TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS for a roof over our head - and that was only for our mortgage interest & taxes! Haha...talk about a wake up call.

If you are a home "owner" I'm sure you know what I'm talkin' about, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again - if you're looking to own a home one day be absolutely certain you're ready to pay for the associated costs.

There are a ton of benefits that go along with this "American Dream," (tax write-offs, stability, equity, etc) but you've got to be aware of the financial drains as well. And as most of you know, had I been more aware 2 1/2 years ago I would have done things a lot differently -- Like either bought a smaller place or continued renting for a couple more years.

But it is what it is, and today I thought it would be interesting to see the breakdown of how our living situation has changed financially since renting. The numbers may be off a bit as I can't recall exactly what we paid while renting (I didn't start tracking this stuff until after we bought - when I realized I need to pay more attention!) but it's pretty close:

CATEGORY Mortgage(s)/Rent Extra Principal Taxes Condo Fees Utilities (non cable) Insurance Maintenance ------------------ TOTAL:

Owning $1,800 $200 $278 $130 $150 $75 $100? --------- $2,733

Renting $1,300 $0 $0 $0 $200 $50 $0 --------- $1,550

As you can see, we pay about $1,200 MORE a month right now . That's pretty substantial, even with the tax write-offs (we may see about $600 of it back if I had to guess). But even crazier here, 100% of all that interest & taxes are NOT going towards the principal loans we took out on the house! Meaning we still would have owed the original $360k had we not been chipping away at it by our own accord (we have 100% financing, which surprisingly we actually like!)

So if you do own, or you're thinking about owning, take all these things into consideration :) Just applying $100 or $200 extra a month towards your mortgages will drastically cut the amount of interest you'll eventually pay in the end & won't drive you *as* crazy. But I must warn you, it's not that easy. I've been praising it for over a year now and I still struggle every time I sit down to do it! Haha...next time we'll be buying a place closer to the lower end of our budget, not our highest.

How much did you all end up dishing out in interest & taxes last year?

Labels: home ownership, mortgages, taxes

I would save a crap ton of money! And eat a lot healthier too. I might have to go to bed every night at 9, but it's not like I couldn't use the sleep and steady habit anyways.

In all honesty, I'd give it a shot in a heartbeat. I don't know how long I could last (or that the Mrs. would even allow it (she wouldn't)), but it's definitely something I think about every now and then. Like, every 30 days when the mortgage is due ;) Or when my blogger friends talk about doing it themselves!

While I'm probably the only twenty something actually *wanting* to live back home again, you'd be hard pressed to deny the sweet financial benefits to such a situation. Free rent/mortgage, food, cable, internet, phone, homeowners insurance, condo fees, the list goes on and on. We'd of course have to revert to 6th grade with all the chores and cleaning up we hated to do back in the day, but it's not like we don't have to do them anyways, right? $hit, I'd even move in and pay them half of what our monthly housing costs add up to! We're talking big buckaroos here, friends.

According to our monthly expenses, we'd save roughly $3,000 a month! My freedom is enjoyable, but is it really worth $3,000? And on top of that, all the stuff that un-minimalizes us? I gotta admit, if I weren't married and/or living 2 hours away I'd at least give it a shot. That is, if they upgraded from AOL dial-up and got HDTV ;) Only halfway joking there...

Unfortunately, I'm afraid those glory days are long gone for us. We do live farther away and we do have a lot of stuff that ties us down - not to mention the future family we want to start with some baby-making! While I like it or not, it comes to a point when you really do have to get out there and make something of yourself. At least according to my dad ;) For all I know he wouldn't let me back even if I tried! haha...I'm sure I could convince him (or have mom do it), but I know parents like their freedom just as much as the next person.

Regardless, the financial aspect is extremely intriguing. I may not be able to take advantage of it myself, but if you're in the lucky stage in life I say go for it. There's no shame in saving up and getting your money in order before getting out there on your own - esp. if you've got some debt piled up already. You might not find it as exciting as I do, but if you can stick it out for a bit you'll have a lot less stress and a lot more fun to look forward to.

Labels: bargains, home ownership, in the real world, saving

Fellow blogger Len Penzo asked some of us what our worst buyer's remorse experiences were, and it took me all but .3 seconds to recall mine.

It was a BIG one (the most expensive purchase of our lives) and it drives me crazy to think about. But regardless of all my huffing and puffing, I'd never take it back as it got me to where I am today - financially aware. Do you know what it is yet? I'll give you another clue: It rhymes with "mouse", and we live in it. Here's what I sent over to Len - in all it's honest glory (and before you say it, no, the market crash is not the reason for my remorse. It doesn't make me feel any better, but it's not the reason).

Whenever I hear "buyer's remorse," the first thing that comes to mind is my house. Not that it was the only thing I've ever questioned (I can't even count THOSE numbers of times), but just that it's the only product you can't return and get your money back when you need to ;)

We all know there are pros and cons to owning a home, but if I had known what I know today, I'd be still renting and enjoying a more stress-free life. Financially I won't ague that owning is better than renting, but people should realize that owning is NOT for everyone - especially if you get antsy and like to move every few years just for the adventure (like me). I love our 3-level lake view townhouse dearly, but what I wouldn't give to be back in the city rockin' out a cozy 1 bedroom condo!

Now is this anyone's fault other than my own? Nope. And have I learned a lot about getting my finances on track and being more responsible? Oh yeah. But If I could do things over (and keep the knowledge I have now), I would totally go back to renting and feeling "un-trapped". Whether my wife would be okay it or not, however, is a whole other story ;)

Ahhhhh, the joys of being a home owner. I'm pretty sure my military upbringing can account for 99% of my feelings here. The wifey says I should learn to get used to it and work on settling down in one place, but when you've moved around your whole life it gets pretty hard. And weird. I've lived in over 20 different houses, how the heck does a guy like that just stop and stay still?

Well, I'm sure I'll learn to at some point. But for now, I just make due with the situation and try my hardest to enjoy what we've been blessed with - a beautiful house we can afford and live comfortably in. It may not be a perfect lifestyle right now (and it sucks that it's under water), but at least I learned my lesson and got it out of the way. It feels good knowing I won't make the same mistake twice :)

Next time, we put in more research and take a good hard look at our options before just jumping in. Did I ever tell you we signed a contract within 48 hours of seeing this place? When we accidentally drove by it? Even though we were looking for an apartment to rent? Yeah, we sure did. And we were crazy....even if it was our "dream home." Now what you got?

Labels: home ownership, in the real world

I've had both good and bad experiences loaning out money to family members, but renting from them and paying their mortgage is beyond my comfort level. In theory it should all work out fine (after all, you're blood right?) but in the real world people tend to get hurt or taken advantage of.

