So after my last update the realtor’s daughter (presumably was going to look at our house and possibly buy it from us) never called or showed.  I’m guessing the realtor’s daughter didn’t think too much of the plan an just decided not showing up would tell us something.  Anyway so our last offer on the house sat out there for a week. 

Then someone else made an offer.  11 big smackers more than us.  We lost right? 

Nope.  The new offer buyers made the offer contingent on selling their home first.  The sellers who had accepted SEVERAL such offers and had them all fall thru as other people’s houses turned out to a) not sell quickly  b) not sell quickly for the over estimated price the buyers wanted to sell their own home for.  They’re frustrated, they’ve been out of the home for 6 months, they desperately want their furniture they left in it for showing.  I'm sure are tired of making two payments.

Apparently this frustrated the sellers of the home we were interested in and they called and said “was your last offer still good?”  “yup”   “deal”.   So we got it but without the complicated real-estate deal that would have rid us of our home in the same process.  It is hardly the end of the world as I have saved my pennies and we can carry both homes for a great deal of time.

Also I’m not at all above selling my home at the low market prices right now.  We got an outstanding deal on the new home and I’m not going to pretend that in a market that would allow such a good deal that I’m going to make bucko bucks on my own :P  I’m not going to just dump it of course.  At the same time I’m not going to waste time tossing it on the market at prices that we saw when looking at home and made us think “Is it even worth making an offer if they’re going to ask this much?  What planet are these people from?”

So the inspection of the house was done today.  No issues, like we knew the house has a new roof, new hot water heater, has some stuff we really like such as a built in humidifier and etc.  I know most houses have “good folks” who lived in the house and took care of the home, something like the equivalent of the old lady who drove the car to church only on Sundays, but you get the feeling these people really liked their home and took care of everything.   Heck even if they didn’t I think it is a great deal on the house.

Also the nice folks are letting us dump our crap in the garage before the closing so we can easily show our house without much clutter.  Obviously it is their right to say “no way”.  Some folks might have been miffed that they sold it at such a price but they’re cool with it as long as we’re ok that the big huge rainbow playground set that dominates the back yard might stay until spring because it is HUGE and before they can get it apart the ground might be frozen.  I kinda want to go down the slide anyway…

Mortgage Hunt

In the meantime the mortgage hunt heats up as closing is first week of December.  Need to make the call there soon.

Looking for 30 year fixed rate (I like predictable things) mortgage.

I contacted several banks and a mortgage broker.  Some gave me rates that convinced me they don’t want any new mortgages.  Others who I expected to give bad rates (at least when I checked in the past) surprised me.  I contacted some small local banks as the father in law is involved in a independent bank and although his bank is not doing a lot of mortgages (basically set their rates to not do so) right now he’d be happier if we went with such a bank. 

One local independent bank has beat them all so far not by a ton, but not an irrelevant amount.  They appear to be the front runners and after I go thru the rest of their good faith estimate and get some answers to some Qs (nothing surprising on there, just verification of some stuff).  I think we’ll go with them. 

The small bank reports that their loan folks do have the ability to shop the offer to other banks like a broker.  How loyal to their bank they are is beyond me but so far they’ve beaten the other broker I talked to so there you go.  We’ll see if that offer is with their bank or not before we make the call.  Their rates are not quite as low as some of the rate quoting websites out there, but unlike those rate quoting websites these people are NOT some company I have never heard of and who I can’t find out much about. 

Their rate did tick up a bit this week as he predicted when I spoke to the loan guy last week but it is still lower than the others by a reasonable amount.  Other banks also had their rates tick up a bit as they were hoping the fed was going to lower the long term rate or so they say.

Mortgage Escrow

Many places like to give you a break on your mortgage if you escrow the taxes into your mortgage payment.  I don’t mind it, not that I couldn’t just pay it myself and I’m sure they like keeping my money for me before giving it to the gov but I’m cool with that.

Oddly everyone’s good faith estimate seems to note insurance costs.  That’s fine, it is certainly a consideration.  I’m not going to escrow it but it is good to have it there.

