I have a problem
I want a condo. This condo to be exact. It is $144,900 and property taxes are $3253 a year. I've worked it out and the payments for this, including a... let's play with high numbers... 7% interest rate, mortgage insurance, property tax, condo association fees, and the actual loan, are still about $300 under what I've budgeted for mortgage payments. Now to the problem.
My lease ends in June, I want a month to move so I'd like to close on a deal on April 30th. And I can't just take out a loan for $144,900 because I've been told you're supposed to have a down payment and, on a condo (as opposed to a single family home), you need 10% down. I'd be ok with the 3.5% of an FHA loan, but this condo isn't certified for that so I can't take out the loan through my credit union.
I've received a lot of advice on this. I've been told to look into first time home buyer grants (WI doesn't do that and I'd feel like I was maybe stealing from people if I took it anyway). I've also been told to ask the seller to pay the down payment and closing costs. I... didn't know you could do that? Closing costs I knew, and was going to ask (I'm planning on offering the asking price. I'm willing to offer more if it really does get me out of a down payment). But the down payment too? And how do I do that if I need to be pre-approved before making an offer but I can't be pre-approved without having the money up front? I checked into a VA loan but it's only for spouses, not former dependents. I'm looking at a loan through Wells Fargo or USAA since my Credit Union can't really help me because they're too small.
You guys. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing! I just know I'm paying as much for rent right now as I would for a mortgage. And the condo fees at the place I want include heat. I might actually be saving money. If I could only get rid of this stupid not-a-whole-lot-saved-up problem. I wish I found this job like 8 months ago and not 5 weeks ago.
It's so frustrating that I've found a perfect place to buy, that's in my budget, that I can't have. Because in my budget isn't good enough.
Someone please know more about this than I do!
P.S. I thought about my Roth IRA but I can't just take money out of it because it's worth about half of what I've put in the past 3 years. I about had a mini anxiety attack opening that statement. I'm not touching that thing, except to add to it. So I can keep getting statements to crumple up and throw across the room.
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Sometimes family can be helpful in these situations. I of course don't know your particular circumstances.
I'm not sure that patience is not the best advice I can offer. Paying rent sucks. But you don't want your condo to be like your Roth IRA and be another investment that plunges in value.. Different real estate markets across the country are reacting to the economic crisis differently but I am not at all certain that in general the real estate market has found a bottom. Every month it seems like we hit a new record low.
That $145K condo may be only worth $130K next year and that means that the 10% you put down about ($15K) would have evaporated. No matter how much money you saved on rent, tax benefits, heat, etc it would be wiped out by a capital loss like that and it might take years to recover. Why not be patient and let the current owner absorb that loss instead and then come in as a buyer at the bottom of the market!
It is a buyers market now so you can drive a hard bargain with sellers that are generally desperate. I think it may be a better buyers market a year from now and that would give you time to save a lot of that down-payment.
I think there may be some very substantial tax incentives in the recent Porkulous Bailout Stimulus Bill for home buyers. I don't know the details but you may want to research those so that you can take advantage.
Also you should think about the stability of your employer and your particular job. It is better to be a renter than an owner if you find yourself unemployed and this is a fairly scary job market for working people.
I think patience might be best. As much as I love that condo... a big part of that love is probably the "this could be mine!" feeling.
I was walking around that neighborhood tonight and there are a lot of apartments with underground garages and utilities included in the rent that I never saw in my online apartment search. And I'm sure they're still cheaper for rent than my current place, which is nice and big and pretty but the walls are paper thin and it's not in the best neighborhood and I'm not really happy here anymore. So... I have to make some phone calls and I might just move into a cheaper apartment for a year and save up a down payment and closing costs and then look again. Owning a place is definitely a want and not a need for me and something I may have gotten overly excited about when I started seeing my brand new paychecks and realized I could do it. But I can also wait for a year and save up some money and maybe build my credit by replacing my '89 Accord--something I was going to put off because I was saving to buy a place.
I think the incentive was either a $7500 tax refund for first time home buyers or a $15000 tax credit split into $7500 over 2 consecutive years. I don't remember which, but the latter sure sounds nice...
But... I think I'm going to gaze longingly at these photos, and convince myself that walking through that condo was good enough for now, and then start thinking of little tiny things that I might not like about that place and let them grow in my head until I've convinced myself I always hated that place anyway. :-D
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I asked my mom. She says to look for a buyers real estate. She highly suggests looking for one through USAA, because they'll really help you and give you advice, and USAA usually will give some sort of benefit by going through them.
