I have run into quite the dilemma! If you have been following my blog, then you know that I had my IRS Offer In Compromise accepted in 2009. When you have an OIC accepted, you must agree to let the IRS take any tax refund you are entitled to for the year the OIC is accepted. So for me, any refund I am owed for 2009 will be kept by the IRS.
The tax debt I owed on was acquired prior to myself being married and was a very long time ago. So my husband is considered an “injured spouse” in IRS terms and none of his refund is ever taken to pay my tax debts. So we know with certainty that his income tax refund will go to him and not be used to pay my old tax debts even though we file jointly (we did this last year too).
My issue here is that my husband is buying our first house this year. It’s going to be in his name only, not mine. So he will be be getting the first time home buyer tax credit. If he files taxes separate, he only gets $4k for the credit. If he files jointly with me, then he gets the full $8k credit. Which makes it seem like me being added to the taxes involves doubling the credit… which would make it seem like 50% of the credit is considered mine. My concern is that the IRS will take that additional $4k (50%) as if it were my half and apply it to my old tax debt.
Now I have looked all over the Internet for information on how the two work together, but there is NOTHING that I could find. So I called the OIC department and asked the lady who accepted my OIC. She told me she “believes” that the IRS will not take any of the first time home buyer tax credit to pay my back taxes per my OIC agreement. She was not 100% sure of that though. I told her I wanted a firm answer and something in writing. She refered me to the IRS Tax Law department. The woman there said the same thing… that she was pretty sure they wouldn’t take that money from us… but she wasn’t 100% sure. She refered me to the Injured Spouse department. The guy there explained that the there is no set rule designating where those funds must be allocated in any certain situation. That the IRS will apply them however we say to on the Injured Spouse form we must fill out. So basicly, my husband has to put that the whole $8k is supposed to go to him. This IRS guy could not give me any documentation to support this and I didn’t feel very confident about what he was saying. I can just see them saying that, we fill out the form saying the money goes to my husband, and then they say “no… it doesn’t work that way”… and they take the $4k from us.
We really need the money now. Being that we have to borrow against it in order to get our house. But at this point feel like if we file for it on our 2009 taxes that we are taking a huge risk of losing 50% of the credit to the IRS. We can always wait until 2010 tax filing to claim the credit in full, but that will make things hard on us as we would have to come up with the money to pay back the loans for our purchase expenses.
Does anyone out there have any firm information on this situation? It would be greatly appreciated.
My husband and I are much closer to being first time home buyers! It’s been such a long drawn out process! We are working our way toward closing. We are purchasing a HUD foreclosure home in Ohio. Working with HUD and their property management staff has been a bit difficult. They have a lot of ridiculous rules and seem to be slow about responding to communications.
We got our estimates for our contractors that will be installing a new water heater and carpet. We are now waiting on our bank to get a second appraisal that will give them the “improved” value. Once that is done, then we can apply for our first time buyer grant money with the Columbus Housing Partnership. Then we just have to wait for that to come through and hope it shows up before our closing date at the end of February. Otherwise, we have to pay HUD a $25 per diem. That is really annoying.
I want to say that not all banks are created equal. Definitely do your shopping around and be thorough about it. We have gone through 4 banks in the process. Their costs were all different and the way their procedures vary as well. Also make sure that they have experience with the grant program you plan to use. I had banks telling me totally different things and practically calling each other liars. It’s been insane. Also, be prepared for the numbers they give you in the beginning to change a lot.
In the end, I chose a bank that was a small amount more expensive just because their customer service blew the other banks away. My mortgage banker with Union Savings has been absolutely fantastic. He has gone above and beyond. He made himself available late at night, on the weekends, and was always super fast at getting back with me. Let me tell you from personal experience, customer service is VERY important. The other bankers didn’t seem like it was very important to them. Like they didn’t care if they got our business or not. You get what you pay for I guess.
Hello everyone! If you have been following my progress with the IRS Offer In Compromise, then here is great news! I have reached the final steps in this whole awful process! I mailed in the $100 payment a few weeks ago that I had offered as my final payment to get the OIC. I called the IRS to confirm they received payment. They did and they released my 2 federal tax liens on 2/1/2010! Yeay!!! My tax balance is officially zero!
