so yesterday, i *thought* i locked in a good loan with wells fargo. 1 point, 4.75%. however, after i blogged about it, i got a call from the agent, and he said he fucked up, and because it was a condo, my place required a 0.25% hit because condos had an inherent risk of depreciation. so i would either have to put 25% down (not an option for me), or get 5%. so i said screw that.
so today, i called up chase jp morgan and bank of america. in the end, i went with alan's agent at BofA. i got a 1.25 point 4.75% loan, and i locked it in at 2:40pm, 7 minutes before it went up to 1.5 points. it's an extra few thousand dollars for the 0.25 points, but i still get 4.75%, which keeps my monthly payments at <$100 than my current rent. i feel ok about this.
so! my two biggest things (house price and loan deal) are done. now, it's all these little annoying things that i have to deal with. hopefully, it'll go as smoothly as possible, and nothing surprising will come up. i've got the property inspection tuesday afternoon, and the bank will do the appraisal soon as well. *phew*
my dad comes tomorrow! i am looking forward to drinking/smoking with him, and i'm going to take him to su's mongolian bbq for dinner. he comes around noon, and he'll rent a toyota prius (he's curious about trying it out) and drive to my place after he lands, and he'll probably take a nap to combat his jet lag. i'm trying to figure out what i'm going to do with him. anyways, i'm looking forward to hanging out with him. he's much less fretful and judgmental (and completely nonreligious) compared to my mom, so it's less stressful when i'm with him. i wonder what he thinks about my homebuying process. i guess i'll find out.
last night, after work, i got gas, set my VCR for _hell's kitchen_ (man, cable was all screwed up; the entire video feed was corrupted), and headed over to linda and steve's place for joy and hiroshi's going away party. *sniff* even though i don't see them that often, i like them a lot, and i always look forward to seeing them. they're both inspirational taiko players, and they're part of the foundation of the new group, jun daiko, based in mountain view. i think the group is going to hurt without them. the other members of the group made a jun daiko, "the early years," photo scrapbook through apple.com for them, and it was very touching, looking through the photographs of the memories they had created. in a way, as i peered over their shoulders at the photos, i wish i had been a part of it. i actually missed being a part of a taiko group for once.
i'm having ethiopian food with adam, rae and felix tonight. i gotta leave work early. i need to go home and set my VCR to tape _dollhouse_ (pivotal episode, i think) before headin gover to adam's house to carpool over. i've never had ethiopian food before, so i'm a little wary and excited at the same time. eating with your hands? hm.
money. this whole homebuying thing has shown me the value of money. i mean, i'm dropping six figures in the blink of an eye, and man, that is a TON of dough. and there are these 4-figure fees and taxes and things that are thrown around in the process, and i'm not even batting an eye. i guess i've been desensitized to the value of money. a few grand here, a few grand there. it's crazy. i'm a little scared to look at my bank account after the dust settles, and i see how little cash i have left. the good news, though, is that by the time i finally get my house, i'll have three ESPP periods worth of my company's stock in my e*trade account, and our stock's been on the rise lately (*knocks on wood*), so if i need some cash quick, i'll have that to fall back on.
and on top of that, i'm still lending my friend that $20K. i know that it's sort of a bad time to do that, given that i'm buying a house at the same time, but a promise is a promise. i was thinking about calling him last night and negotiating lending a lesser amount, but i decided that i committed to him, and i didn't want to break the agreement. (this is a part of why i couldn't put down 25% on the house.)
a random guy asked to be my friend on facebook today. he found me by searching for "blossom dearie," an old school jazz singer i like. pretty bold of him. i checked out his profile, and he only has like -30 friends. he told me that he was just looking to reach out to people and find friends outside his circle. damn, with less than 30 friends, how big is his network? so i didn't mind making a new friend, so i accepted his request. he lives in nearby sunnyvale. he's a bit older than me. we'll see if anything happens with this new connection.
this homebuying process has increased my stress level, i can tell. i've been dreaming about it. i think last night, my dreams centered about interest rates. ha! they fluctuate every day, and it's like watching stocks and guessing when they're going to go up or down. it's a crapshoot, really, trying to pick when to lock based on the give rate during a day of the week. i think 4.75% is pretty good, so i just decided to lock today. 1.25 points is a little high, but hey, you make your own decisions, and you gotta live with what you decide.
now, the question will be if i will have any regrets after doing this. hopefully, i will not. i'm not really a regretful kind of guy; i am usually pretty happy with the decisions i've made in my life. so we'll see. but then again, i have now left the world of being totally debt-free to taking on a +half million $ mortgage, and now i can't be as carefree with my money, and i probably can't live alone anymore and will probably have to get a roommate to cover my costs, so there are a lot more consequences that i will have to consider with my actions. i can't just quit my job and putz around on my ass for a year (not that i was going to do that, but hey, it's an option).
i don't know why, but my life seems more public than others. almost everyone in my division knows that i'm buying a house. and of course, it's not a surprise that it's also because i'm broadcasting the status of my progress on twitter and facebook. but when my other friends were buying, there wasn't as much buzz as the attention that i'm getting now. i guess i'm more of an open person than most of my other friends, and i like telling other people about it and getting feedback and opinions. (after all, this is my first home purchase, and i need all the help i can get.)
ok, i need to go soon. it's been an exciting week. hopefully next week, i can refocus on work, because damn, this week was all about the house.