Look into getting a no-money down loan. My mom got money back at closing for the house I'm living in now, and she paid closing costs (which amounted to a couple thousand, tops). She also split her loan 80/20 to avoid paying the 20% down payment (or whatever the heck it was).
~C
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I do everything through them, checking, savings, my daughter's 529, and our car insurance is all through them.
They actually reimburse all ATM fees I pay, and charge me no service fees. I love them. Their customer service is amazing. I can do everything online, even insure a new car if I need to.
I am assuming your father, who I know passed away, was a veteran? Your mom might be able to help. She could have her name somewhere in the title, and actually have the loan in her name. The two of you could be co-owners. I don't know how the dynamics between you 2 are, but it could save you a lot of money.
My father wanted to do that for us, but I turned it down because I don't like the idea of him owning something and letting me borrow it, even though I would be the one making all the payments. It always comes with strings attached.
I heard, but haven't verified it for myself, that the economic stimulus package is going to give first time home-buyers a $15,000 tax credit. That is your down-payment and then some.
Also, you can find your own realtor, that looks out for you. Find one that is certified in FHA loans. Look at properties that qualify. The FHA loan is not one I would pass up just because your first choice doesn't have that option. If you need to switch banks to get a better deal, I would do it.
The loan you choose is most likely a 30 year relationship. You can't afford to not get the best possible deal.
I have recently thought that buying a house is a fluke, unless I want to turn it around and sell it a profit when the market comes back, or rent it out as times get harder. Using a simple mortgage calculator on any bank website, you will see that by the time you pay off a house over 30 years, you will have paid twice the price you financed in interest. I think that is crazy. Of course, everyone expects the house to appreciate in value at the same as paying that interest, but still, I find it a hard pill to swallow, personally.
I will still probably end up buying something, but I am still thinking that buying a house might just be another one of those silly social lies that we like to buy into as people.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes! I am sure there are others of us who would appreciate seeing how it works out for you.
BTW, how are you liking your job?
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Using a simple mortgage calculator on any bank website, you will see that by the time you pay off a house over 30 years, you will have paid twice the price you financed in interest.
That is true. The bank takes a risk when they loan their money to you and it is pretty fair that they get compensated for that risk. Recent events have driven home just how real that risk is and a lot of banks are losing their shirts. A 15 year mortgage, if you can afford it, is much cheaper over the life of the loan.. Or a strategy that will pay the loan off in 15 years but give your more flexibility if you get in financial trouble is to get a 30 year mortgage and double up on the principle. That is nearly painless for the first few years because the principle is so low. It gets harder later in the life of the loan.
But your point is mostly flawed thinking. Your choices are to make a mortgage payment or pay rent. Often rent expense is just about the same monthly cash outlay as a mortgage payment. That is exactly the situation sawaboof is describing. In 15 years from now, your mortgage payment will still be locked in at today's level (except tax and insurance will probably go up) and it will remain that way for another 15 years. But due to inflation, rent will almost certainly be much higher.
And while the mortgage payment may be about equal to the rent payment you also have to consider the tax benefit of deducting interest. This is like Uncle Sam paying a nice chunk of your rent.
But even more important is that with rent you just have an expense and at the end of 30 years you have incurred a lot of expense and own nothing. With a mortgage you have probably paid less money in that 30 year period (because your payment did not go up like rent goes up) and YOU OWN A HOME. It is like like a giant piggy bank. If you get really lucky your home is worth more than you paid for it. Even if it is worth less than you paid, you own something rather than nothing.
It is not a silly social lie. It is the best investment most people ever make.
and I admit I am not an expert on the subject. i too am trying to learn about the mortgage industry, since everything my husband and i have done for the last 3 years has been in the interest of buying our own house.
I understand the advantages, but owning a home also means having to pay for the upkeep, including repairs, often times replacing a roof every 10 to 15 years, pest control, landscaping, keeping tree roots from disrupting the foundation or the plumbing (as my parents have had to deal with) not to mention flooding and other geographical events that might interfere with the house or the property, as you yourself described.
I have not decided 100% what to do yet. I understand the advantage of putting an average rent payment into equity instead of into the hands of a company. Still, what is the percentage that any particular house or property can be guaranteed to maintain its current level of functioning, let alone increase in value?
I did appreciate your points about geography and flooding, and will now extend a thought to sawaboof that was shared with me by my geology professor years ago; it is a good idea to hire your own property inspector before buying any piece of property. My professor actually worked as a geological consultant for home buyers as well, providing them with information about fault lines in the area, flood activity, and evaluating the solidity of the ground the foundation was held in.