Thank goodness because I swear, once you get under the belly of the IRS… the fees and interest make it impossible to get out from under them. It’s like the student loan that you can never escape.
This couldn’t have happened at a better time. With my husband and I buying our first home, I never could have been on the deed with those tax liens. That really would have bothered me.
Please know, I do believe in paying your taxes. It makes the world go ’round. I have been paying my taxes on time and in full for many years. One bad year a long time ago can screw everything up for you and it can seem like there is no way out. So, I am grateful for the immense help I just received from the IRS.
Now I am waiting for the letter of lien release. Then the final step will be to get the liens updated on my credit to show released. I’m not sure just yet if they can be removed completely, but I will work on that.
I leased my first 2009 Camry in 6/2008. Had it for 6 months until a guy ran a red light and t-boned the driver’s side with his truck. The car’s safety features performed well. Both side and side curtain airbags deployed and the safety shut off activated. The car had to be totaled and I have some long term injuries, but the Camry did save me from a much worse fate.
I immediately went back and leased ANOTHER 2009 Camry in December 2008 because I was so pleased with the car. My second lease has not been pleasant. After taking the Camry home, I realized it was pulling noticably to the left. I took the car in to service FIVE times!! Each time, they told me they fixed it, but the problem was still there. They even tried to give me some ridiculous story about what they supposedly fixed until they realized I knew they were full of it. I used to work on cars and they were saying something completely unrelated. Extremely angry, I took the car in the last time and they finally told me the factory had a batch of cars where the machine “installed the struts incorrectly”. They finally fixed it.
I was also told by numerous service staff that I would still get my two free oil changes that came with my first Camry… to use on the second Camry since I basicly had paid for them, but never got to use them. And also because I came right back and leased another one. Toyota scored over $25k when the insurance totaled that car. So of course, when I tried to use that extra free oil change, the service manager told me no even though the person who scheduled my appointment over the phone had confirmed it would be ok. I was mad because I had been told by several other people in service that I would be able to use them. I told him that if I had been told no from the beginning, then I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I told him I had come there prepared to not have to pay for it. I was mad and said “had I known this, I would have went somewhere cheaper”. So he said “Why would I give it to you for free then if you are just going to go somewhere else after you use all your free oil changes? How would that benefit us?” I couldn’t believe he said that. So I said “are you telling me that you would refuse someone their free oil changes if you knew they were taking it somewhere else after that?” He said “no”. Then he questioned me for the names of who told me I would get them free. I didn’t remember. I am horrible with names. So then he talked to me as if I were lying and said rudely “how am I supposed to correct this situation with my staff if I don’t know who said it?” I yelled “Have a staff meeting and tell EVERYONE!!!” I slammed my hand down and said “NEVER MIND! I’M GOING SOMEWHERE ELSE!” He stopped me and said irritably “I will take care of this one, but that’s it.” I said “FINE.” and stomped off.
Now for this recall… what bothers me most is that the only way I even knew about it was to hear it on the news. All this time and I have not got one letter or phone call from Toyota explaining anything to me. I realize they did not have the answers or fix, but they should have sent everyone a letter of explanation immediately. My Camry IS a part of the recall and I still have not heard anything from Toyota. I called Tansky Toyota where I bought my Camry and they said they had no information except what to do if I experience a problem. They told me I have to wait until I get a recall notice in the mail. What is ridiculous is that they expect drivers to make a split second decision to put the car in neutral, hit the brake, or turn the car off. So what happens if you have a car in front of you that slams on their brake for whatever reason, you let off the gas, but the car keep going. You have a couple of seconds to stop that car. Everyone knows that your brain does not have instant reaction time. I think their advice is dangerous. They should be telling people not to drive them instead. Just now, I heard that the Secretary of Transportation in Ohio said “stop driving the effected vehicles”. That’s just great. How am I supposed to get anywhere?
I saw the video of the conference with Toyota higher ups and it was sad. They blatantly admitted to cutting corners financially on safety and quality. I was disgusted with Toyota after seeing that. You should watch it! So now, I don’t even want this car anymore. I don’t want to pay a lease payment for a car that I won’t even own in the end. It will be sitting parked until it’s fixed. Who knows when that will be. Why should I have to pay for this? Who would pay for a rental car that they can’t drive?? And you know, they probably won’t even provide me with that either… a rental car!