Unfortunately, an ol' college friend is experiencing just that - getting stepped on because he doesn't want to ruin his relationship with both his brother and his dad. My friend means well, but it's time he starts to consider his options before he loses even more of his sanity...and money! Here's a play by play of what's going on:

• My friend Good Brother (as he shall be named from this point forward) decided to live with Bad Brother and pay him rent (aka part of Bad Brother's mortgage) as well as 50% of the utilities.
• For 2 years Good and Bad Brothers were happy.
• Then one day Bad Brother decided to go back to school and move half-way across the country.
• Good Brother was sad to see him go, but happy Bad Brother was pursuing his dreams.
• Bad Brother asked Good Brother to help him fill the occupancy while he'd be gone (2+ years), and since Good Brother is, by nature, Good, he had no problem helping him out.
• Good Brother tried and he tried and he tried, but the recession had finally hit and he couldn't find a suitable renter. It had now been THREE months and it just wasn't working.
• He explained to Bad Brother that his asking price was too high (all the while paying 100% of the utilities now), and that his brother needed to lower the price and the rental terms.
• Bad Brother wasn't having it and decided to try himself - only Bad Brother was more talk than he was action (and Good Brother didn't realize he was being taken advantage of yet) so they let ANOTHER three months pass only to remain where they originally started- without a 2nd renter.
• It turns out another culprit had come into play - lack of motivation. The reason? Crazy Dad.
  
• You see, trying to make things better and "help out," Crazy Dad had decided to subsidize the amount of the 2nd half's rent so that his son (Bad Brother) would have enough to pay the mortgage each month. While nice in theory, this has only caused more delays in finding a roommate as the sense of urgency has quickly disappeared.
• On top of it all, Crazy Dad and Bad Brother believe Good Brother needs to be held responsible for filling the vacancy - family duties and all.
  
• Good Brother is now pissed.
  

As it stands - now SIX MONTHS later - Good Brother is still paying 100% of the utilities & the vacancy has yet to be filled. Only now, Good Brother is starting to realize that it's not his responsibility to find this elusive roommate, and he's thinking of moving out. Why should he continue paying an extra $150 every month or continue getting bashed for not finding a roommate? Is this really HIS responsibility? Personally, I think not. The one who owns the house should be the one maintaining and paying for it - no one else. Ask his father or brother, and they'll tell you differently though.

Now, there's probably more to it than what Good Brother tells me, but the reason I post all this is to illustrate the importance of being careful. Mainly, being careful when it comes to mixing money with family members. Some of the times things work out great! But it's those other times that really put a strain on your relationships, and the times I hope you're able to avoid.

So please please PLEASE think it through when considering money arrangements with your loved ones. If you decide to go for it, write down in complete detail the arrangements you'll be making so everyone's on the exact same page. We all think it could never happen to us, but money has a strange way of breaking families apart. So please, be careful out there :)

Labels: advice, home ownership, in the real world

Ever since I started tracking my net worth I've had the value of our home in there. I've often considered tweaking it and coming up with better methods of calculating it, but the concept of taking OUT your home (or cars for that matter) 100% boggles me. After all, the definition of "net worth" is the total of all your assets minus the total of all your liabilities, right? At least that's what I subscribe to.

So why do I bring this up? Because the main man himself Trent, from The Simple Dollar, recently decided to take out his mortgages AND cars from the equation. But interestingly enough, he left the mortgage on it. Huh?! You'll have to read his article for all the dirty details, but he basically feels that he can't just cash out his house & cars as he'll always need them to live - thus, they shouldn't be calculated into his net worth. And I suppose the mortgage on it is a liability no matter how you slice it, so he's def. still keeping that in there (although at that point, wouldn't it be more like "rent"?)

I find this interesting in a number of ways, but mainly that there are SO MANY different methods one can go about calculating this stuff. So out of curiosity I thought I'd play around with our most recent net worth and see what it would look like after playing with this house variable.

Our Net Worth (w/out home value): -$186,789.11

Damn, I'm not liking that too much. In theory I like the idea of not counting on the value of your home, but the optimistic part of me says that it WILL sell one day, it's just a matter of when and at what price. Needless to say, I'm not crazy/smart/comfortable with taking out my home value anytime soon - it's still an integral part of the "big picture".

(for all not familiar with our house's value, we calculate it @ $300k - the price our realtor set it at a couple months back. He's the master in our particular neighborhood, and has been selling (and living in) in our area for 20+ years. I also keep an eye out on Zillow & Redfin.com, but sometimes they fluctuate a bit too much for my taste.)

Our Net Worth (w/out home value & mortgages): $163,179.59

I'm liking this number a bit more ;) But while I'd love to sell our underwater house more than anything and break even, it's just not going to happen. Because of this, I still need to include our mortgages in there to keep things more realistic.

Current Net Worth: $113,210.89

For me, this number still works. It gives us a pretty accurate snapshot of our overall finances, and includes all real estate and autos. It's not as sexy as taking out the house situation altogether, or as hardcore as wiping out the value of our house, but it keeps me on track and motivated.

There really isn't ANY "right" way to calculate your net worth, you just have to do what works for YOU (kinda like most other financial situations, eh?). I do, however, give Trent mad credit for standing up and sharing his opinion. He knew he'd get slammed for it (which he did), but he also brought a fresh new way to consider tracking our financial snapshots.

How do you guys feel about it? Ready to nix your biggest assets? ;)

Labels: home ownership, mortgages, net worth, personal finance

How much is a house really going to cost me? A lot more than you probably think ;) Although it's still doable if you're ready to jump in! I was asked this same question by a fellow reader recently, and thought I'd forward my answer over for anyone else just starting the home buying process:

"Wow, that's certainly a loaded question! Here are my quick thoughts - First, it'll probably cost you a lot more than you originally think. Between the down payments (usually around 20% of purchase price these days unless you go FHA or other routes), the closing costs (usually around 3-5% of purchase price), and moving, picking up new furniture & household items, and then future taxes/homeowner dues/condo fees, it gets pretty crazy.

All that said, however, it could definitely be worth it while the prices are so low! If I didn't already own I'd be all over it (although I surely have my moments). In all honesty, I recommend finding a local realtor and scheduling a meet-and-greet w/ him or her to get all the info. from the beginning. It doesn't cost a penny (if they say it does, hang up and go somewhere else!), and that person could work on your side to help you through the whole process. As a previous realtor myself, I can tell you it's well worth your time.

You could also check around other blogs and click on "home ownership" or similar labels to get a general idea as well :) Try mymoneyblog.com - he has a great pool of info. Hope this helps! And good luck, let me know what you end up doing."

Labels: advice, home ownership, reader mail

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Today's guest post is by Brandon Laughridge of Mortgage Loan Place. MLP specializes in providing high quality mortgage content and has recently embarked on creating the web's best mortgage calculator with a $10,000 programming contest.
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The government is trying to re-energize the stagnant housing market - and that's making FHA loans more attractive than ever.

Headlines have pulsed these last weeks with news that the federal stimulus package will include an $8,000 tax credit for people who haven't owned a home in at least three years, if ever. The Federal Housing Administration has sweetened the deal: Buyers can use that money to pay for closing costs or even offset the 3.5 percent minimum down payment requirements for FHA loans.

But it's only with an FHA loan that buyers can use the tax credit for closing costs. Some housing experts expect the stimulus provision to help boost home sales in coming months. The National Association of Home Builders estimates that 40,000 more homes will be purchased because of the FHA initiative, in addition to the 160,000 sales already expected as a result of the tax credit.

Home buyers also have some flexibility in claiming the credit on their tax returns. They can choose to claim the credit for 2009 or file an amended 2008 return to receive the credit this year.

