We closed last week on the refinancing of our primary mortgage. We ended up getting a 30yr fixed mortgage @ 4.375% for $256,000 through Everbank. We decided to maximize what we borrowed at this low rate and will use the...
Continue reading "Everbank Refinance Closing Costs" »
While in the middle of our refinance, I received a letter from Wells Fargo (who currently owns our primary mortgage) giving me an opportunity to refinance with them through a simplified process that would cost us nothing to reduce our...
Continue reading "Wells Fargo Three Step Refinance With No Cost" »
I was surprised to learn that our house appraised for $18k higher than we purchased it for in Dec 2008 and our refinance lender will let us borrow an additional $20,000 over our current mortgage balance. I thought lending practices...
Continue reading "Should We Take Cash Out from Refinancing?" »
I have seen lots of tips on when it makes sense to refinance your mortgage, but I disagree with some. Here is my rule of thumb on whether it makes sense to refinance - the key for me is an...
Continue reading "Rule of Thumb for Refinancing" »
I started watching rates closely in July when one of my co-workers started alerted me that he was refinancing. Our mortgage on our house (House #4 in our net worth reports - our primary residence) was initiated when we bought...
Continue reading "Moving Forward with Refinancing As Rates Fall" »
Things are pretty boring financially speaking for us these days. We are plugging along with our plans to pay down an additional portion of our debt load to offset our increased living expenses and decreased income from my wife staying...
Continue reading "Focused on Debt Reduction" »
We finally closed on the townhouse my wife bought before we were married. We had moved into House #4 in December 2008 and had family living in the townhouse (House #3) until the last week of August. We then put...
Continue reading "We Sold our Townhouse - House #3!" »
A month ago our real estate mortgages/debt/leverage looked like this: Property Financing Current Balance PITI Rental Property #1 5.63% 30yr fixed mortgage $ 110,900 $ 1,030 Rental Property #1 HELOC 3.25% variable APR $ - $ - Rental Property #2...
Continue reading "Refinanced to an Investment Equity Line of Credit" »
I got a pleasant suprise this week as I got a copy of the appraisal done for our new equity line on House #2 - $150,000! I orginally paid less than $130,000 back in June 2006 and wasn't expecting any...
Continue reading "House #2 Appaised at $150,000" »
If your like me you make extra principal payments to your mortgage. My wife and I are currently focusing on prepaying one of our mortgages with the highest interest rate. The mortgage is a 30yr fixed @ 6.5% administered by...
Continue reading "The Best Way to Make Extra Principal Payments on Your Mortgage?" »
When we purchased our new home I called both of our insurance companies and received quotes for a new homeowner's policy. With some much going on since we have been married I never got a chance to start consolidating our...
Continue reading "Shopping for Homeowners Insurance" »
When my wife and I bought Houes #4, closing costs were just a blip on the radar screen with some many things to do to get through closing. However, hats off to our mortgage broker, who pointed out we had...
Continue reading "Save Money On Title Insurance" »
Here are the settlement charges for the new mortgage when we purchased House #4: Settlement Charges 801 Origination Fee (1.0%) $2,416.00 803 Appraisal Fee $ 100.00 804 Credit Report $ 8.89 805 Flood Certification Fee $ 11.00 806 Commitment...
Continue reading "Closing Costs from HUD Statement" »
Since we moved into our new home I have spent a bit of time focusing on reducing the heating/energy consumption of the house. The house was ripe with opportunity: I repaired weatherstripping around the exterior doors to ensure there was...
Continue reading "Cutting Heating/Energy Expenses Around the House" »
On the first cold night after we moved into our new home I quickly noticed cold air blowing out of our 1st floor electrical outlets. My father suggested buying foam sealers for the electrical outlets and using the foam cut-out...
Continue reading "Reduce Home Energy Costs by Sealing Electrical Outlets" »
We were able to successfully close on House #4. This house will be our new home perhaps for the rest of our lives. This house has much of what my wife and I were looking for in a home that...
Continue reading "Closed on House #4" »
It took 3 tries, but my wife and I finally locked into a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 4.875% with no fees or points. We are borrowing $241k at this rate. I decided to borrow as much as possible...