I also want to add in response to the people comparing foreign to domestic recall practices… it shouldn’t matter what company we are talking about. NONE OF THEM should behave this way. It doesn’t matter if one responded worse then the other. What matters is that they aren’t handling things the right way. In my 15 years of driving, I have experienced a few minor recalls by domestic dealers (mostly Ford) and they were all fixed promptly. Toyota has left a bad taste in my mouth!
I am sure I will probably get some tough criticism on this blog post, but I feel very strongly about this and just have to get it off my chest. I am all for helping others and being charitable. If someone is in need, I would love to help them. I have always been that way. But the way Americans “help” others just really pisses me off some times.
Since the disaster of the horrible storms in Haiti, all I ever see on American television now is “donate to help Haiti”. Do this, do that, so on and so forth to help Haiti. On nearly EVERY channel the other day was the same exact benefit show for the people of Haiti. I couldn’t escape it. That’s great. Kudos to the people who help Haiti.
However, what upsets me, is that I NEVER see Americans pull together this much for their own people. If we have a major catastrophe, there is a momentary flood of people wanting to “help” and then it’s like everyone forgets it happened and the “help” fizzles out. America has huge numbers of homeless and unemployed people. We have actual “tent cities” where our own people have lost their jobs, their health insurance, their homes, and everything else and have no one helping them. American homeless living in tents that our government put together for them. Many people don’t even have THAT luxury and are just living on the streets.
I saw on the news about the American woman who is adopting two little girls from an orphanage in Haiti. What about all the orphans here in America? Why aren’t they being adopted??
Our economy is in a horrid state. People are losing everything they own and their jobs. Insurance companies are raping us. Disease and illness are killing us because the insurance companies don’t care. And instead of putting their money into our failing economy and supporting causes to improve our situation, we are sending it to every other country that needs anything. Think of all the money being poured into other countries for aid and war support… then think of how all that money could help us get off our feet.
Our nation is riddled with crime and drugs. We are fighting the “war on drugs” here with no money to support it. Our police are being laid off because we can’t pay them. Our schools that teach children not to become criminals, are being closed down and stripped of funds because we can’t afford to support them. Yet we continue to funnel our money into wars and to support countries at war so that THEY can become strong and safe. We continue to send money to other countries to educate THEIR children.
Please… please… please… know that I am all for supporting other countries. It’s just that… well… why do Americans even THINK that we are in any position to help everyone else when we can’t even help ourselves?? If we stopped trying to help everyone else, just long enough to become a strong and healthy nation again… just IMAGINE how much we could really help other countries then! We would be in a much better financial position to help other countries. Americans do everything backwards!
I want to see Americans making benefit shows to improve the American economy. Benefit shows to aid all the homeless Americans. Benefit shows to keep our schools open. I want to see the news showing daily coverage of homeless families living in these tent cities. Coverage of the little girl who lost her mom to cancer because her insurance company denied their claims… and her father committed suicide because they lost everything and he felt like a failure… so now she is orphaned and no one will adopt her because they already adopted a child from another country. That’s what I want to see on the news! American families struggling to survive day to day. Why don’t I see this?? Sure, the news does a short blurb on the state of unemployment… or the state of home foreclosures… but I don’t see graphic images of homeless people living on the streets of America in need of help. Freezing out in the cold snow and rain. I don’t see charity organizations producing commercials saying “just one quarter will put shoes on this American orphan girls feet”.
WHY?! Because Americans live in this dream world of DENIAL. We don’t want to see that our nation is in shambles. So no one REALLY talks about it. Instead, we focus on other countries and their misfortune.
Am I the only one who sees what is happening here????
If other intelligent life happens to find us here on earth, we are going to be known as the species that abused and murdered every living thing on our planet!
I was at a RedBox the other day looking to rent a movie while my hubby was at band practice. I had seen just about everything in the RedBox. There was this one particular DVD called “The Cove” that had caught my eye a couple times before, but I always passed it up. That day, I decided to take a closer look. It appeared to be a documentary about something terrible happening to dolphins in Japan. I thought… “eh… why not?” and so I rented it.