However, the insurance quote from my insurance folks and the one in everyone’s good faith estimate tend to have a great deal of distance between them.  Not sure what is up with that.  Need to find out.

Title Insurance

I understand the concept.  I just need to understand it a bit better so I can apparently shop around for it.  Apparently you can do that… and my house buying for dummies I think says I should.  Like I need MORE to do during this process.

New House Plans

The good news is the new house does NOT need a lot of work.  Really everything is totally functional, it’s just a matter of our (well the wife’s, I could live in a cave…) style not jiving quite with some parts of the house. 

I have convinced the wife that the more ambitious plan waits until the old home is sold.  That thing being putting a door between the master bedroom and the master bath.  Here’s what I mean+

+I hope that works husi's usual system wasn't working for me.

Ok so there’s no door there between the master bedroom and the master bathroom.  Seriously, wtf?  Nobody is allowed to use the toilet until that is fixed damn it.  Seriously, I know I’m newly married and sensate to this stuff, but man….  I mean when he or she is sleeping you’re in there.  Weird.  Granted that img is way scrunched and there’s more space between the closets and the master bath but no door.  Seriously the inspector nor the real estate lady thought it was weird.  WTF! 

We're committed to going down the hall to use the other bathroom damn it!  We're not savages damn it.

The other thing is the basement has this wood paneling.  On inspection it is solid wood paneling that is beveled and all.  Inspector says it is expensive stuff.  Gives the basement a rustic cabin feel with all these walls covered in wood and wood knots.  If it was dark wood like some old English mansion I’d love it.   No, it’s HIGHLY lacquered (or whatever) and has a very GOLD color to it. 

“Dear Minnesotans, I know we all like the cabin feel.  Please keep it out of your dang suburban homes.  It’s the suburbs, give it up, buy a cabin if you want woody stuff, or live in a shack.”  Truth be told I’ll never do anything about the basement walls despite how much I dislike them.  The basement bedroom and bathroom are free of them and I’ll just live with it for quite a while as it is likely to be my domain in the house.

Stress

I’m excited and all, but I also just want it to all end.  This is stressful ####.  They say moving is one of the most stressful times in live.  #### that.  It’s not moving, it’s the #### involved in it damn it.  Particularly the money stuff, not entirely being sure of much at all and of course both the wife and I spazzing about it at various times.  I mean I know the mortgage stuff but I’m one who always asks “do I really know?”

iTunes

So I cleaned up a lot of my MP3s that in terms of tags were a mess.  Anyway does iTunes really think that with the variety of music I have that the “Library” view will EVER be useful to me.  Classical music all scrunched up with various forms of rock and etc.  Heck I don’t even recognize everyone’s names.  Playlists are the way to go.

Speakers

I bought these Bose - Companion® 2 Series II Multimedia Speakers.  Good speakers, but by default they are WAY too bassy.   Once I adjusted them using some software that came with my motherboard they were great but before I don’t know what they were thinking of setting up the speakers like that without a bass dial.  I mean if they were not so bassy then fine no bass dial but this is a PC not some 16 year old kids Honda civic.

Note the headphone jack on the front is way nice.

Ben Folds Five

I don't give a flying #### about people's artistic freedom.  I know they did a few songs and ended it like 1000 years ago but ####'m.  There's not a lot of new (this millennium roughly) music I can stand  and damn it we could sure use some good music these days.  Dear Ben and the Five, look around damn it and put out some stuff.  Hell I don't care if it is original, fine.  Hell just change the worlds in some songs and rerelease'm.  At this rate that would be something.+

+Music pricks who might tell me that there is similar music or better music need not apply and feel comfortable in knowing that I admit I don't know everything about music, thanks anyway.

Yes when duxup is stressed he gets shrill....  way shrill.

CheeseburgerBrown

Oh and where on earth is CheeseburgerBrown? I mean I know the man has kids at the age where they're capable of doing serious harm to themselves (i suppose the boy is intent on it at this point) and require much good parenting but seriously some of us could really use some time living vicariously thru a Canadian artist with a bang'n wife, adorable kids, and all that jazz.