In So Cal there are thousands of ocean front properties bought and sold for millions of dollars. What most don't consider is the likelihood of those homes becoming the next Atlantis in the next 10-20 years or so.
It is nearly impossible to make oneself and their property immune to all of the possible elements of destruction, both natural and economic, but I think it is worth investigating to the fullest possible extent.
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Yes, with home ownership comes the responsibility for and expense of maintenance. It is still the best investment vehicle available to most average people.
Condo living seems to offer an escape from the majority of these expenses. But really they just come in a different form. They are built into the association fees. Not all homeowners associations are created equal. Some are way better than others about building adequate reserves, taking care of maintenance, making sure the insurance is adequate, or behaving like Nazis. It is worth checking into.
Renters of course also indirectly pay for things like roofs. Landlords are in the business of making a profit and they build the cost of maintenance into the rent if they are good landlords or they just don't do it if they are slumlords.
Well maintained houses last a long time. A bigger worry then decline in the value of the house is decline in the quality of the neighborhood. In sourthern California I would worry about that a lot because today's suburbia is tomorrow's barrio. Of course if I lived in Southern California my thought would be to flee rather than invest. Buying a home there might be like buying a home in Detroit. Some markets are hopeless.
Many people do not own the same home for 30 years. They buy and sell. Most often the experience has been that values at least remain stable and usually goes up. Everytime someone sells they hopefully get the equity from their original downpayment plus the equity payed in on their monthly mortgage payments plus the equity resulting from a capital gain. They put this equity into the new home and start again.
The recent decline in housing values has been very atypical. It resulted from a bubble where prices soared out of control. Typically for the past 50 years housing prices have increased fairly slowly but steadily. Even after the recent decline, they are still only back to where they were maybe 5 years ago. This pullback should be viewed not as a sign that owning a house is a bad investment but rather that now (or maybe a year from now) is an excellent time to buy. Buy low, sell high. The best investors are buying when others are panicked and selling and selling when others are buying.
USAA is freaking amazing. That's one benefit I did not lose when I turned 21, and I don't plan on ever giving it up, even if my kids and husband don't qualify to be members.
I know someone who was so against loans that they were planning on saving up enough money to pay for a house in full, all while paying rent on a place to live. Here's the big problem I had with that attitude...
If you pay $800 a month for rent, and only manage to save a few hundred, it will take you many years to get enough money to buy a house without taking out a loan. I mean, if you saved $200 a month, and wanted a $200,000 house (which is on the low range in some areas), you'd have to save for 1000 months to get that, which amounts to 83 1/3 years, which is BY FAR longer than you would be paying mortgage on ANY house (Heck, you could have bought 2-4 houses during that time, depending on the length of your mortgage). But, depending on how you saved that money, you might have to pay taxes on it, which would mean it would take longer to save. All the while, you're still forking out $800 a month for rent, money that in addition to that $200 you're saving could have gone to your mortgage. And in some cases, that would be more than your mortgage, interest, and insurance, which means you'd pay off the loan faster.
Buying a house is a whole lot cheaper than renting one for your whole life.
~C
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In So Cal the cheapest home I can buy would be a townhome in the range of $300,000 to $400,000. The average monthly mortgage of such a home is $2500. I can live in an apartment for $1800/mo rent. That is a $700/month difference. What if I invested that $700 into a money market account that gained me up to 30% interest? The amount of profit exceeds that of owning a home.
Of course, the chances of that scenario are slim. However, before the meltdown, such accounts were in huge supply. Sure they might have been over projections, but even now, my daughter's 529 account with USAA projects a 32% return on investment. How can I know for sure it will live up to that? I can't. But I like those odds a lot better than having to pay 100% interest on a home loan.
Again, I know I am playing with the unknown, but that is what we are all doing, whether we borrow or invest money.
In regards to your statement:
"USAA is freaking amazing. That's one benefit I did not lose when I turned 21, and I don't plan on ever giving it up, even if my kids and husband don't qualify to be members."
It doesn't matter whether your husband or children qualify for their services, because you do, and through you, they will enjoy all of the same benefits.
Addendum: sawaboof, if you don't have your car insurance through USAA yet, look into it, they have the lowest rates in the entire nation.
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I think I am definitely going to go through USAA once I decide to buy. I only have them as my car and renter's insurance right now but they are definitely amazing!
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Don't get the condo! With the building boom we just came through, there are WAY too many condos on the market. You may end up stuck in it. It may seem like the ideal situation right now (no yardwork, no shoveling, minimal maintenance), but say you want to move in a couple of year but can't because you owe more on your condo than it's worth? It sucks. I speak the truth. That's where we are right now.
We want to start a family, like, SOON, but we're in a one bedroom with a 50 lb dog, a cat, no yard, and no place for a crib. Can sell because we're underwater. At least we can easily afford our payments. That's the upside. Some people are underwater and have lost their jobs and can't make the payments anymore. We're stuck here, but at least we're not in trouble.
I am only telling you this to give you something to think about. I'm not trying to tell you what to do. Condo life IS nice.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I think this might be really good advice about the house. Houses have a lot more maintenance and utility costs over and above the housepayment associated with them though, The American Dream is still a single family home although this may change as we move into the new era of rapidly expanding socialism and perhaps a long period of less prosperity.
I spent a few minutes perusing the multi-listings which I found at sawaboofs link.
My first observation was that there were at least four condos in the same building for sale. It does not look like either a large building or a new building. That makes me wonder: why are people moving out? Maybe it is coincidence or maybe something is wrong or maybe the market is just really slow. I would want to know and as a buyer I would act deeply suspicious and reluctant even if KNEW nothing was wrong. It is a mistake to fall in love with a particular condo. With several units in the same building it puts the sellers in a tough negotiating position and the buyer in a great position. The strategy, if you choose to move forwards, is to low ball the hell out of the sellers of the units you don't want and see how far you can get them to drop the price. Put terms in your offer that are highly advantageous to you (like them paying closing costs and the down-payment or even carrying the loan) so that they will counter-offer rather than accept. Don't worry about pissing them off because you don't want their unit anyway. Once you have established a REAL fair market price rather than their unrealistic initial asking price, then see if you can get the seller of the unit that you want to match it or go a little lower. Remember as you do these negotiations that your realestate broker works for the SELLER and will give you advice that benefits the SELLER so play your cards close to your chest and don't reveal your true intentions to your broker. Just TELL them what your offer is; they are required by law to present it to the seller even if they try to talk you out of it. Also one or more of these units might be in foreclosure. Banks don't like being in the real estate business and they might make a really good deal including financing that meets your needs to get one of these off their books.
My second observation is that a LOT of condos are on the market. I pulled up 283 of them at a price below $150,000 and the vast majority of them were cheaper then the condo you were looking at. As the old rule goes, real estate is all about location, location, location. I assume there is a reason related to location why these other units are cheaper. (The one you are looking at appears to be on the Milwaukee River which might be nice for recreation and view or a liability if it is prone to flooding. I would take the flooding issue VERY seriously unless you are certain it is not a problem. Lately it seems like across the country those 100 year floods seem to come once a decade. Most homeowners associations have inadequate reserves to deal with this kind of thing and you should check that too.) Nevertheless, when it comes time to sell you will be competing against units like this one that has more rooms, more square footage, more bathrooms, better common facilities, a newer building, etc at substantially LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE. A second full bathroom would make it easier to take in a roomie if your economic circumstances truly got bad. Disclaimer:I know nothing about Milwaukee. This place may be in a dangerous neighborhood, next to a stinky factory, in the boondocks or highly undesirable for some other reason. I just picked it as an example. I hope the price difference is not justified by the nice granite counters, maple cabinets and stainless steel appliances in the more expensive unit because that would be a mistake. You can buy a WHOLE LOT of those sorts of upgrades for the $80k difference in price between the two units. They might justify a $20K difference in price.
If you buy now, a cheaper condo might be the way to go. Assuming the real estate market continues to fall, a 10% drop on $70k is not going to hurt as bad as a 10% drop on $140k. Also the down payment will be half as much and the payments will be a lot less allowing you to save for a future upgrade. I would expect the low-end of the market to recover first so if your timing is good you might be able to sell with a nice capital gain and then still find a bargain to upgrade into in a few years.
