Stressful week

Though we've found the house, purchasing and financing the house has been a little bit of a headache. Because Matt's been burried in school work (he's actually at school right now...11PM on a Saturday evening), I've had to take over and get things figured out. Luckily I have a financially savvy brother who's trying to teach me about all the things to consider in the loan.

Lesson #1
The APR is a much more important number than the interest rate. APR takes into account interest rate plus all fees involved in the loan. Some lenders charge about $500 in fees, some charge upwards of $8,000 in fees on the same loan. Jerks.

We were supposed to have the closing costs rolled into our mortgage, right? So I figure the only money we'd pay at closing is the down payment since we tacked $3500 onto the house price to take closing costs into account. I thought all fees at the time of closing were considered the "closing costs" and that we wouldn't have to put out so much up front. When we got the estimate of cost at closing it was over $5,000 more than the down payment! What the heck?! I'm still trying to figure this one out. PHH will be getting a call from me Monday morning.

Lesson #2
Don't expect the lending agent to give you all the information you need. They'll often withhold as much information as they legally can in order to get the most money out of you possible.

When Eric (my brother) asked me what our APR was, I had no idea because the agent never told me.

So, I called in and said, "Hey, I just realized I never got the APR from you. What are those numbers?"

His reply was, "You mean the interest?"

"No," I said, "the APR. You know, interest plus the fees."

"Oh, ok. Well, those numbers can just be confusing because...blah, blah, blah."

He finally ended up giving me the numbers, but man, what a down right cheat.

Lesson #3
Do the math yourself and check their numbers. Eric was looking at the figures they gave me and said they couldn't be right. The monthly estimated house payment couldn't be right if we were using the APR they gave me.

Lesson #4 (This was something I made up, not Eric)
Do something in the evening after business hours are over. No sense in worrying about it if you can't do something about it. I decided to pick up acrylic painting. I've never tried it before and a co-worker told me it was pretty cheap. So off to Wal-Mart I went and got me some paints and canvas board. I'm doing a series of 3 because that was how many boards I could get in a package for under $3. I don't know what I'm doing, but it's pretty fun. I think Grandma Hunt's painting I have hanging over my computer is inspirational for me. =)