Moving, Mortgages, and Idiot Bankers

Latest updates:

1) I officially don't own my house anymore- it closed on Thursday. Whoo hoo!

2) I can't get the super wonderful USDA-guaranteed mortgage because USDA won't count my assistantship as income. Because it's temporary, only for three years. Like I couldn't quit my job or get fired within three years! That's just dumb.

3) The flaky mortgage guy at my bank- who takes days to return calls- discovered yesterday that he can't process an FHA loan for Florida. It has to be processed either in the state where the house is or a state bordering that state. How it took over a month to find that out, I'll never know. So he's passed me along to a banker in Georgia. Hopefully she'll be much less flaky than he was. He assures me they can count my assistantship as income. Which it IS.

4) The original plan was to take the proceeds from the sale of the TN house, and use them to pay off my car, and to pay down credit cards, in order to get my debt-to-income ratio down to within limits. Eric did some research, and for installment debt (like a car payment), FHA won't even count it as debt if it's within 10 months of being paid off. So I paid the car down to that.

5) I'd thought I'd throw the leftover from the car at the credit cards. Flaky Banker Man said he thought I should not pay down the cards at all till after the house is bought. He thought it would be better for me to have some cash reserves. I asked, "What about my debt to income ratio?" He told me that when he ran the numbers, he ran them as if I'd paid off the car but not the cards, and I was fine. So that's very, VERY good. To further the goodness, I got my yearly review at work this week- and a nice little raise, which will help with that ratio even more.

6) The real estate agent who brokered the sale of my house is also the buyer's current landlord. Because he has 4 apartments coming open in August, he told her he's willing to be "flexible" about making her move out. That means that if we can't close on my house in Florida by July 31st, it's not the end of the world, and gives us a little more time to work with if we absolutely need it. And that's VERY good news.

So that's where we are right now. Cross your fingers that Georgia Mortgage Woman is on the ball. It's still possible to close by the 31st if all goes well and quickly. I checked into how much it would cost using PODS, and it was WAY WAY expensive. I also checked ABF U-Pack containers, which were still expensive but half of what PODS are. The ABF container is about twice what it would cost to use a U-Haul. Since I've got some cash on-hand, I'm thinking VERY seriously about it. It would make things a LOT less stressful. With the U-Haul, I'd have the truck for (I think) four days. That's a day to pack, two to move, and another to unload. Doable, for sure, but really stressful. The U-Pack container would sit in my yard for two or three days, then they'd bring it to my new house for me, and I'd have another couple days to unpack. Plus I wouldn't have to drive the truck, my parents wouldn't have to help, and we wouldn't have to take four vehicles (the truck, my car, Eric's pickup, AND my parents' car). I think that's a pretty good option.

I guess that's about it. Mom and Dad are coming to Pigeon Forge this weekend to take the kids to Dollywood- like I've been trying to get them to do for more than three years now. Dad will go crazy over the Thunderhead and Mystery Mine. I think we'll have a great time. Eric doesn't think he'll come, though. He has no desire to pack and stuff when he comes home from work during the week, and needs to use Saturday for that. I don't blame him. I forced him to Dollywood and Splash Country last Saturday. It was fun, but I can think of very few people I know besides myself who would want to go to a theme park two weekends in a row.

In other news, Minnie Pearl has decided she wants to go outside, I'm getting tranquilizers for her and for Kitty Wells for the long drive to Crawfordville, and Trixie Cornbread has become a Great Huntress and has developed a taste for the moths that congregate on the front porch. Before she goes inside, we have to lift her up and help her pick them off the wall. Bless 'er! And bless y'all!