Havenbasin Road

Still haven’t really found a place that I have fallen for, seen a few that I like but nothing that just grabs me. That is a good thing in my opinion. Much easier to negotiate on a place that I am interested in but can live without. I figure that there are other places out there and if I get my heart set on one specific one then the brokers will get their hearts set on my pocketbook. That is something I really want to avoid, they should be worried about their own pocket book not looking to mine. I know I am going to have to open it up a bit to get a decent house, but still.

Something I had been thinking about, if I can sell my home plus selling houses = income. The only problem with that is the selling houses part. I am sure I probably need to purchase some before I can start selling them. Otherwise, I hear, the actual owners get a bit irritated about things. I can imagine that, coming home to find someone moving their stuff in any your stuff out, telling you that they bought the house fair and square. That might happen with the foreclosures, but in a worse way, probably wouldn’t be as amusing.

Getting closer to the house buying I want to do, say another few months is what it is looking like anyway. The mortgage news seems to be looking up as well, at least in my part of the country. That isn’t necessarily a good thing; I am hoping the rates stay low for awhile. I am also hoping they extend that tax relief stuff in the states. That would be a great deal. I have to keep looking around, as it the house I had been interested in is now pending sale. I wish them luck with it, who ever bought it. It looked like a good place.

I think I should get one of those cordless phones then run it over IP, that way it would save me some money and all I would have to do is pay for the internet connection.  Just haven’t gotten that far yet.My home office needs a some more computers. At least that is the way it feels at the moment. The one I have is about 4 years old by now, and while it is still working well I think it is time for an update. Four years in the computer world is ages in the real world, things change so fast.  You are pretty much behind the times about six months after you purchase any new computers.  It would be nice to be able to keep up by getting a new pc every six months. At least at first, after awhile it would be tiring having to keep moving your stuff all the time.  Updating the software all the time is fun enough, having to do the hardware would be quite unpleasant. Although, I would certainly be willing to give it a try. 

The printer I got awhile ago isn’t as good as the one I had before. It works so I am not complaining about that, but it doesn’t print as clear as the previous one.  Which is a bit of a pain, as I thought it would be better than the last one, but it does work as several different things, making it still a good deal. I don’t have to worry about looking into fax machines or even want to think about other office equipment like that.  So, it does save me money, just wish it was a bit better in the printing department, but overall it still works. Which is a good, cause the price of printers and stuff is still about the same as it was before. At least for new ones.

Something else to go along with what we’ve been talking about all week is the green stuff. No, not money but things like solar panels and water tanks. Things to make you and your place self sufficient. It would be great to be able to not be dependent upon the power grid or the local water plant. Being self sufficient would be much better in my mind, that way you could utilize their stuff but be fine when it wasn’t available, like during storms or severe winters. If you can take care of your own power requirements you could even, depending on where you were, sell your excess back and that would be hard to beat. Having a green place is pretty much just common sense anymore.

With a good place and along with all the other stuff I have been talking about you would also want a dog, maybe a big dog. Just for security and friendliness. A dog makes the place seem less empty and more warm, I think. Cats too, but only one. Alright, maybe two. They would need to be indoor cats as I wouldn’t want them wandering all over outside, if they did that then they wouldn’t really be my cats. Those kind of cats seem to belong to the neighborhood more than any one person or place.

Went for a very long drive this weekend, early today actually. Just got back and was thinking to keep to the general trend of thought for the week. I was thinking about what kind of house I would like and even more importantly,  where I would like. Remember that realtors credo, location, location, location. I would like a very nice place, secured but unobtrusively so. A place with a great view and of course privacy. I do not want my neighbor right next to me, need space.

There are a lot of different places you could go or check for mortgage information but probably one of the best places to go for mortgage news is your local bank. Talk to you bankers representative, whoever does the home loans there. They should be willing to talk to you and go over your options, maybe even give you some ideas or other places to check and find mortgage deals. They could lead you to people who might be able to help, and you should be a bit better off trusting their sources. That way you don’t have to worry as much about being taken, although you will of course still have to be fairly careful about things. Just check into what you have been told and verify anything you think is a bit off. The easiest way to verify is to check things out online and see how many sources agree with what you are being told. Even now you should be able to find some mortgage deals if you look around. The biggest problem is making sure those deals are authentic and not some sort of scam. You don’t want to start off with some sort of bad credit mortgage, and if you get taken then you might end up having to.