I am so glad I watched this by myself because it was horrifying and I was in floods of tears half way through the documentary. This was yet just another part of human behavior that left a permanent mark on me. It traumatized me. It’s been on my mind ever since.
In Taiji Japan, it is regular practice and part of Japanese “culture” (so they claim), to drive dolphins into this particular cove and slaughter them in a very inhumane manner. Dolphins are extremely sensitive to sound. These dolphin “farmers” make intollerable loud noises with large numbers of boats to drive hundreds of dolphins into the cove with nets. Once the dolphins are trapped, they are left there over night. You can hear the dolphins cry out to each other. It’s it’s very disturbing.
All the while, the Japanese men who run this operation try with all their might to keep people out. They will threaten, yell, and some times get violent if you try to photograph or videotape the scene. Many activists who have tried to stop them have been murdered.
The next day, the men come back and herd the dolphins into a tight compacted area at the back of the cove. They have tried to put up barriers to prevent people from seeing what they are doing. The people who filmed “The Cove” exposed the full horror. Next, the men take long poles with spears and hooks and stab at the dolphins repeatedly. Again, you hear the dolphins crying in pain. As the men continue torturing and stabbing the poor defenseless creatures, the cove begins to turn crimson red with blood. It no longer looks like water. It’s a blood bath. The dolphins flip in the air trying to get away. I watched as they struggled to stay afloat for air, would sink down, struggle back to the surface, then disappear into the ocean of blood. Some would just thrash constantly due to the agonizing pain. Some of the men were actually swimming in the blood. I will never forget it. It was like watching some horror film that only a disturbed person would imagine up.
You might think, “well how is that any different then fisherman netting fish?” It is VERY different. Dolphins are said to be one of the most intelligent creatures on earth. They are friendly with humans, they have families, they communicate, they show what can be related to depression in humans, and much more that makes them “sensitive” beings that can suffer just as we do. In my eyes… this is no different then Jewish people being “collected” and slaughtered during the Holocaust for some selfish dillusional man’s ideas. It is equally horrid. Person… or dolphin… the horror that is experienced is the same.
Many of the citizens of Japan claim they do not know about this. I could see how a corupt government might hide that. Taiji has gone out of their way to paint a picture of a town that loves dolphins in a good way. Maybe the people really are fooled? I don’t know, but the word is out and if they don’t do something about it, then the blood is on their hands now. No more excuses. Of course, it seems that the people of Japan are afraid to stand up for what is right. Afraid the people of higher powers will kill them or worse.
The plot of this story does not just end there. There is a long history of a corrupt government, lies, and cover ups. And I am sure you can guess what all this is over… good old fashioned money. The dolphin farmers insist it is their culture and not the money that drives them. That’s a bunch of crap if you ask me.
Dolphin farmers have been caught in some major issues before. Dolphins contain toxic amounts of mercury due to chemical dumping into the oceans. Toxic enough to kill people. But primarilly, they cause mental problems and birth defects. Other dolphin farming operations have been previously shut down because the meat was discovered to be causing widespread illness and death due to the mercury poisoning. There is nothing different about these dolphins. They are just as toxic and deadly. All they did was pick a new place to harvest them.
Knowing that… shouldn’t you ask yourself… “what are they doing with the meat?” Well that would be an excellent question. At one point, they were trying to supply the local schools the meat for their lunch menu. That’s right… SCHOOLS. As in… feeding the toxic mercury filled meat to the CHILDREN. After much protest and with the help of some officials who risked their lives and stood up for the children, they claim to have put a stop to that. However, activists have done DNA testing on the “fish” meat products that are sold in Japanese markets to find that meat labeled as fish products actually contained dolphin. These dolphin murderers are passing the dolphin meat off to unsuspecting people who think they are buying safe fish products. So just how far does this go? How is it getting into the fish products? Just who is really in on this? In the documentary, you can see that it clearly seems that the government is in on it. It wouldn’t suprise me. So not only are all these people promoting the torture of dolphins, but they are poisoning their own people. It seriously has me thinking twice when I open a can of tuna to eat.
