounts each paycheck.
The next problem is, how do you not spend the money? You have this ever-increasing balance in a checking account, and you might get the urge to spend it, but it's really easy to keep from doing that. Make sure your savings account is hard to access. Using an online account does just that. You can still get money out when you need it but it takes a few days and some planning, so you'll be less inclined to move the money around.
One great online-only bank I highly recommend is INGDirect. If you're interested, I would gladly send you a referral to them, which will net you an easy $25 just for starting an account, just drop me a line and I'll get you a link.
Please don't forget to check out the free online book linked to the right, "You Need a Budget (the book)" where you'll get even more ideas and ways to start saving money.

Making a list, and checking it twice.

So after yesterday's post I kept thinking about how I want to track these houses I'm going to end up viewing. I know I have a lot of time before I'll actually need it, but I wanted to be prepared, so I've started throwing something together.
After much internal dialog, I came to the decision that I needed an electronic form of some sort for this. I considered creating a website or something to do this, but decided that was more work than I really wanted to do, so instead I decided to see what I could do with Google Docs. I threw together a preliminary form, with just a bit of basic fields, which I will expand on later. This way I'll be able to share what I've found with my readers as well as easily track this for myself.
So, without further ado, my results page. Now, there's no real information there, but you can see the test house (based loosely off the place I'm living now). I will keep updating that house as I add onto the form itself. Now, I don't want anyone but me adding data to this checklist, so I can't really link you guys to the form itself, but if you're really interested, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do.
Please also feel free to leave me a note with any suggestions or comments you have.

Future topic ideas

My Financial past
Saving more, spending less

Running my credit report

So, my phone just dinged, and alerted me to the event I created to remind myself to run my credit report. I originally planned on running it and dealing with anything I found on it before talking to a loan officer about a mortgage, but after discussing it with a good friend, I decided to wait. I ran my credit history just over a year ago. I ran the reports for free, via the only truly free credit report site, AnnualCreditReport, which I found thanks to Clark Howard. I was able to get all three of my reports (one from each major reporting bureau, Experian, Transunion, and Equifax) with no hassle.
At the time, I looked them over, and everything on them was positive, except for one thing, which only appeared on one report. The item was a debt that was sent to collection a few years ago from an apartment complex I where had previously lived. Originally, I felt I needed to address that debt before looking into a loan, as it would make it harder for me. I wasn't sure whether I was going to try to contact them and address the debt, or first run the report to see if it was still on there. I'm certain it is, but because of my credit score, I figure paying that off could wait until after I consult with someone about a loan.
I may be going in blind when I don't run the report, but I will have a few months between when I go to talk to a loan officer and when I will actually need a loan for a house. That time will allow me to address any issues they feel need to be addressed.
Now, the fact that it was over a year since I last ran my credit history may cause some concern, there's no telling what's new on there. I know that I haven't missed a single payment on any of my debt. I have opened very little new credit. And I don't think there have been very many requests for my history in that time period. There have been a few instances where my personal information may have been leaked because of things that happened to companies I've had dealings with (Sony, with their Playstation thing for one, and there were others that don't come to mind right away). But I've had no indication that anything has happened, so for now I'm going to live in peaceful ignorance. Obviously, at the first hint of anything from a loan officer I will be running my credit report.
Another thing to note, I am lucky when it comes to this, that I live in Georgia. The state allows for you to run an extra credit report from each agency (beyond the mandatory free one from the Feds) for free once per year. So if I need to, I can run it twice at no cost.

What do I want in a house?

Today I'd like to discuss what I want in a new house. I'm pretty sure everyone has just about the same ideas, but this is my blog, so I'm going to share. I've discussed this topic with my son, to get his input and possibly come up with some ideas I might have missed, and he's been rather unhelpful.
I'll start with the outside of the house. Obviously, I want it to look good, the house itself. I'd like a large back and front yard, rather flat (especially the driveway) with very few trees. I would like a deck, or patio, or something in the back, and even a porch on the front would be great.
I would like a basement, it doesn't have to be finished, but I don't want like a root cellar. One big room, or many smaller unfinished rooms would be ok. A garage would also be a big plus, I'd like to actually park my car inside for a change. And if the garage has an automatic door opened, I'd be in heaven. I don't really have a preference as to whether the house has 1 or two stories, but I do want a lot of space. Oh, and real fireplace would be nice.
I'd love to find a house that has at least 3 bedrooms, 2+ baths, a dining room, family room, living room, office, and maybe some more extra rooms. I'd love for the master bath to be really big, maybe one of those with the separate shower, and whirlpool bath.
I'm not too picky on colors, but I'd absolutely love hardwood floors all over the house. The kitchen needs to be roomy, enough space for 2-3 people to work in without getting too much in each others' way.
The neighborhood has to be decent, nothing too upscale though. I'd like to be off the beaten path, but no more than 3-4 turns into any subdivision. And that has to have a good route to get me to work. The neighboring houses also have to look decent.
Now, I know I'd be lucky to get even half of that for the price I'm looking to pay, but if I don't have ideals and goals, I'll sell myself short. Obviously, when it comes to finding the right house, I'll have to make sacrifices and compromise on some things. But if I don't have a checklist of all the things I want, how can I compare one house to another?
So, what I'm going to do is actually put this all into a checklist, and then I'll bring that with me to every house I see, and I'll show you guys the results, along with a nice little vlog from within the house itself. Mind you, I won't be going to see any houses anytime soon, but when I do, there will be some entertainment for you.

