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Now that I am all moved into the house, there were a million things to do in the house. The first priority in the house was to change the door locks. This may be a ridiculous task, but who knows how many people have keys to the house. I was just walking out of my house the other day and one of the contractors down the street was using my water out front! He gave me 40 bucks and I was okay with it. There will be a million projects that you will want to work on, but you have to prioritize what you want to do. I ended up going to Home Depot just about everyday for about a week and a half. Read on »

After 45 days including a delay, I am officially a homeowner. I closed on my townhouse in Baltimore City and came to the stark realization that there wil be no more rent money paid to the man. It definitely is a wonderful feeling and the responsibility of making this my first home has become real. Being at the settlement table was nerveracking at first. But after a few jokes of “signing my life away” to what the hell is this paperwork, it made it seem so much more comfortable. The title company was great, the sellers agent was great and of course I had one of the best agents ever. I will post a couple more times on the necessary items that need to be done while moving in and post from the new house. I will be going over all the documentation that I signed and see if I can find anything. Now let’s see if I can put that 1 year home warranty to good use!

I was supposed to close on my house on March 8th and we were pushed back by the lender for 2 weeks due to an issue of the ground lease in Baltimore City. As more and more news about the subprime lending being cracked down upon, it slowly trickles into the legit companies. My agent told me that she has gone to the same lender many times before with ground rent and it was no issue. All of a sudden it has become an issue. The final closing date now is on the 21st. You may think that closing was easy, but the companies nowadays are asking for a lot more paperwork. In this slumping market it seems that you will have to have your paperwork ready. I had to go and get everything from my bank and even my mother’s bank.

We’ll see how it goes on Tuesday.

It’s getting down to the wire now and there are still a few things that we need to round up before sitting at settlement. I recently received my gift letter from my mom and the money was received. I will then have to go to the bank and get a cashier’s check to bring to settlement. As of right now, the underwriters are taking care of some last minute paperwork to get the loan application through. The main idea of the gift letter is to show the lender that the money does not have to be repaid. Read on »

So you paid your taxes already and you made a mistake on your taxes that may affect your refund, it’s time to fill out the 1040X. Luckily, this form is really short and quite simple, especially, if you have a copy of TurboTax or TaxCut. I forgot to deduct my student loan interest this year (FORM 1098-E). I could not deduct all of my student loan interest, but I could deduct about 90% of it. I quickly saved a copy of my original return and continued to make a correction on my 1040. Read on »

If you don’t know what ground rent is, then you have finally come to the right place. The interesting thing in a lot of cities is that the ground that the property sits on is not owned by you. This dates back to the mid 1800’s. My ground rent is approximately $75/year and the owner of the property can collect this money. I am in the process of finding the owner of this land and pay them accordingly. In 2004, legislation was passed to allow the homeowner to “redeem” the ground by paying a buy out fee. Read on »

I have a little over 2 weeks before I close on the house. There are so many things that need to be rounded up prior to closing. One of which was the appraisal. I really hate the way that they appraise the house. Some say this and others say this. This is all dependent on whats going on in the neighborhood around you. Once the appraisal was finished my agent is taking care of the paperwork necessary to finally put the application in for the loan. This has been a tedious task, because of the full documentation needed to prove my income (which is very little might I add) and the amount of debt. I paid off all of my 5K in credit card debt and now only the school loan and car payment is left. Boy, does that school loan really mess with the net worth. Read on »

I had to quickly call a few companies for homeowner’s insurance. There are few critical numbers that you need to get ebfore calling for a quote. In Maryland, online quotes are not available so you will have to speak with a CSR (customer service rep) to get a quote. Here is what I discovered. Read on »

After 2 summers and this winter of looking, I have finally purchased my first home. It took a little time find my home, but it is finally done. I put in a bid two days ago and the seller accepted it. I bid 19K below the asking price and got it. I am now in the process of finding homeowners insurance and figuring out what to do to save some money in the mean time. I will be on a 30 year fixed mortgage at 6.5%. It isn’t cheap, but it isn’t too bad I suppose. I will post pics of the property once I close and lets see if I can make it to closing.

In the light of recent events of buying a home, I was thinking about taking some money out of my Roth IRA to pay down some of the closing costs. I was reading on the web and there are a few simple rules to avoiding the 10% penalty for early withdrawal and taxes. Technically, you must meet two of the requirements to receive a qualified distribution. The law now allows individuals to receive distributions from their traditional IRAs to pay up to $10,000 of first time homebuyer expenses without incurring the 10% early withdrawal penalty that usually applies to withdrawals from traditional IRA before 59 1/2. But… Read on »