What these people don’t seem to realize is that a HUGE part of the problem here is the way in which they kill the dolphins. They literally torture them. They jab hooks into them, slash them open with knives, and let them bleed and drown to death in horrible pain. We fight and protest over the inhumane ways our meat products are raised and killed, why should it stop at dolphins??
If you want to support a cause, this is most certainly a worthy one. More and more people are becoming aware of the situation. Kudos to those who made that documentary possible. They truly risked their lives and their freedom to film it and get it produced. You wouldn’t believe the extremes they went to in order to get this footage. They were absolutely brilliant. If you watch it, you will understand. There is a clip on the official website for the documentary “The Cove”. Visit their website, http://www.thecovemovie.com for more information.
I found this short documentary clip on YouTube about this. Take a look.
This is also happening in other countries. I found this one on YouTube as well. It’s extremely graphic, but shows you how inhumane and purely murderous this process is.
I get a ridiculous amount of people spamming my site on a daily basis both in the blog and in the forums. I really don’t know why they even bother. I have really good spam filters in place that pretty much block all spam before anyone could ever see it. You would think they would realize… hey… there’s no spam on this site. Or… hey… none of my spam posts are showing up. Duh.
What is more irritating to me is that most of these spammers are pushing prescription drugs. Yet another example of those who don’t care what it is they are pushing on others or how it may harm them. They are in it for the money. They don’t care how annoying they are or that no one wants to see that crap on this site. All they see is money in their pocket. Just another reason why you cannot trust what people are telling you.
People who spam are pretty low on the food chain if you ask me. It’s like getting athletes foot. You can’t stand it and you try and try to get rid of it… but it’s bound and determine to be irritating and annoying and not let you forget about it. No one likes a spammer. Why would you want to be “that guy”?
Thank goodness for the brilliant people who put forth measures to stop these idiot spammers.
Ohhhh my goodness! I just saw on the news about this poor little boy who was recently kidnapped by his father, Jean Philippe Lacombe. He somehow falsely convinced a judge to court order that the child be put into the father’s custody. So officers went with the father to the school bus where they forced the boy off kicking, screaming, and pleading for someone to help stop them. He cried out that he was not his father and that he abused and hit him. He fought with every inch of him to stay on that bus.
So they pull him off the bus, hand him over to the father, and now the father has fled the country. He isn’t supposed to have custody of him and now they are both missing.
This absolutely INFURIATES me! This is just another case of people just “doing their job” and nothing more. Why didn’t anyone stop to question if the boy was telling the truth or not?? Why the hell did they hand the boy over? I don’t care if it was court ordered. If I were a police officer, I would have at least made some phone calls or something. I would have double checked and told my superiors what the boy was saying. Seriously, how can they live with themselves knowing the boy was crying out for help and they handed him right over to the bad guy?
Not only that, but they did this one a school bus full of small children!! What the hell?? Those children are certainly traumatized by that. It probably scared the crap out of them. And what about any friends that boy may have had on that bus? Imagine their horror!
This is just unacceptable! Yet again, just another reason why people disgust me.
As you may or may not know from reading my previous blogs, my husband and I have been on the hunt for our first home for a few months now. It’s been quite the adventure to say the least. I have learned a lot along the way and there is one subject that I would like to talk about… home owners and their lack of responsibilty!
It’s been amazing to me to go into fairly modern housing developments with spacious single family homes, to see that the houses are in ruins. These are homes that were not too long ago, gorgeous. There, of course, is a difference between losing your job and not being able to afford the upkeep of a large home versus just being a lazy slob. I can always tell where the lazy slobs live. Those are the ones that can’t even bother to clean up the trash in their yard or control the weeds and have sheets for curtains.
I’m sorry, but you have no business owning a home if you don’t have anough motivation and sense to at least take care of your investment. Usually, I say “to each, his own”, but in this case, what you do effects everyone around you financially. Unless you developed some medical condition and have bad circumstances, then there is no excuse.
I was in a Dominion housing development and passed by this home that had potential to be lovely. The houses on each side were well kept. This house, however, looked like the garage door was used as a shield in a war! It had dents all over it and was hanging at an angle. It clearly didn’t work anymore. Through the open gap you could see piles of what looked like wall to wall garbage inside. Outside wasn’t much better… trash and miscellanious crap strung about. There were two young and healthy looking teenage boys out front playing around. It made me think about my days growing up… if that were me, my parents would have made sure I had that all cleaned up immediately. With two strong boys living there, why isn’t that place cleaned up?