The new FHA initiative stipulates that home buyers can use the tax credit to offset the down payment only if a state housing agency is handling the loan. In all other cases, the tax credit can be used for closing costs, boosting a down payment or to pare down the interest rate.

There are a couple of other points of note for potential buyers:

• Income limits are a part of the process. The threshold for individuals is $75,000 and $150,000 for those filing jointly.
• So far, close to a dozen states are providing buyers with bridge loans to spur purchases immediately, well in advance of the next tax filing. These loans come with little or no interest and are to be repaid when the tax credit is applied the following year. The list of states includes Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.
• The FHA is offering advances on the tax credit so home buyers don't have to wait.

-------------
Editor's Note: As always, consult with a professional before jumping in and getting a loan ;) What works for one person won't always work for another...

Labels: guest post, home ownership, mortgages, taxes

There's a Money Genie over at Adam's blog today, and he's been so kind as to lend him to us! A true gentlemen indeed. Now, this genie isn't your ordinary genie, but rather a financially-savvy one! So don't try and ask it to bring you hot women or better looks or anything like that because it won't work ;)

Before I continue though, I should spell out two things here. The first, this genie is not real (sorry, folks). The second, I don't really believe in wishing for pasts to be different when it comes to this sorta stuff. Call me old-school, but I seriously believe the only way we can be where we are today is by experiencing and learning from all those boneheaded moves we've come to hate. So I'd have to tell that genie to go F off if he tried to wipe away my knowledge at the same time.

That being said, it's still fun as hell to think about ;) Plus, you never know who you may be helping by listing these out! That's not to say high school or college students would actually *listen* to us all here, but the advice is still free for the pickin'. So, I'll go first. Although I warn you there's nothing too exciting about my 3 choices. I luckily never got into much trouble over the years, so for me it's more about lost opportunities than past mistakes. At least for my #1 and #3. Number 2 (haha...) is a toss up:

1. I wish I contributed to my 401(k) from work day #1: It's no secret I'm a HUGE fan of 401ks, I just wish I paid more attention to them my first 4 years out into the workforce. It was the only thing my dad harped on, only problem being I just didn't care. Lesson learned Daddy-O!
2. I wish we didn't buy a house when we did: This isn't to say I'm against home ownership or anything, cuz I'm not, but more that we should have waited a bit longer. At the time I was in "I can do anything" mode and disregarded the fact that I like to live care-free and move around every other year. There's a helluva lot of pros that come with home ownership, but deep down I'd still rather be renting.
3. I wish I saved 10% of my earnings "for real": For Real in that I xfer it into my savings account, and I leave it. Not I xfer it in, then take it back out when I over budget, then put it back in 3 weeks later... and then take it back out again, and then put it back in again ;) You all know what I'm saying.

Okay, so now your turn! What 3 wishes would you ask for to better your financial situation? And remember, you get to take those lessons learned along with you ;)

Labels: 401k, advice, home ownership, life, saving

Happy Memorial Day! You all spending some quality time w/ the friends and fam? Well, if not (or if you're bored and/or just sneaking away to get your finance on) here's a freakin' BRILLIANT video courtesy of ABC's upcoming 1 hour special - "Un-Broke" (Friday, May 29th @ 9pm EST):

Un-Broke: The Seth Green Cribs Edition - watch more funny videos

Via ABC's site: "Schools teach us almost everything, but not "Money 101." For the basics on finance, turn to UN-BROKE: What You Need to Know About Money. It's an unconventional look at the fundamentals of everyday finance with all the facts about credit cards, mortgages, stocks and bonds, investing and 401(k)'s, in a fresh new format combining information and humor."

Hell yeah! You gotta love that. About time people realize mixing entertainment w/ financial education is a smart move ;) Happy Holiday everybody, God bless. (Big thx to Mrs Micah for finding this gem!)

Labels: awesomely awesome, holidays, home ownership, money management

Yep, not even my beloved USAA can save us from this one. Apparently we're TOO under water to refinance. Since when is $60k in the negative TOO much? ;) haha...ah well, it was worth a shot.

But what's really frustrating, if you'll allow me to say so, is the fact that there are, indeed, people who can/will be able to refi because they made some huge boo-boos.

That's great for them, and certainly for our economy in general, but what about the others who behaved and played by the rules? Shouldn't WE be granted some help as well considering we also took it up the a$$? This affects more than the people who helped us get in this mess to begin with. (emphasis on *helped* here as we all know there were many other factors stirring the pot.)

The Mrs. and I aren't perfect little badgers, but we should still be granted some sort of equal rights. We pay our mortgage on time, we didn't get too over our heads, and we were responsible. Shouldn't that count for something? Are we being greedy here? Whatever....I'll go ahead and stop now. I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing about this stuff. I just had to get it out since it's directly affecting us now.

I'm just hoping Mr. Obama has something good up his sleeves...

Labels: crazy economy, home ownership, mortgages, rant, USAA

I was a frugal ba$tard long before the Economy got all kooky ;)

And it's a good thing too or else we'd be really hurtin'! While we were lucky enough to figure it out beforehand, unfortunately others weren't :( This leads to today's post inspired by my girl Frugal, who should actually be about married right now! Congrats my fellow friend & blogger!

So if it wasn't the economy that changed MY shopping habits, what was it? Well, I wouldn't say it was 1 big thing in particular, but rather a few that came together around the same time for me. I've talked about most of them before, but it's always a great reminder (even if just for myself) of the path that still gets me rollin' today. Here were/are the 3 things:

1. Buying a home.
This was the first time I realized how important it is to stay on top of your finances (and it actually led me down the path to blogging!). It's one thing to rent by yourself and glance over at your bank account every now and then, but it's a whole 'nother buying with someone and having to pay double what you're used to! After a few months of this, I wised up and started to wonder how the hell I'd be able to keep this up. (note to self: Better to do this BEFORE you buy a house next time! Sheesh).

2. Tracking my money
When you sit down and actually SEE the breakdown of your income and expenses, your whole brain opens up and gives you a swift kick in the pants! It's not like my habits were all that terrible to begin with, but it did make me realize I needed to prioritize better. You may not notice the difference at first, but over time you'll come to realize just how big of an influence this has over you!

3. Taking up a "No Spend" Challenge!
I've talked about the process and psychology behind this before, but it's helluva experience if you haven't tried it before! I actually gave up "shopping" for Lent last year (yeah Catholics!) and boy was it interesting. Imagine, 2 whole months w/out buying clothes, lottery tickets, bananas (woah!), or anything else that's not a "necessity" or books (I still wanted to read) - do you think you could you do it? I slipped once by accident - I bought an itunes song w/out even thinking twice - but for the most part I passed the test.

But this exercise really taught me a lot in the end - You really CAN limit your spending once you get in the habit of it! It's been almost a year since I did this, and I can tell you with utmost certainty that this little blogger has cut his shopping by at LEAST 75%! And you know what? I don't even know what I'm missing! haha...guess i wasn't picking up anything super important ;)

So how about you all? Do you find yourself hoarding more money, or spending less due to the Economy? Or perhaps you were already sexy little boogers before the mess even started ;)

Labels: crazy economy, home ownership, money management, zero spend day

Yep, I have finally confirmed it. After almost two years of purchasing it, our townhouse is now worth around $300k, down from the $360k we originally purchased it for....and we still owe a good $350k.

