Mr. V Goes House Hunting

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Mrs. V and I recently decided to take the plunge and to buy a house. In case you don’t know, houses tend to cost a lot of money and can be a lot of work to upkeep. But with Mrs. V finishing school and getting ready to start her post-MBA job, buying a house is the smartest thing to do (at least in terms of our new tax bracket).

I’m looking forward to moving out of this two bedroom apartment that we’ve been stuffed in for the past two years. And the dogs will appreciate a back yard. But there are a lot things that worry me about owning a house.

1) They cost a lot of money.
1A) We don’t have a lot of money.
1B) The bank has a lot of money.
1C) We owe the bank a lot of money.

I’ve never been big on owing money, but being that we don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars lying around the apartment, we got a home loan. Isn’t it amazing how credit works? Okay, so you have no money, but why don’t you borrow all this money from us, pay it back over 30 years, and we’ll call it good. I guess I’m not complaining, because the bank WILL get their money, and we’ll get our house. It just seems wrong to be able to borrow that much money from someone.

Unfortunately, the new house purchase probably means that I won’t be able to go to the SCBWI Summer Conference in August. I try to go every other year, and being that I went in 2005, I wasn’t planning to go in the first place. But it’s not even an option now, with furniture and lawn mowers and refrigerators to buy.

God willing, if everything goes right, we’ll be able to close at the end of the month. My commute will become a little more hellish, but at least I’ll have my own personal office. That’s worth a few extra minutes in traffic.

FYI – thanks to all the supporters for posting reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I always love reading positive reviews, and I really appreciate the support.

8 Responses to “Mr. V Goes House Hunting”

  6. Anonymous

    Congrats! Homeownership is one of the greatest vehicles for accummulating wealth. I trust that you will have a guest bed room for when I come to visit and beat you playing dominoes.

    Sincerely,
    J. Singleton

  7. Peter

    Hey Varian,

    one of your points of view about loan worth my comments.

    1. you said “you can’t believe someone (the bank) would lend someone (you) so much money ….” – In this scenario, the bank wins it all. think about this, you do not “own” the house until the Deed of Trust is released by the court. that means, the bank is having a paycheck from you once a month for 30 years, and still own your house. in case if (which I don’t think you will) do not make the payments, the bank forecloses your house and get the money back. what the bank has to lose?

    The advise that I am going to give you is, don’t put all your money into the house. reserve some cash. $100 cash worths more than $100 credit.