Earlier posts about loans naturally lead back into talking about mortgages. It is a fairly important subject when you are talking about houses, unless of course you can just buy the thing outright. Otherwise it is one of the major things you will be worrying about. There are different types of mortgages but honestly there is only one type that you should even be thinking about, especially after all that has happened in the housing market. The fixed rate really should be the only consideration, unless you really know what you are doing and are in a very good financial position already.  Of course if you are in a very good position you could just talk cash for home instead of looking into mortgages.

The biggest problem I know of with insurance is choosing what and who. Choosing what to insure and choosing who to insure with. You hear stories on the news about companies not paying, weaseling out by using small print or lawyers to twist what was written to mean something else. It is sometimes difficult to know who to go with, at least it is a problem I am having.

A building and contents home insurance quote is really only necessary if you have a lot of stuff you need protected. To be honest, that kind of stuff you probably already have individually insured. It makes the most sense to have the important items individually insured and then maybe do a homeowners type of insurance; general thing that just covers everything else.  Home insurance would be important though, even if you forego homeowners insurance. The home insurance will help you keep a bit of sanity and hopefully help in case you need it. That kind of insurance is something I would really want to check on, look into and verify with other customers of whoever I was thinking about going with.

The other thing you want to be thinking about is insurance, as I have said before. It is probably one of the more important things, although it really comes more after you have bought the house than while you are considering purchasing. But, thinking about it, it is probably good to at least think about it, take it into consideration while you are thinking about whichever house you have fallen in love with.  Something that really comes later, as you are moving in perhaps, is to consider contents insurance. Think about what you have and how you want to insure it. If you don’t have all that much, then you probably don’t need to worry much about the extra insurance costs.

I talked to my bank’s loan broker quite a while ago and probably need to go back to see how things stand now. I spoke to them before the bank failures occurred and the other bank stuff hit the fan. I don’t know what has changed exactly in my case, might be nothing because as far as the bank is concerned I am probably in about the same position as when I spoke to them a while ago. Which is not a bad place to be with all that has happened since then.

There are a lot of options for you when you are looking into loans, places to find more information and stuff. I have used the loan calculator a couple of times on my bank’s site; the loan calculator is definitely something you are going to want to play with when you are thinking about a loan. I don’t mean the specific one I am using, your bank most likely has the same thing and if you look online you will be able to find a whole lot of others offering the same type of calculator, some even have more stuff you can play with.

Something a person would be concerned with if they are planning or thinking about buying a house is, of course, loans. A house loan, specifically. Although, maybe you are one of those who would not have to worry about a loan, and would be able to just purchase a house outright. If you can do that, more power to you! I want to be doing that soon myself! However, at the moment I have to think about different options for loans, if I am serious about picking up a house. I am certainly getting closer to that point. Although, may have a month or two more, who knows.

If you are in a good apartment or condo there are several things that might make you hold off on buying a house. Mainly the convenience of everything. The yard work is taken care of, garbage and sewage are taken care of. And if something breaks you don’t have to buy a replacement or repair things yourself you just call the manager and they normally take care of it. Being in an apartment is not bad, but there is something about a house.

I have been thinking about the different aspects of housing because buying the first new house is a bit nerve wracking. There are so many things to consider. I have talked about a few already in previous posts, and to be honest I will probably be talking about some of them again until it sticks, and I get it. Once I get it then I can start considering the other stuff about after you have a new house. Like the regular upkeep costs and other things I will have to cover, instead of not worrying about it with an apartment or condo.

This week is going to be about housing, buying and what you need to think about. Some I have already pointed out, but as I have also pointed out (I am sure I have), I often need repetition myself to get things. It’s not that I have a hard head, although some would claim that, but I do have a lot going on so some things get passed over if I haven’t thought about them in a while. The less important things at the time get dropped off the edge of my mind into a temporary storage area. This is great and the only problem with it is that after a certain time I tend to dump everything in there whether I wanted to or not.