Unluckily, we also we picked it up at the very tippy top of the peak! Yikes. But at least we *know* what we're dealing with now. It's not like it was a huge surprise, ya know? I thought it was worth around $320k, but that was a total guess. And a really bad one too ;)

In theory though, it really doesn't matter until it comes time to sell....at least that's what I keep telling myself ;) But it's true in way. It's not great for the total "net worth" if you calculate it in like I'll be doing now, but the losses aren't realized until someone buys it from you. I guess my dream of moving closer to the city will have to wait a while.

So how did I come to this new figure of $300k (well, actually $305k)? I did two things:

1. I signed up with Zillow.com!
Ever been there? It's freakin' sweet man. You type in your address, and it'll pop out an average of what it thinks your house is worth! Then, if you want to take it a cple steps further, you "claim" your house and tweak the information, and it'll pop out an even better estimate of the value. The key to all this is "estimated", but depending on where you live it's pretty good at guessing (you can see the ratings here).

There's a whole mess of goodies you can pull on your house too. You can see the value over certain period of times, the amount of homes up for sale or foreclosing around your neighborhood or city or state, whatever you want! You can also pull one of the following graphs:



2. I called my Realtor and had him price it.
This is what sealed the deal for me. I told him I'm interested in moving closer to the city (the truth), and wanted to know how much he'd list it for if we were to throw it on the market in the next month or so (sorta white lie). Our realtor is an expert in our particular neighborhood,having bought and sold around 15+ alone there, and we continue to keep in touch & help each other out when possible - like when we did a tv show segment on "new home buyers" ;) it was awesome! but that's for another day...

Anyways, due to the foreclosures/short sells in our cul-de-sac, he said the most we could expect to get for it at this time is around $300k. But, if we wanted to rent it out, we could get around $1600-$1800/mo depending on how quick we'd want to do it. Then, if you wanted to be totally hands off, you could pay 8% and have a management company take care of all the issues w/ it - collecting the rent, sending over plumbers/electricians/etc. So that would add another $150 or so, but still good to know.

Soooo, between our realtor and Zillow it looks like we have a decent answer here. I'm sure it'll change over the months as the economy fluctuates like a college freshmen, but we'll be keeping our eyes on it and updating as necessary. Another "account" to watch and obsessively check all the time ;) haha....nah, my 401k is enough. I can't take 2 crazy accounts like that!

Labels: crazy economy, education, home ownership

That's the word on the street from some communities out there. They'd rather have your house empty and foreclosed upon than rented out and occupied! I'm not digging that boss.

But according to an article i just read in Feb's SmartMoney mag (pg. 91), that's what a good 40% of homeowners associations are restricting - your option to rent out your own place!

Did you even know they could DO this? Maybe I'm naive, but i've never heard of this before. Granted i'm not living in a fancy-pants community, but if i want to rent out MY house, then i should have the right to do just that (and luckily our association agrees). Here's a quick excerpt:

"For owners who have to move or who own houses as investment properties, short-term rentals can bring in some cash and keep them from having to sell at a big loss. But instead of greeting renters with hosannas, many towns and subdivisions are barring their doors, arguing that tenants usher in neglect, misbehavior and even violent crime."

Yikes! I'm no theory expert, but I'd MUCH rather take the chance that a few neighbors get a bit rowdy than have them file for bankruptcy or leave the house empty for all sorts of vagabonds to convene. Plus, you have to remember that if your neighbors can't pay their mortgage and can't sell/rent it out, your own home will eventually drop in value.

As many of you know, there are already 2 houses sitting empty in my very own cul-de-sac!!! And i gotta tell you, i often get the shivers when i walk by and see those dead-dark windows w/out a hint of movement in them. We're lucky enough to not have to worry about crack houses springing up and all, but it's still not a cheery site to see. Of course, there are plenty of pros and cons for every situation, and below are a few of these. I tried my best to be fair here, but i'm sure it'll still come out biased ;) But hell, i'm a blogger not a journalist! Here's what i came up with:

Pros to renting out your house:

• You don't have to foreclose!
• Your neighbors are HAPPY you don't have to foreclose ;)
• You can wait out the downturn w/out selling at an incredible loss.
• You can move to another home quicker.
• You help a renter live in a nice home!

Cons to renting out your house:

• Chance of sucky-a$$ renters causing trouble & making noise.
• Chance of sucky-a$$ renters causing a lot of damage.
• Chance of community losing value if ratio of renting/owning gets pretty high.

The debate will go on forever, but it'll always be a controversial one. And now that i'm a home owner myself, i'm pretty sure i'll always be on the side of renting here. Cuz I gotta tell you, if Britney Spears ever wants to rent from J. Money, then Britney Spears will freakin' rent from J. Money ;) So yeah, that's what i think about it anyways...

Labels: home ownership

We prefer a litte of both! We combine a lot of our money, and we divert a little money ;) Like true rockstars, we like to keep a little independence around here.

In reality though, there are a TON of different ways to do this (merge everything, keep it all separate, etc). It really depends on the personalities and comfort levels of both individuals involved, as well as their spending habits.

Lucky for us, we're both on the same path - we're comfortable with money, we like a good bargain, and we enjoy having a little on the side. So it naturally makes sense having a few different accounts set up for this. We have a couple main ones for our "House/together" stuff, and then we keep our own side accounts to maintain a little independence and sanity :)

To be honest, it hasn't changed all that much since we got married since we were living in sin to begin with (*gasp*). Logistically, it made a lot of sense to combine a few things. And after some trial and error, we eventually came up with a method that worked. It's changed a bit over the years, but the concept has remained the same - keeping accounts for "us", and accounts for "me". Here's what I mean:

1. House Account #1 (checking) - This is our main account, and always has the most money in it :) Since we started out renting together, we were already in the habit of contributing to a main "house fund" like this. We keep all mortgage, utilities, taxes, insurance, groceries, and anything else house related in this account. Whenever a big change occurs - like when we got a mortgage, or when we were planning our wedding - we reevaluate and change up our specific contributions. Currently I'm putting in $2,076.48 per month, and the Mrs. is putting in $1,100.
2. House Account #2 (savings) - We both drop in $100 per month here, and we can use this money for anything our little hearts desire - traveling, new furniture, bed & breakfasts, anything that we do together really. We'll also take from this account whenever we have any "spend-crazy" months and go over our House Budget (a bit outdated, but has a good breakdown). This usually keeps us on track though since we don't like pulling money from here!
3. J. Money's Accounts (Checking & Savings) - These are my own "do whatever the hell i wanna do " accounts ;) I can use the money for anything I'd like, no questions asked. Unfortunately there's not much left over after i make my "house" deposits and then pay my other bills, but it still adds up over time. I also keep a Savings account open so i can save up some $ for separate big-ticket items (like if i ever want more bling, or a nice stereo or something).
4. Mrs. Budgetsaresexy's Accounts (Checking & Savings) - These are HER "do whatever" accounts. And i could tell you that i honestly had NO idea how much was in there until that post on where all our money goes last week ;) And even then i got rough answers! haha....

Again, everyone has their own way of doing things. The key is to be OPEN about exactly what you want, and what you don't want when it comes to managing your finances as a married couple. It's not always going to be fun (unless you're a nerd like me), but it's time well put to use.