By the way, you do not need to be pre-qualified to make an offer on real estate. Just make your offer CONTINGENT on your ability to obtain financing at a reasonable downpayment and a maximum interest rate and points. The contract will then be null and you will get your earnest money back if you can't find a loan matching those terms. There is no reason why you need to offer the asking price. Buying real estate is a negotiation. You can write whatever terms you feel like (so long as they are legal) into your offer. I definately would not offer their asking price. In today's market I would offer at least 15% maybe 20% less as a starting point. It is ok to ask them to pay points, pay for any required repairs up to a certain amount necessary to obtain financing, maybe pay the downpayment, re-carpet the floors, leave the refrignerator or other appliances, throw in a particularly nice piece of furnature that fits perfectly in a certain room, or whatever you want. They will then counter-offer with something they deem to be more reasonable. And then you can counter-offer and this process continues until your reach a meeting of the minds or not. You won't get anything you don't ASK for in your first offer so be aggressive and don't trust your realtor. The higher the price, the more she gets paid by the SELLER. You can always raise the price of your final offer by 10% and have them pay the downpayment as your LAST counter offer. This way you have gotten their lowest price and it costs them nothing to get 10% more and then turnaround and give it to your bank. You could write that last part so that the realtors don't take 6% commission on that last 10%. Just say no. Realtors are having tough times too and they will forego a few bucks to close a deal.
Sawaboof, you seem like a REALLY nice person. You need to set that niceness aside and be ruthless during this process. It will probably be one of the top 10 financial decisions you make in your life so be tough and get it right.
My first observation was that there were at least four condos in the same building for sale. It does not look like either a large building or a new building. That makes me wonder: why are people moving out?
Location is the biggest reason I'm looking at this condo. But I know there are houses in the area too I want to look at. Some are foreclosures and definite fixer uppers and I know enough to stay away from anything labeled "freeze damage." But this condo is definitely in my area. The owners of the particular condo I'm looking at just had a baby and want a house now. I can't say with the other 3 condos in the building, but I do know that particular neighborhood is full of people in their mid-20s. It's a nicer area of Milwaukee and it's close to both my work and all the music/art/local shops and restaurants area I love so much. I'm guessing some people bought a condo to live in during and post grad school and are now thinking it's time to move on from Milwaukee's East Side, and find more "grown up" areas like Brown Deer and Cedarburg. I'm still in my mid-20s and I have almost no friends here and the area I am in right now is not somewhere I want to walk around meeting people.
I appreciate all this advice from everyone. I just came back from Chicago so I still need to read through most of it (after my nap... which I will probably wake up from in time to go to work tomorrow. :P) Thanks, guys!
Jack, I am determined to be ruthless! I really am too nice for my own good sometimes. I am looking forward to reading the rest of your comments, thank you. :-)
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And since posting this I've started leaning toward renting a different place for another year... but I just read through everything you wrote here and I can't even start touching on specific things. Just, thank you for all the advice. I was pretty convinced I had to have pre-qualification for a loan before making an offer so I'm glad to know that's not the case... now I'm getting crazy ideas about making offers just to see what happens before I commit to renting, or buying a foreclosed home for $34,000 and fixing it up while I'm renting for a year... I am looking at a foreclosed home sometime next weekend I think. Looking at houses is addicting once you start! I'm just waiting to hear back from my friend's dad who's going to look at places with me. He builds houses and sells them and I think he's going to help me with the legal stuff if I decide on buying.
I gotta go to bed before my thoughts get crazier but I definitely have some thinking and deciding to do before my lease ends in May. Yikes!
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Looking without buying is a good strategy. You will learn a lot in the process. I'm really pleased that you are going the route of patience. Here are some more ideas:
Don't get attached to one realtor until you find one you are really comfortable with. Some are better than others and you will learn more if you talk to more. Call the realtor who has a particular home listed and get he/she to show it. They usually know the most about it and can often tell you things about the building and the homeowners association that a showing broker won't know. When they list the property they often agree with the seller to a reduced commission if they find the buyer rather than some other realtor bringing a buyer. The commission might drop from 6% to 4.5% if the listing agent finds the buyer. This means the seller can accept a lower price and still make the same amount of money. A 1.5% drop in commission is $2100 on a $140,000 home so that gives you some negotiating room and don't hesitate to let the broker know that the reason you called him directly is you expect a lot of that to end up in your pocket. They probably won't admit that it is true but the point will be taken. The listing agent supposedly works for the seller but they are really working for themselves. If they sell to you they make a 4.5% commission. If some other broker brings a buyer, the two brokers evenly split a 6% commission. So if you call the listing broker directly it puts $2100 extra in their pocket if they can close the deal with you so they are motivated to get the seller to accept your lower offer. It is all sleazy business motivated by greed but you'll do better if you understand the game.
