My wife has wanted to move into town for quite some time so that she can be a little closer to friends and to our other activities. I’ve been reluctant to move for a few reasons. First, I think if we bought now, it would be like trying to catch a falling knife. Second, it … Read more
Free Money Finance posted a question from a reader who’s paying on a house that’s now worth less than what’s owed on it. The reader is upside-down on his mortgage, but the mortgage is a 30-year fixed-rate, and he paid 20% down. It wasn’t a teaser loan by any stretch, and it didn’t really sound … Read more
On the way home from town this past weekend, we passed a farm that was going to be sold at auction. My wife saw that the sale was an absolute auction. She asked me what was so great about an absolute auction. When she said that, my ears perked up. An absolute auction implies that … Read more
Today I took advantage of a free water test. The guy was pretty nice, and it turned out that he had remembered my name from talking with my business partner just a couple of weeks earlier. (At least I know a good person to ask for an opinion on the service, because I now know … Read more
A friend at work chatted with me earlier this week about a early-twenty-something couple he knew that were renting and really wanted to buy a house so that they could start a family. It sounded like the couple was letting the housing market “put their lives on hold” because they didn’t want to raise their … Read more
I was spending time with a friend from church this past weekend. At one point the conversation turned onto the insane appreciation of our homes’ values over the past few years. My friend said that he didn’t earn all of that equity. That’s exactly the right answer. I’ve said that of my home’s value, but … Read more
(Geeky math stuff ahead. You’ve been warned!) Get Rich Slowly posted on how to learn to love a house that isn’t so big. They found out that they fit better in their first house, which had over 400 sq ft less than their current house. As additional reading he talked about an NPR article entitled … Read more
Jim told his readers about his experience with LendingTree and he was pretty impressed with it. I was also impressed with it when I did my mortgage refinance a couple of years ago. Jim’s article is good (as always), but I disagree that the banks aren’t competing for your business. On the contrary, they’re competing … Read more