I'm not sure how many others do the same, but I'd be willing to bet it's fairly common. Family upbringing had a lot to do with it for me, especially when it came to my dad. Whenever i asked him why HE could get a new pair of $100+ Nikes and i couldn't, his answer was always, "I can do whatever I want son, it comes from my side account"! And ever since i've dreamt of having my very own...and now i do ;) A guy's gotta do what he's gotta do, right?

Labels: banking, home ownership, married life, money management

That's now 2 foreclosures in 2 months :( And, just like the other one, i can literally see the place right outside our living room window! Perhaps they both partied together??? Arghhh....

But you know what? I'm done ranting about it all, i've said my peace last time and it didn't get us anywhere (although it did make for a good blog post!).

Yup, this time i'm gonna be Mr. Positive and help create a happier atmosphere up in here :) You know, in the spirit of Christmas and all. So let's get started!

1. The Foreclosuree's can now start fresh.
This may be pushing it, but it's true! Imagine all that stress and frustration they must be feeling? Sure your life is in shambles and you have to start all over again (esp if you filed Bankruptcy, which i'm assuming would happen), but you just got rid of your #1 liability!

2. Someone's gonna get a helluva good deal!
Word on the street says the place is going for $225k!!! Considering we bought our townhouse for $360k, and our neighbor's for $350k, that's a 35% discount! Our places aren't *exactly* the same, but who really cares at this point...if you're a shopper, you'd be crazy NOT to pick up the cheaper one.

3. It'll probably be the last foreclosure on our street.
I say this only because the "core" residents here - about 75% - have owned their places since construction ended in the 80's. So most of them have probably already paid them off, or are close. The two pulling the foreclosure cards have been newbies so dar, and there's only a handful of us around. You can never tell exactly what's gonna happen, but this is all about staying positive ;)

4. We didn't lose any good friends.
That's a good thing right? It's not like i'm THAT close to any of our neighbors anyways, but it would def. suck if any of those living side-by-side of us left :( We've been getting pretty close to one of them, and would hate to see anything horrible happen over there.

5. It forces us to stay on top of our game!
This is probably the most important of the positive outcomes - making us pay even CLOSER attention to our finances so we're not next! I'd like to think we're already doing this, but a little *extra* attention never hurt. Plus, imagine if God forbid we DID have to foreclose after all this $hit i spilled last month?! I guess at that point it would be the least of our worries, but the whole idea is still scary...

How'd i do? I gotta admit it was pretty hard at first to come up with, but once i put myself in OTHER people's shoes the positives started flowing in :) I only hope that it does us all some good, i can only take so much bad news at a time. HAPPY XMAS EVE-EVE!

Labels: foreclosure, home ownership

In fact, we actually paid $0.00 at closing! Looking back a year or so ago it didn't seem all that crazy, but with everything going on NOW it's like, "woahhh...did we actually DO that?"

Welp, we sure did, but we're def. happy with the results. At least as far as financing goes ;) I wish we would've waited another year to actually buy the place, but whatcha gonna do - that's life.

So why bring this all up now? Well, a) i haven't blogged about the whole story yet, and b) Chicky from Chicky Finance started asking me questions ;) And who am i to deny anyone such answers?

Here are some quick facts about the place:

• Townhouse w/ lake view, 3 finished levels, 2 bedrooms (the master is HUGE and could really be 2 bedrooms), 3 1/2 baths, 1700 sq. feet.

The crazy thing here is that we were initially looking to RENT! And a 1 bedroom apt. at that. It just so happened that we got lost on the way to check one of them out, and BAM - 4 days later we had a contract on the table and were on our way to being new home owners! Needless to say it was all pretty spur of the moment, but that's life right? You see something you want, and you go and get it....kinda like your wife or husband ;)

And here are some quick facts about our financing:

• Paid $360k ("bargained" down from $365k)
• Sellers gave us $10k to cover all closing costs & 6 mos of condo fees.
• 1st Mortgage (80%): $288k - 30 year fixed rate (6.875%), interest only.
• 2nd Mortgage (20%): $72k - 10 year variable rate (9% initially, but now "Prime - 0.45%" currently making it 3.55%), interest only HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) to avoid paying PMI.

I know people are gonna call us insane for some of this stuff, but ya gotta pick financing that best works with your situation. While we were able to afford a conventional loan (principal + interest payments), our main goal was to get our monthly payments as LOW as possible.

And the best way to do this? Pick up interest-only mortgages where we only pay the interest every month, *but have the option* to pay off principal anytime we wish w/ no fees or penalties (we're pretty good at that). As with everything else i talk about, this DEFINITELY isn't for everyone...

We then chose a 30 year fix for our first mortgage so that we didn't have to worry about crazy fluctuations out there. And then went the variable route w/ the HELOC hoping that it wouldn't get outta control - and lucky for us it's been dropping like crazy!!! Every time the Fed cuts the prime rate, our interest % goes down. It was initially set at 9% (Soooo high back then), but we refinanced to get Prime - 0.45%, now setting us at a measly 3.55%.

So that's the story about our residence and the financing behind it. I gotta say it was pretty fun putting this all together :) It still scares the $hit out of me owing so much, but i'm slowly getting used to it...

-------
- Here are some more mortgage posts.
- And here are some home ownership ones.

Labels: home ownership, interest, mortgages

Now THAT's what i call getting creative! And these days, i don't blame him - it sure is one way to sell a house (you hear that stupid foreclosure neighbor?!). Imagine, owning a 6,000 square foot 6 bedroom 4.5 bath house for a crisp $50 bill - AMAZING. Here's a clip from the article i found on MSNBC:

"After more than a year of making major improvements on the home, Walters has been hit doubly hard. He's in the mortgage business, and as his property value plummets, his paycheck is also shrinking....Walters has to donate a portion of the ticket sales to charity, so he calculates that he must sell 31,000 tickets by the end of the year to meet his goal. He's already more than a third of the way there, with 10,000 tickets sold."

So is it really worth the shot? Man, i dunno...the gambler in me REALLY wants to play, but the smart-financial side of me says hooooooooooooold up - your odds of winning are slim to none buster.

While this is true, the odds are MUCH better than winning the lottery! Here you have a 1 in 31,000 chance of winning (possibly even less if he can't reach this desired #), whereas you have like a 1 in 175,000,000 chance of hitting the megamillions. True you're also blowing through 50 $1 bills instead of just 1, AND your prize is much smaller, but still - SOMEONE has to win it!

But then again, let's just say for the fun of it you DO win. Now you're a proud owner of a whole bunch of taxes, upkeep, etc...esp if you already own a home (and i'm willing to guess most people playing don't actually NEED this home). So what if someone wins who can't afford to maintain and keep it all up like some neighbors are afraid of? Well, then you just sell it! But now, if you sell it, the neighbors get SUPER pissed! Esp. if you, let's say, unload it for half it's value - $500k. Now it lowers all the other property values in the neighborhood, right? Boy....what a crazy situation! Wanna play yet? Here's some more on it:



So yeah, I'm still considering getting in on the action (visit fiftydollarhouse.com to play), but i'm more likely to chalk it up to a "good idea" and then forget about it tomorrow ;)

Labels: bargains, cockamamy indeed, home ownership, lottery

NOT. GOOD. AT ALL. Especially since i was hearing this while watching my 'Skins drop their lead and lose it against our rival Cowboys last night!