I am not drunk on the idea of bathroom suites, honestly. It is more of a design fascination, than anything else. Thinking of ways to design my upcoming house. I am not quite there, but I am certainly closer than I was yesterday, and the day before. Think of it as personal preparation, that I am kind enough to share with all of you . I am such a nice guy, huh! There are other rooms, of course but they aren’t as interesting as the bathroom.; think of the different things you can do for bathroom furniture. Really, only the kitchen and some outdoor areas have as much stuff you can play with. The bedroom and office and other rooms should be fairly simple, elegant is best, and definitely easy to use but comfortable to be in. I am sure many of you could go wild in the bedroom but I like a bit more relaxing, some place that you just don’t want to leave. The office space should be elegant and functional, everything easy to use. I do of course want some wall shelves in my office, or maybe skip those and just make one room a library. The library is part of an ethical home, a green one.

Everyone should have a library, but I know that in this world of changing things many people seem to prefer reading books electronically. Even I do the majority of my reading on the computer or in some electronic form; however there is nothing quite like a good book, still. So, I would like to have a library, a place that I could go into and relax, just to enjoy the company of books, the calming atmosphere. A library is probably not what many of you are thinking of, but it is something I have always wanted. Not necessarily a complete library all my own but at least one room in my house that I could call that.  Of course, for a library or anything else you need cash, but cash for home is always needed.

I haven’t really had any of my close friends living really close around me for years, so I am pushing to get some friends over here. Some of my friends moved to an area I had been looking into when I decided to move a while ago and now they are really wishing they had come here instead. I didn’t have that much to say about it, but I did tell them they should have listened to me.

I was talking to some other friends about some of the stuff I had already mentioned before about mortgage news and stuff, but they weren’t that interested. What they were interested in was the fact that they could significantly drop their monthly payment. They were saying that any house around two hundred thousand would give them a much lower monthly bill than they are already paying. I thought that was nice, cheaper mortgage rates are certainly a good thing. When I moved my rent dropped by about eight hundred fifty dollars. That is really quite a big savings, when you think about it. I am encouraging them to move, only thinking of their welfare. Well that and the fact that if they are closer I can bother them more and would have somebody else to go out and do things with.  Luckily they don’t have to worry about trying to get rid of their current place, as they are renting; which is good because the selling price of their current home wouldn’t allow them to sell for cash quickly.

Trying to convince them to move to the area. I think they will really like it here. They are currently looking around for a new place, working slowly into being a home buyer keeping an eye on the housing market all over, I think. However, they were saying that some of the places here were looking pretty good. Especially the pricing. I agreed, on some of it but I seem to find the prices for the places I would actually want to still be fairly high.

Thinking again on homes and insurance, but,  now just thinking about them together. I paid all of the insurance; if you read before I was talking about all the bills coming due at once. That is not fun. I have also mentioned wanting to get a house, well it occurred to me, while having to pay the other things that something I need to keep in mind is the additional costs of a house, which I hadn’t really thought of. The first obvious one, is of course, insurance. Home insurance, is somewhat important, at least it makes sense to have it to me. I haven’t read a lot of home insurance news but I know there have been issues just like with any other type of insurance so you have to be careful who you trust for your insurance.  After insurance, I thought about taxes. Those can take a large amount, yearly. That really depends on where you live and what kind of tax stuff they have going.

Home ownership has many extra costs associated with it. I was thinking of insurance and taxes and then that just led me on down the road to consider other things I am going to have to account for after buying a home. Maintenance is a big one. Living in an apartment a lot of times maintenance is taking care of for you by management so you don’t have to worry much. That includes appliances. Your fridge breaks, dryer on the fritz? No problem. Call the management and they will send somebody out to take a look at it and if needed, replace it. Can’t beat that! But when owning a home, the only management you can call is yourself. There is also the security system as well, you will have to take that into account. How much, if any, you want to spend or what type you want to go with. Makes me sit back a moment; definitely have to do more thinking about this as there is a lot to consider with a new house. I still feel that it is worth it, long as you are aware of what you are doing.