Continue reading "Locked Our New 30 year Fixed Rate Mortgage at 4.875%" »
Call us crazy, but we have reached an agreement to buy a house for approximately $301,500. It was the 7th offer we had put on a house during our house hunting, but only the second seller who was willing to...
Continue reading "House #4 Under Contract" »
Well my wife and I recently opted to sign up for a buyer's agent for our home search. My wife wanted to use a full service agent, but she eventually agreed to "try out" a buyer's agent that offered a...
Continue reading "Signed Up A Buyer's Agent with 70% Rebate" »
My wife and I spent the better part of this past weekend looking at houses in the Raleigh/Durham area. Unfortunately I quickly soured when I was looking at the opportunities available in the so-called housing crisis. I guess I have...
Continue reading "Ramblings after a Weekend of HouseHunting" »
My wife and I just went through one of those roller coaster weeks in our house hunting search. We had a house on our radar screen that was out of our price range, but got drastically reduced. It was just...
Continue reading "Rationalizing The House That Got Away" »
Well, my wife and I have started to spending more time looking for our new home. This has kind of been on hold since we were overseas, but our housing circumstancs are changing so that we need to find a...
Continue reading "House Hunting Picking Up Steam For Us" »
Last month my wife and I made a $10,000 payment against the mortgage on our primary house in an effort to paydown the balance so we could cancel PMI after I realized we would earn a 6.7% after tax return...
Continue reading "Paying Down Our Mortgage is Very Addictive" »
I have previously analysized the mortgage on House #3 and determined we could earn a 6.77% after tax return by paying down the mortgage to get rid of the private mortgage insurance. I have been on the fence this as...
Continue reading "Taking Our Savings And Paying Down Our Mortgage" »
As you know my wife and I have been talking about how much is a wise amount for us to spend on our new home given our financial goals. I found this very interesting discussion on people struggling on six-figure...
Continue reading "How Much House On A Six Figure Income?" »
I recently wrote up an analysis on the PMI insurance my wife is paying on her mortgage. I calculated we would get an initial after-tax 6.77% rate of return by paying down her mortgage $19k; just enough to cancel the...
Continue reading "Payoff Mortgage to Avoid Private Mortgage Insurance" »
There are pros and cons to paying off mortgages (or at least accelerating payments) and a lot of people feel pretty strongly about the subject. I personally avoid accelerating payments on the 2 properties I have owned up until now...
Continue reading "Payoff Mortgage for Better Rate of Return?" »
I got a short email from the previous owner of the FSBO purchase I made last year. It turns out he is now looking for a new place to live and wanted to see if I was interested in selling...
Continue reading "Previous Owner Wants My House Back" »
Now that I have converted my current home to a rental property, it's time to start thinking about my next property. My fiancee and I believe that in 12-15 months we will be in position to start looking for a...
Continue reading "Interim Savings Goal of $80,000 for Home Down Payment" »
Here is an interesting article from Yahoo!Finance on the appeal of real estate in college towns. It just so happens both of the houses I own are in very close proximity to local major universities (within 1 mile). I think...
Continue reading "College Town Real Estate" »
According to Michael Masterson in Automatic Wealth the average person with a net worth of $6.8 million owns a primary residence worth $545,000. Wow! That’s a lot lower than I would have guessed. He argues that owning an inexpensive home...
Continue reading "How Much House Does a Typical Multi-Millionaire Own?" »
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automatic wealth
primary residence
real estate
I have finally started my next big step in reaching my $2 million net worth goal. I have reached an agreement with a seller to buy a small 3 bedroom home!I am very excited at the prospect of finally purchasing...
Continue reading "House Under Contract!" »
I have been kicking this half-baked idea around for awhile. As I suspect is the case with many you, I no longer live in my hometown. I live a few hours away and go visit my family and friends in...
Continue reading "Brainstorm - Buying Real Estate in Your Hometown" »
A personal finance weblog of my journey to reach my goal of $2 million + the value of my primary residence.
Current Net Worth: $663,869
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