Why do I even try?

[muckefuck]

I'm not sure why I still fret over small savings here and there when my ability to make much larger blunders continues on unabated. I swear to god that when I started at my current workplace, I investigated the tax evasion option for public transit and rejected it because they would only pay for Chicago Cards with fixed amounts and not unlimited 30-day passes. But while cruising the HR website today to figure out how to furnish salary verification in the absence of printed paystubs, I clicked on the link and read the current policy. Guess what! They do offer 30-day passes after all! If it's simply a question of me misreading the policy in the first place, then I'm out over a thousand bucks. If they actually changed the policy in the past few years and never bothered to tell me, then it's only a couple hundred.

I LOVE FINDING OUT SHIT LIKE THIS!

Today is a stressful day in general. We have the inspection this afternoon and we found out first thing this morning that we have to have a honkin' big cashier's check in hand at it. Plus we only got the condo minutes this morning and I at least haven't had any time to review them for problems. Mortgage rates are oscillating wildly, making every choice (locking in now or waiting for another decrease) seem like a bad one and dealing with lenders is about as much fun as dental surgery.

Are we done yet?

Comments

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

I freaked out over the big honkin' cashier's check, too. I couldn't eat a bite that day I was so full of nerves. Once the closing was over, my appetite came back wham! I had a lovely chicken sandwich.

I should write a diet book. The Anxiety Diet.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

This isn't even the closing, this is just the earnest money! At least we finally got the minutes (which were apparently sent to the agent in plenty of time; he just sat on them for two days for no reason--grrrr!), which seem to be in good order. Now we're off to have someone we wouldn't know from Adam to tell us thing about the place we don't understand so that we can make a mature informed decision whether or not to continue with the purchase.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

I know it's easy for me to say, but it's really not worth stressing out about mortgage rates. No one knows where they're going, so you might as well flip a coin to decide whether or not to lock in now, then forget about it for a while. Just remember, what seems like a good rate is hugely dependent on when you're buying. lhn and I were thrilled to get a 7+% rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ten years ago, since rates had recently been above 8%. (Also, I was old enough to remember double-digit rates, though I luckily never had to pay them myself.) As mortgage rates dropped like a stone, 7% didn't look so good anymore, but we were able to refinance relatively cheaply and easily.

30-Days Always An Option

[gopower.livejournal.com]

Not to add salt to a wound in a stressful time, but I think the CTA always had the 30-day option for tax savings; the Chicago card is what's new(er).

(For the uninitiated: you pay for mass transit through pre-tax dollars through your employer, giving you a savings of whatever your top marginal rate PLUS the 7.5% you pay in FICA - It's a federal program good with any us mass transit agency. Call your HR dept. now!).

I too have failed idiotically to pull the trigger on that clearcut savings, in part because I had dreams of biking to work 80-plus% of the time, making the 30-day cards useless. That is not so much a factor with the Chicago card. Besides, this year, I haven't biked 10% of the time. But next week, as they say, will be different!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, we've found a lender who will let us lock in a cap and then give us a lower rate at no charge if one's available closer to the closing. Seems like the best option--and you're right that refinancing isn't such a big deal, but it would certainly feel foolish to have to do it within the first year.

[lifeandstuff.livejournal.com]

My bad news is that home inspectors are very uneven in terms of competence. Mostly, I think they aren't very good.

I mean, it's a good idea to have them and they'll catch stuff like water damagae you might have missed on your own, but in my case I had 3 home inspectors do my house and all 3 had wildy different things they considered "wrong" and of those I'd say there was really only one thing truly wrong (a heating pipe which might have been leaking carbon monoxide in my basement which is a very real issue I had fixed the next day!) (and only one of the 3 inspectors caught it).

On the other side, they also "invented" a lot of things wrong that just weren't. I swear they made them up out of nowhere, which created a problem because I can't fix things that aren't broke even if I want to. :)

One inspector probably helped kill a deal my telling the potential buyers that my deck was unstable when it was was built WAY above normal standards and inspected by a impartial professional deck company saying so in quite strong terms.

Another one did the same thing with a couple of windows which had nothing wrong with them. I can't even remember what he said was wrong, but I had someone in to inspect it so they could "fix" it and they couldn't figure out what to fix since nothing was really wrong. :)

My problem (as the seller) was the the inspectors came up with problems that actually didn't exist (like the deck), so I had no way to fix it even if I wanted to since nothing was wrong. :)

[lifeandstuff.livejournal.com]

I kind of agree with this. Don't stress over something you can't really predict and thus do anything about it. It will be what it will be.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

When I told my agent I had an inspector in mind, she said, "That's fine as long as it's not XYZ Corp. They exist to kill deals." She once had a sale where XYZ Corp made up a lot of crazy shit about how wrong the ductwork was and how it had to be replaced. It took four inspections by various experts in ductwork to convince them that nothing was wrong so the sale could proceed.

In the end, we went with the woman our agent recommended and she was awesome. Everything she said sounded infinitely reasonable to me. (And my dad was a carpenter, so there are at least some details it's hard to bullshit me on.)

[lifeandstuff.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear the inspection, earnest money, etc went well. One more thing down!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Speaking of stress, how's the painting going?

Checks and inspections

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

When I bought my place in El Masnou, I had to pay with the equivalent of cashier's checks made out to "bearer", meaning if they were stolen, anyone could cash them. I was a little nervous walking around with more than 300,000 € in my hands.

In California you have to be careful that inspectors aren't connected with the firms that do the repairs, for obvious reasons. Usually you are under pressure to agree to fix things in order for the sale to continue.

And then there is the "mountain" of paper to go through at the "signing". Here in Spain there was just one signature on one document to sign. They handed me the keys as I handed them the checks.

Chuck, not contemplating selling anytime soon