Back To The Drawing Board. Chpt #2

The house we were excited about has been taken off the market and we're back to the drawing board. It’s not the end, it's the beginning. It goes to show you that when you find a house you have to act on it. Just because it was on the market for four months does not mean it will be there for another four months.

This last weekend we put in three new light fixtures and a new three season door. Getting things done one step at a time. The big picture is over whelming but one step at a time.

Here is a hint. When you buy a new house. Write down all the things you want to fix or replace. You probably will not do them and six months later you will be used to the old things.

Then 10 years later you will be selling your house and THEN you will make the fix's and go "wow, I wish I would have down this ten years ago when I could have enjoyed the new look".

It's easy to get lazy and just "live with it". Sooner or later you will need to fix the stuff that is not "right". Do it before you "can live with it".

A few things we learned about when getting pre-approved for the loan.

PMI is Private Mortgage Insurance. If your down payment is less than 20% of the sales price or appraised value (in other words, the LTV or loan to value ratio should be 80% or less). Then you must play the PMI. For us it was going to be ABOUT $70 a month.

Once the principle reach's 80% then (I presume) the PMI is no longer needed.

Also The Bridge Loan. This is a EXPENSIVE loan if you are going to need to cover two mortgages. It's a very expensive loan and if you can do ANYTHING not to take it, DO IT!

On a side note - since the house we WERE looking at had no tree's we were looking at landscaping and tree's in particular. This website will be very useful for tree's and plants.

Landscape Plants for the Upper MidWest.