matt

Yesterday I was making dinner for myself after a trip to the gym and I had some bagels but I felt I wanted something else so I quickly made a 90 second brown rice packet and threw in a few ounces of salsa and what I got was amazing! It was the perfect mix and it tasted so good that I really contemplated making more of it on the spot. Plus, salsa is good for you and brown rice isn't bad either. Whatever I end up having at dinner tonight will definitely have brown rice + salsa with it.

Yesterday we spent an hour or so talking to the mortgage guy for our house, and like everything with this house, it's not exactly as we've been lead to believe. It's not like they lied really, just that I don't think we were fully informed about everything and the full details are now apparent. The one thing that irks me is the interest rate. The bank can't set our interest rate until we are at least 30 days from closing. Since we wont close until the house is built, we don't know what our closing date is, nor can we set the interest rate.

What bothers me about this is that worst case scenario. Part of why we're buying a house now is because of low interest rates. Now, I don't think interest rates will jump 3% by the fall, but they could rise 1-2% and that can greatly affect our mortgage payments. To me, I think they should say "Gee, Mr. Hochberg is buying a house and has committed to it. Let's lock in the rate and get him all set now so we can gain a customer and be all set when the house is done and it's one less thing to do.". I hope that the interest rates hold, or even drop, but we're going to have to seriously consider other lenders more so than I think we had originally thought.

All things considered, we're excited about this house and looking forward to move in day....whenever that is. I'm also rather impressed with our realtor. She actually remembers who we are and every nuance of our details. It's important to me that she remembers all of that because it makes me feel like we matter and we aren't just another customer. Also, I give her more respect for staying on top of things and that makes me feel like we do have a partner in the process. I've had plenty of instances where I've had to constantly remind the sales person I've worked with about various details and then it makes me feel like I'm the one doing their job.

After nearly a week of looking at the facts and comparing and contrasting, yesterday, Marissa and I signed the contract to buy our first house. We stopped by the realtor's office yesterday and signed all 3000 papers and we've begun the process of formally buying our first home. It's really exciting to be buying the house, but it's so anti-climactic because all we have now is a pile of dirt in front of us. It will still be another 6-9 months or so before we actually have a house but that's okay because I'm sure we could use the time to save a little more money for a down payment and make some decisions.

We ended up getting $1000 for free to use at the home studio (it's the place where you can choose what upgrades to have in your home) and we go for our first appointment there a week from Saturday. The whole process of buying a new house is very interesting and I'm excited to see what options we can get and plan literally from the ground up, what our house will be like. Tomorrow Marissa and I are driving out to another KB Homes community to check out a model home with the same floor plan as ours.

Click here to see our pile of dirt

This weekend ought to be fun, as we're going to dinner with Len and Newell tonight at the Turf Club, then it's Hoop Dee Doo for dinner on Saturday night.

This past weekend we went house hunting around South Orlando and to our surprise, we found one we liked. We found a sub division that is being built (well, it's nearly all built) and we found a lot we really like. Basically, it will be a two story, 2100 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage home that has a pond in our backyard inside a gated community. We've been doing research on the whole thing and it all sounds pretty good. So good that we've put a deposit down and Thursday will be the big day. On Thursday we'll go and fully decide to buy or not.

To be honest, I didn't expect to find a house I liked this quickly. It took us weeks before I could decide on a living room set I could live with but when I saw this community and the floor plans and the house, I was really impressed and knew instantly that this was the house for us. I've been to the area about 4 times now and when I was there yesterday, I had a moment to look out from the porch of the model home to the pond, a view that our house will have, and thought to myself "Yes, this is where I want to be and this is the place I want to raise a family". It's beautiful and I'm hoping things go our way so we can sign for it on Thursday.

Yesterday I met with the realtor for 3.5 hours to negotiate, although not much was negotiated. The builder is firm on the price and what comes. The way it works is they include the "bare bones" and you add on only what you want, which is a good idea. The issue is everyone says we should haggle over the price but I spent literally 3.5 hours arguing every point I could think of as to why we should get something extra, be it some more wiring or some money off the price. On Thursday we'll hear more back as to if any of our requests will go through but I have my doubts. Regardless, I do believe it's a great price for what we're getting and I'd be happy with the product we have. Hopefully things will work out, but we'll have to wait and see.