That's my home. It's a townhome and the middle of a set of 6. Three stories of all mine. Ok and the bank's as well. I bought my home in August 5th, 2007. Just before the big crash when all lending stopped for homes. I was lucky to get in just under the stoppage and after the bubble burst so I didn't pay top dollar. It was brand spanking new. I was the first owner. All mine.
Now you have to understand that I had been a renter of apartments for over 30 years. I had dealt with old cheap carpet. White walls that you can't paint or you can but then you have to paint them back to white when you leave. Who wants to do that?! Ok I know a couple of folks have done that but not me. There is that thing where you have to cart your laundry and share the washer/dryer (and hopefully someone before you didn't wash colors that bleed before you) and later in renting career I was able to afford the apartments that had their own washer/dryer. But still. In my own home there is no dumpster. I get my own trashcan. Ahhhhh I was loving this "all mine" thing.
It was worth all the hassle to sign away my life in 2 inches of paperwork. The proverbial "sign here", "initial there", "initial that you signed here", "sign her that you initialed that". That took an hour and I know how celebrities feel. Jeez. That whole process was VERY intimidating. I had a really good interest rate for 2007. It was 6.75%. Everyone else was at 7% or even 9%. So I thought dang I did good.
Flash forward to 10 years later. Now everyone has either refinanced somewhere in the 3% or 4% range, or given their home back to the bank and moved one, or took the loss. I chose to stick it out. I had a job that was literally only 2 miles away and all my shopping was within that 2 miles. I had a unique home that I had waited all my life for. There wasn't any other place I wanted to move too. Why do anything. I was making my mortgage and all my other bills. I wasn't saving any money to my savings but I would later I thought. It then became painfully clear that I really needed to refinance. I had worked on my FICO score to get it to the 650 or higher. It was finally in a place that I could leverage it. I was so afraid of being taken because I had so many stories that was what kept me from doing it earlier.
I contacted my mortgage company and it turned out to be quite a bit easier than I thought. I didn't negotiate (as I suck at negotiating) or anything. They offered 4.25% and that was 2.25% better than what I was paying. Oh heck yeah! I'll take it. I thought I would need all that same paperwork as before. But it was quite a bit easier. Just a couple of paycheck stubs, some bank statements etc. Scanned them in and sent them off. Now it was a waiting game.
I forgot about the appraisal. Oh man. I have 10 years of junk and family members stuff in my house now. So goes the mad rush to clean up as best as I can. The appraiser was so nice. She explained the process and she took some pictures that took about 10 minutes. Whew! That wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be.
1 month later I was contacted to meet the notary to sign all the papers. That is what surprised me. The length of time it took to get it approved. So off I go to a Starbuck's and sign away my life again. Another round of "sign here", "initial there", "initial that you signed here", "sign her that you initialed that". And it was done.
I was so sorry that I hadn't done it before. But that loan process was so intimidating. Now that I have gone through it I feel a lot more confident. But that is life. I was just so intimidated that I couldn't see past the process. That is what took me so long to say to myself "just get it done". I do feel that whole thing help me in growing up a bit. I went through a rite of passage so to speak. And I did it all by myself. I was so proud of myself. Plus I saved over $500 a month on my mortgage. Who doesn't want that! Ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment