Visit, Sterilize, Tidal Wave
Last night on my way home from work I stopped at my buddy Don’s house for a bit. I just saw Don Sunday night but I wanted to stop and visit his dog Lucky who has had some health challenges lately. I have watched Lucky out at my house multiple times and I love the little guy. After a bark or two he remembered who I was and we settled in. It was a sweet visit. I sat on the floor for most of it which Lucky took advantage of several times, coming over to get rubbed and lay on me. He’s such a good boy.
Last night I took time sterilizing the house in advance of pictures being taken Wednesday afternoon for the real estate listing. Because the house is still in a pretty stripped down state after the painting project there isn’t that much that needs to be done to make it camera ready. I stuffed a few things in drawers and closets as well as moving several EUC’s back out to the storage shed. There are a few more things I need to tuck away tonight.
This is just the leading edge of a tidal wave of tasks and decisions that are going to begin hitting me rapid fire with both buying a new house and trying to sell my existing one. Tomorrow morning I have a crew coming in to the give the house a thorough cleaning prior to the pictures. They are arriving at 6:30am, that is not a typo. I also have been getting a steady stream of emails from the realtor of paperwork I need to go over or sign. Tomorrow the new place is also having the home inspection done. I will be meeting at the place with the inspector when he finishes up to go over any findings he has for me. I am hoping for a clean bill of health.
One of the other very important aspects of this deal is the mortgage, of course. I had another barrage of emails from the mortgage company I was working with. However yesterday I realized that all my focus has been on if they got me approved and close on time. I had not taken time to dig into numbers which obviously matter, a lot. Well when I did start digging I wasn’t thrilled. It’s been a very long time since I bought a house. When I started going through some of the closing cost figures it was a bit of shell shock. When I got the interest rate they were quoting me it was not great either, especially when I compared it to my credit union. Of course when you deal with a mortgage company you are also paying for the convenience of someone holding your hand through the entire process.
I called my credit union to get more details of possibly financing through them but their processing/approval timeline is slower and could jeopardize my closing date. I was talking to Ali during the day and she suggested I call the woman that handled both of her mortgages, she said she was great. I had nothing to lose so I made the call. One of the things that was freaking me out a bit was that between the down money and closing costs it was going to tax my cash reserves heavily, more so than I was comfortable with. When I was speaking with this woman I mentioned how I have a home equity line on my house but I did not want to pull money out towards the purchase of a new home because I thought it would be a no no as far as the mortgage application would go. She told me the exact opposite was true, she encouraged me to use the HELOC money to offset the down money on the house, people do it all the time. Hearing this took a big imaginary load off my back.
The call really was just sort of advice driven at first but towards the end she said if I wanted to send her cost summary from my existing mortgage company she would see if she could do any better for me. I really liked my interaction with Heather and told her I would send her the numbers. She got back to me a couple hours later that she could definitely do better. It was music to my ears and I plan to get the ball rolling with her shortly.
There are going to be a TON of hurdles like this for me to clear the next couple months. All I can do is keep jumping. As I have said recently, I am doing my best to focus on the goal instead of making myself mad thinking through all of the minutia. Do things that make you happy is a premise I have been focusing on more and more. Why would you want to do anything else?