On buying a house

Let me just say that buying a house is extremely stressful. It was crazy at first trying to figure out the whole loan thing then it was really fun looking at open houses and driving around trying to find the perfect home. Now, it's insane. There is SO much paperwork. I feel like all I ever do is scan, sign, print, copy, scan, email, etc. etc. This isn't hard, but it is time consuming and sometimes I feel like I am drowning in paper. By the time we actually move in, we'll have made a serious dent on Mother Earth.

The hardest part about buying a house is understanding the lingo. We've had to learn about interest rates, appraisals, closing costs, escrow, rate buydowns, disclosure reports, how a well works, how a septic system works, how to not kill your significant other. Lucky for us, we have an amazing loan advisor who emails updates constantly, gets paperwork done efficiently, and gets on our realtor, the title company, the appraisor, the sellers agent, just about everyone in order to get things moving. If it weren't for her, we'd probably be lost....and probably screwed over.

Another lucky thing for us is that we are trying to buy an estate sale, where the owners have deceased but their family is taking care of the deal. The family lives in Maryland, and wants to get this house SOLD. The fewer complications the better. Unfortunately, it's never that easy, and there's always miscommunication, problems with the house that need repair, and sometimes unethical strategy to MAKE MONEY! We aren't necessarily surprised by the roadblocks and confusion, but we are frustrated with it! We just want to finish this deal and MOVE IN already.

There's also so many rules and regulations about dates. 17 days for the buyers to find everything wrong with the place before you lose your deposit, 30 days to close escrow, 7 days for the sellers to give their disclosures, 2 days before the close of escrow to fund the loan, 2 days past closing of escrow to finalize the loan, and 3 days after escrow to record the deal! WTF. If you don't follow these dates EXACTLY, you're out another couple hundred bucks.

Interest rates are another tricky thing. Increasing the rate by like .125% increases your yearly payment by over $400 bucks, which means over 30 years you're spending a crap load of money just because you didn't get a .125% lower interest rate! Lucky for us (AGAIN) interest rates are REALLY low nowadays, so we're going to be getting a pretty fair rate. (But if you lock the rate for more than 30 days and you haven't closed the deal yet, you have to pay $600!) See! All these rules rules rules. NT real estate world.

Okay, enough of my ranting. I'm off to Long Beach to visit my MOH Helya to get lost in the land of lovely dresses and share some wine together. Have a wonderful weekend!