Change of Plans

Shortly after I wrote my last post I found out that by getting a loan on my own, we wouldn't really be approved for much of a house. This was kind of discouraging because it meant that we had to put our plans on hold for the time being and wait to see what happened next with a few things. One of those things was JB's job. I was unsure how long it would take for them to post the manager position for him to even apply, but then everything started happening pretty fast. They posted the position and he had an interview the following Tuesday. By Thursday, he had been promoted!!!!

This changes things in a great way for us. The house that I mentioned in my previous post, The Walnut, is now a pretty good possibility for us. We now have comparable steady incomes and are working to increase credit scores where necessary for financing. We informed our realtor that we would no longer be looking at resale homes and wanted to focus mainly on getting ourselves a Walnut. Last Sunday, she met us at the model homes and we walked through them again. We looked at the one we want, and then just to be sure, went around and looked at all the others to see the different options and ideas. Finally, we went in and talked to the sales representative.

She went over the prices of the different elevations with us. Luckily the one we want is the least expensive. She also went over some of the basic upgrades that we are most likely going to want in the home. The fireplace is optional, which I think is stupid, but we are probably going to get it anyway. There are no HOA fees for the development, but there are mello roos. The good thing here is that they lower the property taxes so that the mello roos and taxes combined still equal 1.25%. Their lender does FHA loans, which means we only have to put down 3.5% and we would only have to pay 25% down on any options we select, which also goes towards the down payment. This means we don't have to come out of pocket any extra for the options we want. The unfortunate part is that since we don't have 20% to put down, we have to pay a PMI, which is $160 a month!!! Hopefully within the next 5 years we might have enough equity in the home to get rid of that. Who knows what will happen in this state though.

We left the sales office feeling pretty optimistic. I think with both of our incomes and dwindling debt, we should be able to live comfortably in this home. And since it's 2434 square feet, we should be able to stay there for quite a while, family expansion or not. We made an appointment at the design center this Thursday to go and price out different options and whatnot, and we are going to do a pre-qual to see what suggestions they have to improve credit scores. They have a block for sale right now that would possibly close escrow by November, but we are not sure we will make it in that one with the things we still need to take care of. The next phase will possibly be move-in ready by Feb/March 2010. That will also be good because we can spend that time building up our savings. I tried to include some pics below of the model, although what we end up with is going to look completely different, but the site is being lame, so I put them on my facebook.

After we left the models, we headed over to the mall for lunch. I asked JB if we could look at sparkly things just for fun and he said yes. We looked in every jewelry store, but I already have a specific one in mind and only one store in the mall carries it. Of course we ended up there last. I didn't even find anything at the other stores that came close to the one I want. When I finally got to try it on, it was even more beautiful in person than the pics on the designer's website. I'm sure I won't be getting it anytime soon, but it was fun to try it on and see how it looked in person.

What a great day!