Talk about a double whammy. One being more important than the other, ofcourse, but equally upsetting ;)

I didn't know this neighbor, but she sure threw some awesome parties! It was like Cinco de Mayo there every other weekend - at least when peering through our window in jealousy. We were never invited, but now we share their pain....damn economy.

I'm not sure of her entire situation exactly, but from what our GOOD neighbors say (the ones who invited us to watch this so-called football "game" last night) it seemed as if their interest rates reset and they could no longer afford their corner-unit with a glam frontview of our LAKE!!! arghh....so they then tried to "short sell" it, only to find out their lender won't except it!!!

Short Sale: A short sale occurs when a property is sold and the lender agrees to accept a discounted payoff, meaning the lender will release the lien that is secured to the property upon receipt of less money than is actually owed.

So while this neighbor HAD an offer on the table to buy the property at a MUCH lower value (i think it was around $300k for a place that sold for $370 two years ago) she just said "F it" and it is now in foreclosure. ARghhhhhhhhhhhh.....

So now, the minute it sells for buttloads less, all of our places will drop in value!!! I don't know the logistics of it all, but basically if her stupid corner townhouse with the f'ing fantastic view sells for, let's say, $200k (God forbid), and our not-*as*-nice places used to be valued at $350k-$370k, then the next buyers coming into town could value our places around $250-$300k or something equally horrendous. I really don't know how it all works out in reality, just in theory ;) What i DO know is that it hurts us either way...and it really pisses me off.

Again, i don't know her specific situation, but it just sucks when you are a good little citizen and pay your dues on time and diligently, yet you lose thousands because of someone else's mistakes! Why again did we have to buy a house so randomly at the peak of the market? oh yeah - to follow the American dream! F to the F to the F, F, F.

Labels: crazy economy, foreclosure, home ownership, rant

Woohoo - we're modernized! Not only is this one hella sexy stove, but it came with a hardcore discount. (did you ever doubt?)

This is one of those times where i absolutely LOVE home ownership because you can do whatever your heart desires. Can you imagine if we were renting and I asked our landlord to upgrade appliances based on the way they look? shoooooooooot.

The original stove worked fine, and we usually don't like replacing things that aren't broken, but it really started to hurt our eyes. I mean, the thing was at least 15 years old! Plus, we figured it can only add value to our place especially if we want to sell it down the road.

Someone once told me to upgrade early on so you can actually enjoy it while living there.

If you make the changes right before you sell, you miss out on all the luxury your hard earned dollars just paid for. Of course, this only works if it's something you plan on doing for sure, but the root of the theory makes a lotta sense....at least when i wanna make big purchases ;)

Once we determined we wanted a newer stove, we just kept our eyes open for sales and it paid off! We originally hit up Best Buy for a different stove on sale for $399 (instead of the original $550) but as luck would have it, they were all out. We were JUST about to leave, when Mrs. Budgetsaresexy saw a lonely little guy hidden in the corner. The nerve! So as any human with a heart would do, we took a nice hard look at that price tag ($299) and we bought it ;) It was even a better model than the one we were originally looking at. And better yet, we found a small dent on the lower part of the bottom drawer....and we all know what that means - more discount! haha...10% to be exact.

So a $550 stove had turned into a $299 stove, and then again into a $270 stove. Add a little tax to it, and voila! A sexy new stove for around $300 bucks.

The hard part was trying to figure out how to wire it up (it didn't come w/ the cord or anything), and making sure to switch them out and not scuffing up our hardwood floors. Nothing some manual labor and googling couldn't fix though ;)

Labels: awesomely awesome, do it yourself, home ownership

WHEW! Seriously, i will forever have mad respect for plumbers - that job is no joke! I know they get paid (a lot) for it, but my goodness, I am one tired puppy.

But, 4 and 1/2 hours later, we have success :) There's a lot that went into it, most of which is pretty boring, but hey you might be bored, right? At the very least, you can relate to the new expenditures that were thrown into the mix. Of course, this is on top of this morning's $45 visit. *sigh*

I hold my head up high, though, as I officially did a house-related job all by my lonesome! I hope you're reading this Mrs. Budgetsaresexy ;)

Here's a semi-quick rundown of today's adventures:

• Used hose on "jet" mode to try and unplug tube in cement - failed.
• Tried two more times - backfired and hit J in the face ;( failed.
• Used hacksaw to cut pipe. Not small enough. failed.
• Went to neighbor's to borrow small saw. failed.
• Went to Home Depot - Success!
• bought skinnier hack saw - $11.97
• bought petite coping saw - $6.99
• bought thin skinny saw - $9.99
• bought duct tape - $2.79
• bought 2 flashlights - $6.97
• bought 15 ft' plumbing snake - $9.99
  
• bought long skinny plastic thingie - $1.98
• TOTAL: Roughly $54.00
  
• Tried out saw #1. failed.
• Tried out saw #2. barely failed.
• Tried out saw #3. Success!
• Used hose on "jet" mode to try and unplug tube in cement - hit J. in the face, again. failed. again.
• Went outside for 8w98405567th time to dig for outside pipe - SUCCESS!
• Clean pipe of pact-in mud, rocks, and dirt - Success!
• Put pizza in oven - Success!
• Snake pipe a total of 13 times to rid of all stagnant water - Success!
• Remember pizza is in oven - failed.
• Take pizza out of oven, and eat pizza - failed.
  
• Attach cut-off piece of pipe to pipe attached to A/C with pipe connector - Success!
• Take a break and down 2 bottle of water, while sweating profusely over the 2 cats and watching the temperature rise once again to 84 degrees - Success!
• Turn A/C back on and check all piping and dug tunnels.......SUCCESS!

See what i mean? Plumbers have it hard boy, I'll give them love any day of the week after what i just went through. But after all of that, here we are, 4 and 1/2 hours later....me eating my pizza (finally), and you reading what i have just typed. What a day!

All in all I spent a total of around $99.00, and it was well worth it. A job like this would have run around $125-$200 when I initially called to make an appointment! Ouchy mama that's a lot of money.

We now have a clean piping system, our A/C is back on full blast, my brain is pact full of knowledge, and I can now enjoy the rest of my day off. Oh, by the way - Did i ever mention i bought that cadillac last night? Post coming tomorrow :)

Labels: awesomely awesome, do it yourself, home ownership

Because i needed a break ;) That, and i frugal'd (word?) my way into a discount! Mrs. Budgetsaresexy came home last night to find out that there's water swimming around our basement, and it was about to flood into our carpet! We luckily caught it in time, but have been trying to figure out what the F happened all night long - and without the A/C running :(

We narrowed it down to either our condensation pipe in the A/C unit, or the pipe embedded into the cement part of our basement. So i'm home from work dealing with it, and the A/C guy just came and left....and told me we needed a Plumber! D'OH. (have i mentioned how much i LOVE home ownership?)

He then turned around and said, "That'll be $89.00". ARGHHHHHH....I thought, and to which i replied with "well, since you're here, can you at least poke around a bit and give any pointers?" (I also brought in our little kitty in hopes he was a cat man...turns out he was!) He gladly looked around and told me some things i can do myself before calling in professional help. And, on top of that, he hooked me up w/ a 50% discount and only charged me $45!!!! HOTNESS.