Do find a realtor who will give you their week old copies of the multi-listings. They might tell you that they are not supposed to but most of them will and if they won't, find a better realtor. These are fun wish books. More importantly, near the back are some helpful market statistics that will give you a feel for health of real estate market like: average price, average daysthe market before selling, number of units on the market (inventory is really important), number of units sold and a bunch more. These numbers mean next to nothing by themselves but if they will give you an old multi-list from one year ago and two years ago so that you can compare you will get a good feel for the declining health of the market. If you then start watching them on a goings forward basis you will be a step in front of most people in understanding that the market is starting to turn upwards and be able to buy before the opportunity is lost.
There is usually also somewhere a publication for realtors like the multi-listings that shows units that have gone under contract and units that have sold in the last month. Realtors are very hesitant to show you this but if you are persistent you'll find one who will. They probably won't let you take it with you but may allow you to puruse them in a conference room. This is EXTREMELY useful because it shows you LISTING prices and the ACTUAL CONTRACT prices so it gives you a MUCH better picture of fair market value. If you look at back issues for several months you may find units substantially identical to what you are wanting to buy and learn the exact prices they sold for.
Also go talk to some mortgage lenders. They will probably be able to give you some ideas on how to proceed on the finance front. Keep in mind that they will be trying to sign you up. Politely decline until you have shopped. Get a feel for their FEES. Mortgage companies make their money on FEES. Usually they don't much care about the interest rate because they immediately sell the loan in the secondary market to the Fannie Mae's of the world. They make their money by nickle and dime-ing you on upfront fees. Get them to walk through a sample closing document with you so that when you get to your closing and they are asking you to sign your name in a hundred and fifty different places, it won't be the first time you have ever seen one of these confusing things. That is where you will spot the fees they 'forgot" to tell you about.
Closings can be expensive and you often need to come up with more money then just the down payment. If you close at the wrong time of month you can have to effectively make two mortgage payments so make sure you know what day of month you should schedule your closing.
Figure out if they give you a way to track their interest rates on a daily basis and if there is a way you can "lock your rate in" for a period of time usually 90 days. You won't do this until you get closer to buying but you should start watching now. Interest rates are really low right now so my guess is that locking in might be a good gamble because they are more likely to move up then down. My "patience" advice is rescinded if you start seeing rates move upwards very much from their current historic lows.
Talk to some insurance companies. For most people this is an afterthought and it gets done in a big rush because it is required for the mortgage. Consequently people don't shop and end up paying too much. And pretty often they stick with the same over-priced insurance for the full length of the time they own their home because the mortgage company pays the insurance bill and adds the monthly cost onto your mortgage payment.
You might call a few title insurance companies to see if their rates are competitive. I don't know if there is much variance but it would be worth finding out.
It is also a good idea to shop around a little for home inspection services. Different inspectors inspect different things and have widely different rates. It would be good to find one before you actually need one.
Savings is easiest if it is automatic. If your employer does direct deposit on your paycheck then they can probably do direct deposit to two different accounts. See if they can't put money directly into a savings account for you. It sounded like you had at least $300 of slack in your budget. Maybe with a cheaper apartment you can get that to $400 or more of savings. And the stimulus is supposed to give you a $13 per week or $52 per month break on your payroll taxes starting in a month or two and that could be saved. Most people can set aside a fair amount of money pretty fast if they are truly willing to impose a little self discipline and as you watch the numbers grow it becomes almost a compulsory behavior to scrimp a little more and make them grow faster.
You can get most of this stuff done in a few lunch hours.
My daughter turns 21 in a few day so I'll be giving her all this advice in a about 5 years. I'm just practicing on you. :-)
or anyone else's business, but which of you intends on carrying the baby? I am just curious.
I am friends with a lesbian couple who got married in CA on November 2nd, the day before our elections where we voted "No" on Prop 8.
They are trying for a baby. They are planning on doing it all themselves, not paying any medical middlemen. They have a sperm donor, and are going to use a turkey baster for the event.
They have asked me to be their birthing coach, which I am really excited about. One of them wants a boy, and one wants a girl, I was able to give some tactical advice to manipulate the odds of having either.
Totally off subject, but its one I find very interesting.
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I think I'm gonna do another year of renting (at a smaller apartment than the one I have now, though) and save up for a down payment on a house. I would love a small house with a yard so I can get a huge dog! It's just hard to find houses with garages in the neighborhood I want! But I know they exist and I'm sure they will still exist in a year. That condo was nice and convenient and like 3 blocks from the Maharajah, but if I find a house with a garage and a nice kitchen in that same neighborhood, I'll be all over it. :-)
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Maharajah! Yum. That's a good place to be. But I still say hold out for a house.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
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