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.

I don't know that that many people employ a lawyer for a home purchase.

I did.

I believe it is required in NY, maybe in a few other states.

I'm heading out of here sometime between 3:15 and 3:30, and this last hour is going to drrrrraaaaaaaaag by.

I did finally get around to placing a few orders (for shoes at Zappos and some clothes and shoes for my sister's wedding at Avenue), so at least that's done. If everything fits, I'll be all set for the wedding, other than getting her present framed. I'll have to get that taken care of next week; I'm still having problems finding a dry cleaners who'll clean the cross-stitch piece before I head over to Michaels for framing.

I'm not sure if it's required where I am, but I think it may be, if only for the title search. Which are similarly complex as MA, but now they are switching over to a new system, which should be easier and by title holder, not by lot.

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

certainly a much better idea than Drink AND Credit at 12:01 am on your 21st.

::votes for Daisy Jane as patron saint of good banking/mortgages::