So, either the cat won him over, or he just really felt bad for me ;) Either way, I'll take it! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go be Mr. Sexy Handyman...there's no way i'm dishing out more money without a fight!

Labels: home ownership

"You Have Options. We Can Help."

WOWWW, something in the mail that's actually NOT spam! haha... And not only that, but something that can potentially help people KEEP THEIR HOMES!

I applaud you Maryland, that is very impressive.

A state stepping up to help out those stuck in all this sub-prime mortgage mess ... you don't see that every day ;)

The flyer is sponsored by Maryland Hope (a division of The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development) and shows their call to action on the front "Act NOW! Before It's Too Late!", along w/ their toll-free Hotline and website. Then, on the back, it shows some of the services they offer:

• Free nonprofit counseling in your community
• Financial resources that can save your home from foreclosure.
• Help with non-responsive loan servicers.
• Mortgage fraud investigation

Not bad, right? And even if you DO end up chucking it, *hopefully* it will at least get you to stop and think about it. Whether you need the help, or not, though, I commend Maryland for giving it a shot. I personally had nooooooooooooo idea something like this existed, and had i been in trouble? Oh you better believe i'd be all over that website ;)

For more information on Maryland Hope, call their Hotline @ 1-877-462-7555 or visit their website: http://www.mdhope.org/

Labels: foreclosure, home ownership, mail bag

So I've been playing around w/ different ways to handle our "house" stuff quite a bit lately, and while i'm still not all the way there, I think I'm getting close to figuring it all out! Here are the 3 methods we've tried out so far, including our current one:

Method #1 --> Split everything up, and pay separately. We originally divided up our rent, utilities, groceries, etc. and paid from our own accounts. While it worked for a while, it eventually got old and took too much time determining who owed, and paid, what.

Method #2 --> Using our Heloc as our "house account". We deposited/paid off our HELOC account w/ every dollar earned, then wrote checks from it to pay all the bills. It saved us $100/mo, but it unfortunately backfired when the market went down, and our "deposited money" was frozen :(

Current & Simplest Method --> Opening up separate Checking and Savings accounts. We spent 15 mins. over the phone opening them up w/ USAA ( now making a grand total of 12 accounts w/ them!), and started depositing all "house" money into them. Checking covers all mortgages, bills, groceries, etc., and savings will be used for whatever we wish for at the time. It is currently set as our "wedding fund".

And, of course, I have a budget for this! I mean, you ARE at budgetsaresexy.com aren't you? haha ... Here is how our House Budget breaks down:

1st Mortgage: 30 year fixed, interest-only.
2nd Mortgage (Heloc): We still budget at this original amount (it's since dropped down to $280!!!), and we apply the difference to our store cards and the savings account.
Credit Card: House: Covers our cable bill & all groceries.
Savings Account: To be used for whatever we wish. Currently set as our "Wedding Fund".
Home Owners: Association fees that cover the lawns, pools, trash pick up, etc. in our neighborhood.
Electric Bill: keeps our lights on ;)
Water Bill*: This is a quarterly charge of around $75. I broke it down into 3 payments of $25 each/mo. so we can budget it in.
Store Credit Cards: We're slowly paying them off! Covers our new iMac, and the wedding rings, and are at 0% interest.

As you can see, splitting out "House" stuff will be MUCH easier now that everything is separated and accounted for. Each time I get a paycheck now, I check my personal budget and xfer over the allocated amounts into the right account.

Easy peasy ... at least for now ;)

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Cant' get enough sexy budgeting? check out my others:
- my personal budget
- my credit card budget

Labels: budgets, home ownership

I've been nibbling on this question for the past 3 weeks, and it seems that I still don't have a 100% sure answer on it ;) Mrs. Budgetsaresexy and I had already agreed that we should NOT renew it, thus letting the expiration date come and go, but they JUST sent us another friendly reminder - sneaky marketers!

It's hard because I usually go w/ my original instinct, which in this case says to renew it and have the peace of mind that comes along w/ warranties. But then the practical side kicks in and asks, "Will you actually recoup the costs?" I mean, it's a valid question and one to definitely consider for things like this.

Last year it costs us $360, and we used it once for our leaky ceiling ordeal. While we tried to use it another time when our dryer went bonkers, we didn't, and all in all we ended up spending a total of $460 (warranty itself + $100 deductible) for this one plumbing issue. Now, i'm not sure how much the actual costs would have been w/out the warranty, but i seriously doubt it would have come close. All they really put in was some new rubbery stopper thingie and told us what to watch for.

This year the warranty renews at $465! Same deductibles, and same coverage (quoted from their site):

"breakdowns in major systems like plumbing, electrical, heating and air
conditioning as well as washer, dryer, oven, refrigerator and other items."

So what's a brother to do, right? If 3 things happen (or 1 major thing), we're pretty much covered. But realistically we'd be spending money "in hopes" something happens, and then shelling out another $100 each time it DOES. I dunno, it really just gives me a headache thinking of it all ;)

With the wedding coming up, and w/ sites out there like Craigslist & ebay to pick up new appliances, we have decided to pass (again) and keep this money in our Emergency Fund.

What would you guys do, though? Does anyone else use a home warranty of any sort? I'd be interested to see how others handle this little ditty...and unless we change our minds at the last second, fingers crossed that it all works out!

Labels: home ownership, insurance, warranties

So we are having some pretty bad luck w/ dryers lately. I don't know what it is, but we're now onto our THIRD one since we moved in last year! I know they don't last forever, but man hook a brother up for at least an entire year, ya know?

Here's a quick synopsis of our pain so far:

1st dryer - inherited when purchased house. seemed normal, until it started taking longer...and longer...and longer to dry. we replaced w/ sister's dryer after she picked up brand new ones. (yay for free!)

Sister's dryer - worked perfectly for a good 6 months or so. then all of a sudden started making this horribly awful screeching noise as it dried. it was so bad you could hear it on the 3rd floor! This is even w/ our doors closes and it being in our basement. i'm sure our neighbors love us.

And now we're onto our 3rd dryer. This part could get me REAL fired up, so i'll try and get through it quickly before i start slamming these keyboard keys....after many weeks of failed Craigslist searching, we decided to use our home warranty again and pay the $100 to have someone come out and fix it. I mean, it REALLY dries well, it's just the awful noise that comes out of it.

We got the standard, "we'll have someone out there between 4-7" and roll with it. And although the company they source out to looks pretty damn sketchy (took me 6 calls to get a live person, their voicemail isn't set up, and their website is shoddy), they were willing to come out on a saturday!

Sooo...off we go:

• we rush home after Mrs. Budgetsaresexy's wedding shower, to hurry up and get it done, so we can go back and hang out with her nephews up from NC.
• 4 rolls by - nothing.
• 5 rolls by - nothing.
• 5:30 we get a call! "we're on our way, be there in 35-40 mins". Not the best news, but at least they'll be here shortly,and we can run back to have dinner w/ everyone.
• 6 rolls by - nothing
• 7 rolls by - nothing

This goes on, and on, and on...NOTHING! why the F do you call saying your'e on the way, and then NOT show up, NOT call back, and NOT answer your damn phone? I was fired up. I left them a calm, yet very stern message every hour on the dot until 10. And to this day? nothing.

