We’ve been living in our house for a few years now as actual owners, having bought the place from my parents and gotten our own mortgage. Ours is an adjustable rate mortgage that is fixed for the first five years, the idea being that we would move before those five years were up so that we wouldn’t end up paying crazy interest rates.
Thankfully, rates haven’t gotten too bad since we bought the house. Still, I’ve wondered if I should refinance my mortgage rather than sitting on the adjustable rate until we get the new house, since we’re moving slowly on getting the house ready for sale and finding a new place to live.
Berta has selected a few areas in which she would like to find a new home, all nearby. It turns out that our current house is equidistant from both of our offices now that she’s in her new building. If… no - when we move, it’ll have to be somewhere that isn’t too far to drive. I’m kind of spoiled right now in that I only have to drive 2 miles to get to work. It saves a lot of time in the morning, and I’m sure that daycare costs for the kids are (or will be) low in reflection of not having them in that care for the extra travel time.
Looking at new houses is fun. I’m not really looking forward to the whole mortgage rate/bank selection thing, though. Last time, we went with Quicken Loans, who it turns out is just a broker for loans. And so now I get all kinds of “refinance your mortgage” mail from financing companies they’ve sold our address to. The bums.
There’s just so much to do to prepare the house. We need to finish off the basement and the back porch. Re-hang the gutters. Maybe replace the roofing. Fix the upstairs shower. There are some other things, to do, too. Maybe the list isn’t too long (well, I’m sure Berta’s is super-long) but everything is very involved or costly.
Ah, the drag of home-ownership! Makes you want to live in a tent sometimes.
