Stress

[judecorp]

This whole house-buying thing is really getting to me. It seems like every day I find out about some new hitch or worse, some new expense. $500 here and $1000 there doesn't seem like so much when you're talking about the expense of a house, but when I am dropping pretty much a major majority of the money I own on housing us, the little bits add up and I start having to configure in my head: Do I buy title insurance or a washing machine? Can I afford X or do I need a sofa? I just want to cry all the time.

Thankfully the closing is on Monday and one way or another it will be over. But I am NOT thrilled with the process. I don't like that the lawyer e-mails Jen without CCing me. And I don't like that we're supposed to make a decision about title insurance and yet no one has mentioned such a thing before. And I don't like that I am paying HUGE sums of money and yet it is not enough, there is more money to be paid and then there needs to be some furniture and a washer/dryer and the furnace repair and wallpaper removed and the dishwasher installed and the homeowners insurance pre-paid for a year (that was the other day's surprise) and on and on and on.

It's far too much for me.

Comments

[hoo.livejournal.com]

Title insurance is usually mandatory for the mortgage, and its optional for you as owners. I chose to pay the extra and cover myself as well as the bank.

Paying up front for the insurance surprised me too. Then the insurance agent surpassed himself, he took two checks (flood insurance also gets paid ahead), cashed one, lost the other, and didn't credit my account for either.

The final surprise expense will probably show up in a year or two, whenever the town changes the valuation of the house to reflect what you paid for it, and ups the real estate tax. Mine went up 50% after I'd lived here for 15 months.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's mandatory for the mortgage and we had been told that, and we were told we had an option to buy for ourselves. We asked for additional information about what exactly title insurance was and never got the information. And then today we found out the cost. Today. As in Thursday when we close on Monday.

The insurance up front isn't as big a deal to me partly because our insurance isn't very high and partly because we would have had to pay it anyway, you know? (Thankfully, no flood insurance.) But holy crap, that would have pissed me off to no end about the lost checks. Gah.

As for the property tax, yeah, I'm expecting that too so it's not as bad. And our house is fairly inexpensive (and the difference between 2006's tax price and what we paid is not all that different) so it won't be a dramatic increase. But there is some peace is knowing something is coming.

It's the mysterious, "Oh, and this, too..." crap that is pissing me off... compounded by the fact that the people are all dealing exclusively with Jen and I am holding the bank check.

[iansha.livejournal.com]

We had the same problem, but in reverse. Since we haven't officially hitched yet, the house is M's deal. The people we were working with Agent, realtor, etc all contacted ME for everything (because M is notoriously unavailable nearly all the time 'cause of work) and I had to filter info to him.

VERY frustrating for us both.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I could see how that could get sticky.

At least you guys were in the same town!