I called back our home warranty people and asked for a new company, but they don't do weekends or evening hours. we were stuck. And then, as if a flash of light appeared through the clouds and the Almighty one himself looked down upon us, we catch a HUGE break on Craigslist!

A perfectly working dryer for only $45! I call this one the "Richie Rich" dryer, as the place we picked it up last night was fairly richie rich, and the thing looks brand freakin' new. Mrs. Richie Rich had just replaced her set with some new super duper futuristic ones, and couldn't get herself to haul it way. Fine by me!

So now we have our third dryer in less than a year. And i swear, if this one doesn't last at LEAST 6 months, i will consider washing everything by hand. i mean it, don't tempt me! ....haha...nah, that's a bit extreme. plus i'm too lazy :) but i WILL blog about it! so take that.

Labels: craigslist, home ownership

The other day my girl and i were chillaxin' around the living room when all of a sudden i get a "Honey, why is our ceiling dripping?". In a split second I went from totally relaxed to completely freaking out. Why WOULD our ceiling be dripping? How does that even happen? In case you couldn't tell, we are new homeowners.

After gathering my wits and taking a few seconds to actually think about it, we realized that our master tub is directly above this sneaky ceiling. I jolted upstairs and started analyzing the situation. I checked for holes, cracks, missing tiles, leaks, you name it. While i did notice the need to brush up on my caulking (what a funny word!) skills, there was nothing awry that the human eye could see.

As with all sticky situations, i immediately called my mom....just like 3rd grade all over again :) Something you also didn't know, was that i was even a realtor for 3 months a cple years back, so i should have DEF. known what to do! At any rate, mom was much more calm and collected, and brought up two major points which never crossed my mind:

a) Did i check the crawl space behind the tub to see where it's leaking? What a novel approach! To my credit, i never knew these existed as normally i'd just call management to get 'er fixed up. But apparently most master bathrooms have a section cut off, and blocked off, to easily access the back of the tub. So i grabbed my handy screwdriver and flashlight, and took a peek. And voila, there it was! the space between the tub & the tube had water stains. So now i at least knew where it was coming from.

b) The second thing she asked, was if we had a home warranty? This one immediately calmed my nerves just by listening to the words come out. I had TOTALLY forgot we picked one up right before closing! Of course, this could have had the opposite effect if I had rejected my realtor knowledge and didn't spend the extra money for one :) How awesome right?

We called a preferred plumber from our warranty company (HMS Warranty. I highly recommend!), and within 48 hours we had it all fixed up. Luckily enough the damages to the house were almost nil, and it didn't cause much ruckus to our wallets either.

It costs us $360 for the year, with a deductible of only $100. Any costs on top of that are totally covered by HMS. Besides plumbing, it also covers the following (quoted from their site):

"breakdowns in major systems like plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning as well as washer, dryer, oven, refrigerator and other items."

Talk about peace of mind! Warranties like these *might* only be picked up when purchasing or selling a house, but it's definitely something to consider. All i know is, i'm definitely renewing it when it comes around next month!

Labels: home ownership, insurance, warranties

#1) The IRS is freaking FAST fast FAST! My state and federal taxes were literally JUST sent in online (Last Thursday), and I already got both direct deposited into my account! Seriously, how tight is that? This is the first tax return i've done since buying our house, and i am totally LOVING home ownership right now :)

Federal: $3,036: The timing is impeccable. My Emergency Fund was down to $105 this week (from $3500+ last month due to our crazy Heloc freezing), so i welcome this sum with wide open arms :) I'll be updating my net worth and Sexy Goals in the next few days, and now i'm sexcited!

State: $849: Yeee-haw! Another pile which should hopefully make it into my Emergency Fund this week.

#2) I am revising this site a bit, as you can probably tell, so i huge sorry in advance if i delete comments, feeds, or anything else that can possibly happen. My goal of writing one post a week day is still alive though, so don't you worry about that my good friends. I hope you like the changes!

Labels: home ownership, taxes

We really got F'd on this one the other day! Seriously, it was going sooooo well. I really thought we fenagled ourselves a great deal. I mean, it still IS a great deal in that we are saving roughly $200 a month currently, BUT here is where they got us (and i didn't even see it coming!):

THEY FROZE OUR HELOC ACCOUNT!!!!

You might be saying to yourself, so what? You're still saving $200 a month. This is true, and i'm thankful for that. BUT consider what this now means:

1. It was frozen because the market values of the houses in our neighborhood have now gone down! And the bad part is i don't know by how much (according to my bank of course) as I have to await some elusive letter in the mail stating the amount. ARRGHHHH.
2. We have now lost access to our entire Checking and Savings account! Remember, we put 9k into it to save the additional interest each month with the belief we could take it out anytime we wanted...and this was working fine until now. Imagine your accounts having a $0.00 balance starting right now. Scary, eh?

So, did "Operation HELOC Savings" work? YES. It saved us $$$. BUT it also F'd us in the fact we "lost" all our savings and checkings, and we NOW have refigure out how to move on securely going forward, as well as start building the aforementioned accounts back up ... all the while paying our bill and mortgages at the same time.

On a good note, we (or really I), learned a big lesson here: Spend more time reading what I'm signing as there ARE loopholes for both parties. Seriously, i didn't see this one coming!

Labels: helocs, home ownership, mortgages

Yayyy, this is the HAPPY part!

So, "Operation Heloc" was put into place by my fiancee and i to save more money on our interest payments. Being brand spankin' new about houses, mortgages, etc, we really didn't know what we were getting into. We trusted our financial guy though (w/ Weichert Financial), and this is what we got:

1st Mortgage: 30 year fixed @ 6.875% - interest only, fixed rate.
2nd Mortgage: HELOC (home equity line of credit) @ 9%*- interest only, variable rate.

At first this didn't mean anything to us. After a cple months, however, it occured to me that 9% is pretty high considering the both of us have Excellent credit scores. I know it's a 2nd mortgage, but still. I started reading all the blogs out there and MAN there was a lot of info (Thanks guys!). The one that really caught my attention was a post from The Simple Dollar on Money-Merge accounts. After hours and hours of further research, it occured to me that we could (and did) do the following:

a) Refinance for a lower rate - We did this 3 months later and got it down to Prime - .45%!!! (at the time i believe it was 8.25%) knocking it down a good 1.2%!, and it only cost us $42 :)
b) We then took out most of our savings and checking $, about 9k, and "paid off" part of the Heloc. This was done by basically using the HELOC as a "checking" account. We xferred all our savings in it, deposited all my paychecks, and then wrote checks out of it to pay the bills. Wierd/COOL/neat? Yeppers. This in effect saved us even more in finance $.

So, overall the plan worked PERFECTLY! We saved a total of $72.00 each month just by doing the above. Since then, the rates have also been going down, so we are now set at a little over $200 savings EACH MONTH!

All in all i'm am happy with our decisions, and we have saved a total of $1,492.40 over the course of 6 months. I will, however, lock in a portion (if not all) of it when I feel the rates are at the lowest points.

Labels: helocs, home ownership, mortgages