Future topic ideas

How do I save money?
What am I looking for in a house?
Saving for the future.

Where I am now

I'd like to give you guys an idea of where I am now, and I hope to possibly give you one of these posts every week.
Right now I have $358 in my FSA left from last year. I sent an e-mail off to my HR rep today to see what the cut-off date is for expenses that can be submitted for the 2011 period, but have not heard back.
I have $628.54 (two accounts, both savings, one with HSBC and the other a local credit union) set aside for the down payment on whatever house I buy.
I have not contacted any lenders yet (nor will I until after I file my taxes) about a mortgage.
I am still waiting for my company to release our electronic W-2s so I can file my taxes for 2011.
I have a 772 score with Credit Sesame.

The Consumerist Review

What can I say about The Consumerist that you don't already know? What, you've never heard of The Consumerist? Then let me start from the beginning. They are a sister publication of Consumer Reports. They report new stories that relate to consumer and financial matters, as well as help get the word out from their reader base about things of interest. They've helped a ton of people find closure on issues they've had with large corporations and their customer non-service departments. You can find warnings about new scams and viruses, as well has helpful hints on how to save for the future.
I've found many great resources on this site for securing my financial future, as well as hours of entertainment reading articles about the follies of people and companies.

You Need a Budget (the book) Review

Now, I'm not personally familiar with this program, but they have a book available to read free of charge online, and it is wonderful! I read the whole thing, and it basically describes the exact process I use for managing my money. I had already put a process in place, using Quicken Online (which is unfortunately no longer available) that basically follows the principals of the book to a T. For anyone who is in need of a budget, I highly recommend you start by reading the free book.
The software associated with the book does offer a free 34 day full-featured demo. The software integrates all the best things you would want from a budgeting standpoint, including tracking your spending and savings, and planning future expenses.

Mint Review

Mint.com has been a big name in online budgeting tools. Personally, I don't use it a lot, but when I do I am amazed at what I find. This is the very best tool to figure out where you spend your money. They take the data from your bank accounts and give you a wonderful visual indicator as to where you spend your money. You can break down expenses into any number of categories, and the site does a good job of figuring out what categories most expenses fall into automatically.
Mint also offers a smartphone app (Available for Android and iPhone) that will let you see where all your money is and where it is all going. I use the app all the time before spending money to make sure I have enough to cover expenses from the account I want to use.

Bankrate Review

Bankrate.com is THE site to use for all of your loan questions. The site is chock full of information about current loan rates and trends as well as numerous calculators to help you determine what you can afford, or how you can save money. Thanks to this site, I have a decent understanding of the mortgage process, as well as how much house I can afford and how much it will cost me. Using their calculators, I've determined that I could easily buy a better house than I thought I could afford for less than I'm paying in rent now, and still pay it off nearly a decade before the loan is due.
Even with all the information, they also give you access to an untold amount of lenders who are eager to help prospective customers. Once I've gotten my tax return, and am ready to start the pre-approval process for my mortgage, Bankrate will be one of the sites I start with.

Yodlee Review

The name may sound funny, but the Yodlee is one of the biggest tools I have in managing my money. The site will allow you to enter your online banking credentials and download your transactions, showing you were your money is, and where it's going. That in an of itself is great, but what has really helped me is planning ahead. The site will allow you to add future transactions (recurring and one-time) and see how they will affect you. Some of you may be familiar with this concept if you ever used Quicken Online, but since the site shut down and Mint took its place (I'll review Mint separately), Yodlee became the best site for this kind of financial forecasting. Using current bills you can estimate what your future bills will be, and have a better understanding of how much money you actually have available. Before I started using a service like this, I would never know how much money I actually had free, and was constantly over-spending. Now, with the help of this tool I can keep track of all of my accounts in one place and plan for the future.