home comments edit

I checked my email this morning to find that MortgageDesignGroup.com had finally sent me the estimates they promised me, last night around 5:15p. So, only about a day-and-a-half late.

Somehow, when someone’s dealing with my money, I’m huge on punctuality. Don’t tell me one thing and then do something else. That may seem petty in a case like this, but I feel like sometimes these little things are indicators of something larger.

After I looked over their estimates (closing costs were way higher than everyone else, so you’re definitely paying for their service), I called Ann over at NW Mortgage Group to tell her she’s the one. She was pretty excited, and I’m glad because I feel like that’s enthusiasm she shares with me in the whole process. Plus, she’s always easy to get ahold of and is very punctual about things. Maybe if I had gone through this process before I would consider doing something based solely on the money, but the first time I run through it I definitely want the service and I think that’s what Ann’s providing.

I gave her all of my vital stats and she’s running my credit and coming up with a new, more accurate estimate to walk me through. She’s also sending me a packet of stuff to look over which basically signifies the beginning of the paper trail that will end in my home loan.

One interesting thing she pointed out, which I think is a smart deal and I’m not sure if all new homebuyers do this: When someone asks you for a loan pre-approval letter, many times that letter shows the total amount the buyer is approved for. If you’re the buyer, that’s tipping your hand to the seller, who is trying to get the price to go up. What I’ll end up doing is calling Ann to get a letter tailored to my offer, so the approval will only show the amount of money I’m willing to pay for the house. Sounds good to me.

General Ramblings comments edit

Jenn and I didn’t do a whole lot this weekend, but we did go to a Superbowl party at a friend’s place.

Interesting way I met these friends, actually: I was in a geology class at PSU and was talking to a classmate, telling her that I was going to get a job at Lattice Semiconductor. She said her husband happened to work there (small world, right)? So I ended up going to school with her and working with her husband.

Anyway, they’re cool people and always have a great Superbowl party (lots of people and food) but I haven’t gone in the past couple of years, so it was good to go this year. Not only did I catch up with them (and see their kids finally) but I also got to see a lot of friends I used to work with who I have lost touch with. It was really great to see all of them, and hopefully I won’t be so long in seeing them again.

traffic comments edit

This week I’m bringing you an extra-special Traffic Asshole.

I went to visit one of my potential mortgage brokers on Friday afternoon and, seeing as how it was 2:00p, figured I’d head home and work from there. You know - beat the traffic, so to speak.

Imagine my surprise to get into this:

Sitting... waiting... and it's only
2pm!

What the hell is going on here?

I continued into this quagmire, merging with some other traffic, equally backed up:

Continue to
merge...

And when I finally got to the head of this thing, what was it? A wreck? A death?

No, something much more insidious still:

Ramp Signal
On

A metered on-ramp.

What a load of shit, man. Whoever figured out this metered on-ramp thing should be fucking shot. What else could cause such traffic devastation in the afternoon?

I sure as hell won’t miss that once I’ve moved closer to work.

home comments edit

I was looking forward to seeing something from MortgageDesignGroup today as I was promised on Friday, but it’s 5:00p, end of the business day, and I haven’t gotten anything.

On the other hand, I got a call from Ann this morning and she was exceptionally up front with me on some things that I hadn’t heard from anyone else.

The question was how flexible she could be on some of the closing costs and broker fees. She said that, frankly, she could make them all go entirely away. With that, though, is a sort of caveat. She likened it to a car dealership: You might get the dealer to give you a lower price and cut his overhead more than he’d like, but that rebate you might have qualified for… you suddenly don’t qualify for anymore. Basically, you might not pay the fees and closing costs up front, but you may end up paying it anyway in the loan’s percentage rate.

It sounds kind of crappy, but I won’t lie to you - I’d rather someone be honest with me than try to sell me into something of a lower value. I appreciated her honesty on that one.

And with that, I think I’ve picked my broker. Sure, I’ll wait to see if MDG sends me anything, but I have a very, very strong feeling I’ll be calling Ann back to ask what next steps will be. Jenn pointed out that, of all of the brokers I’ve talked to, the only one that doesn’t stress me out when I talk about her is Ann. I think that says something right there.

In other news, I’ve scheduled with the realtor to do a couple of walkthroughs this coming Saturday - houses he recommended that Jenn and I drove past this weekend. In the meantime, he’ll continue looking for stuff in our desired area and maybe we’ll have more to see when we meet up with him this weekend.

home comments edit

Jenn and I drove past the three house candidates on Saturday afternoon that the realtor sent over and further reduced the competition there down to two potentials. Those are the two we want to see inside so we can better gauge whether or not they’re any good. The outsides (and neighborhoods) on the two are good, though. So I guess we’ll see.

I find that the descriptions in listings are slightly misleading in some cases. For example, the house we ruled out was supposed to be on a cul-de-sac. Last I checked, that implied a street that has sort of a round end to it. My parents live on a cul-de-sac and it’s decent. What we found when we got there was the house situated at the squared-off end of a one-lane road. Yes, that means no room to turn around, no curbside parking for visitors, and a very cramped feel. Thank you, no. As nice as it might be inside, that’s not something I think I could put up with for years to come.

I’m kind of excited, in a sick sort of way, to see what MortgageDesignGroup.com can come back with estimate-wise. The more I think about the features and services they offer, the more I like them.