Who's the dummy with the $1200/mo. car payment that averages out with my old $100/mo. one? I mean, I bought a used car and everything, but -- WTF?

Maybe the average is for new cars?

I think the average new car goes for $20-25K (too lazy to google now) so the average car payment of $484/month makes sense to me. I was paying $300/month for my cheap new car....

We went with an agent (and we made sure she was a buyer-broker, so represented us) for our first condo. She steered us in the right directions -- in fact, the lawyer that handled the closing also prepared our wills.

When we moved up a few years ago, we bought a new home and so dealt with the builder directly.

I'm so glad things are working out for you, Liese! Glad you were able to do a large enough down payment to get rid of the PMI.

The second bank (our own bank) also would have given us the loan, but wanted us to go with an interest only program we felt was not good for us. Also they were rude and laughed at us when we asked questions.

If this is the same bank we discussed. I would let their higher ups know. They are not hesitant to get rid of people who aren't doing their jobs.

tommy- I am so angry at that law and the easy peasy credit I got when I was a student. Before the law went into affect, I knew I was going to be paying for the rest of my life, but I was pretty much fine with that. I could always make the monthly payments and my credit was good. Now that they have upped the minmum, it is a struggle some months to pay all three cards and my rent. I now have crappy credit and am paying about $500 towards credit cards (I only make $1600/month).

WRT cars, we pay just over $1200 for our two cars. It's way too much but a series of events (baby, deployment, etc.) meant that we needed two new cars within months of each other.

It's funny that this has come up because I was talking to some family friends last night about how I wish that I knew about credit etc a heck of a lot sooner than I did. Don't know how much different I would have been (woohoo! CREDIT CARDS at 18!!), but maybe it would have helped.

Maybe they should switch the credit giving age and the drinking age. Drink at 18, no credit til you're 21. Heh.

If this is the same bank we discussed. I would let their higher ups know. They are not hesitant to get rid of people who aren't doing their jobs.

Yeah, we probably should. I think we may wait until after we're done with the build and get the long-term mortgage signed in blood and feel less vulnerable. I think at that point we'll be moving all our accounts, personal and business, away from them.

Unfortunately for the duration, one of the (local) higher-ups just had a run-in with our builder. So we'll get a fairly unsympathetic ear at that level and will need to go higher for any results.

And I'll bet a lot don't know that most real estate agents represent the seller and not the buyer.

Perhaps this is just in Texas or maybe you're using real estate agent instead of Realtor on purpose. But here, when a buyer sits down with a Realtor, they sign something that says which party the Realtor represents.There's a Buyer's Agent, a Seller's Agent and (I forget the specific name of the agent that reps for both). There are all kinds of guidelines and regulations Realtors must follow.

But yeah. If you're just calling the number on that sign? That's the seller's agent.

If you are a buyer, there are very few times I would suggest not getting a Realtor. They are invaluable.

ETA: Seriously, I just hooked L up with one as a seller's agent who is going to drive her to meet with psycho ex, get him to sign the damn papers, and then drive around with her for a while until she calms down from the experience and is sure he's not following her home.

I had a buyer's agent, friend of the family, who did a good job and I'm grateful I had him. When I refinanced, I did so pretty well-informed, but man, the stacks of paper were definitely overwhelming. I went with an interest-only loan with a low rate, and I've been paying an extra $500/month on it for five years. Last week I talked to my mortgagor and they told me the loan's rate will change next fall, to a much higher rate and much higher monthly payment, so I'm gonna keep an eye on the market and see if it makes sense to refinance again. Bleah.

I am sitting in my house while contractors blow insulation into my walls; it's very weird. Holes all over my house! Lots of little holes!

Is now where I get to be proud that I know several people involved in the Center for Responsible Lending [link] and Self-Help [link] They are such great institutions.