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.

Our realtor kicked ass for us. We bought a repo home from a bank, and it required lots of picky paperwork unique to REOs. She had to do extra research to make sure the price we paid was reasonable, since we were dealing with an institution and not a person. Also, we are the kind of people who want to know everything, so there was sitting down and doing over every single clause on every piece of paper, which she spent more than one evening doing.

Yeah, our realtor rocked it. She worked like mad for years for us, and earned, like, a dollar. Worth her weight in gold.

Oh, and we've been getting hella deals from our friends, designer, builder, windows, sooper deals on the internets, so our appraisal came in significantly higher than our build cost. Which also helped a ton with avoiding the PMI. So we owe a lotta people.

And yay, instant equity! Oddly enough, property values are still going up in our area. Real estate has not yet slowed down here. It will, I'm sure, but right now it's still marching on steadily, as people in the Valley decide they don't want their permanent home to be the one with 101 degree temperatures all the time.

It's the last half hour of work before the long weekend, and I swear time has stopped.

I went to a mortgage firm that my buyer-broker recommended, so she earned her flat fee in that aspect, too. And I did have a lawyer, but only for the title search, which is a serious matter here in MA with titles going back hundreds of years and many many owners. (My house is actually on a Revolutionary War battleground, not one of the famous ones because our side lost.)

My mortgage was only like 2.5X my income when I bought my house, which works out OK now that I'm getting by on unemployment! And my car loan is $199, and I'm in the hole for $13K of my student loan, but that really is a bargain because of the job prospects I'll have when I finish.