I think it should be mandatory that if you are a homeowner you must abide by rules to keep your property clean and appealing. I’m not saying it needs to be spotless or completely in tip top shape, but just that there should be rules about people turning homes into eye sores. If you can’t take care of your home, then you have no business being a home owner.
Another thing that just kills me… is going into these foreclosure homes and seeing the condition people leave them in. I went into a home that was at one time a $180,000 home. It had close to 2,500 square feet and a very unique spanish style architecture inside with massive vaulted cielings and archways. I walk in and all the carpet and flooring is gone. Almost every wall is infected with mold, has holes, and dirt/scuff marks/stains. The mold problem was really bad and freaked me out just going inside. Many of the cabinets had been ripped out and the appliances were missing. The outer garage door was gone and a massive piece of plywood blocked it off. The home had been reduced to $95k, but my agent said there was no way the bank would ever get that much with it in that condition.
That was just one of the many destroyed homes I have seen recently. Just completely neglected and mistreated by home owners that just don’t care. Many of these people who lose their homes become hateful and veangeful towards the bank who is taking it back. Why? It’s not the banks fault that either you screwed up and weren’t responsible or that you had some terrible life altering situation and you can’t manage any more. Why punish the bank just because you are screwed? The bank is simply trying to cover their backs so they don’t end up like you… bankrupt. They are simply doing what YOU AGREED TO in your contract. You can’t blame the bank for what’s happening to you. I can’t understand why these people who end up in foreclosure can’t just vacate with some respect and grace. Don’t try to make everyone else suffer along with you.
I had an interesting thought the other day while checking out a neighborhood we like. I feel like this point in time is an opportunity for change and sort of… well… a “cleansing” period. People who never should have had homes are being forced out to allow people with some sense to take over. Now before you go cussing me out… please know I do not mean that statement towards anyone who has suffered circumstances beyond their control. I realize a lot of people out there are suffering and being evicted because of things they had no control over and I truly am sorry for them. I am only talking about people who somehow got a home, had no intentions of maintaining it from the beginning, and just decided screw paying the mortgage.
I spoke with an older woman in that same neighborhood. She had been there since it was first developed in 1996. I asked her how she fealt about it currently. She said “don’t let the less appealing houses around here scare you away. This really is a great community. Most of those people are losing their homes and won’t be here much longer. A lot of them have already left and we really don’t have any problems in this area.” She then proceeded to point out the homes that were previously foreclosures and are now being renovated and made like new again by someone with some sense.
It’s just sad to me. People just don’t take pride in their investments and their lives anymore. They don’t care about their neighbors or if they live like slobs.
This also got me thinking… I hope that with all the tax credits, grant programs, and foreclosures… that we don’t end up putting more idiots into these homes that won’t take care of them. I truly hope we don’t see a major downfall in quality of neighborhoods because people with lesser income get in there and can’t afford the upkeep. I think part of the problem is a lot of people who buy a home have that “apartment mentallity”. Meaning, when you live in an apartment you don’t have to take care of anything. There are no upkeep expenses besides your rent. So these people move into a house, not realizing that if the roof goes bad, they have to pay for it.
It’s a sad state we are in. Just another topic to add to my long list of disappointments.
A lot has happened since I last posted about our housing situation! As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we were working with 5th 3rd to get a preapproval for a mortgage. We were having some issues with the fact that my husband was 3 months short of a full 2 year work history and that he had been in prison prior to that.
It turned out to get really frustrating working with 5th 3rd. They gave us a conditional preapproval but said they wouldn’t finance us until February. Initially they said they would accept hubby’s prison work history, but after I went to all the trouble to get it and send it to them… they said we still had to wait. Needless to say that pissed me off. So then my parent’s said they would cosign and they have excellent credit. Fifth Third STILL was going to make us wait until February! Between all the lengthy delays and not hearing from them in a timely manner, I finally got fed up and said “screw them”.
So, we went to Strategic Mortgage as recommended by our realtor. I explained what I had been through with 5th 3rd right off the bat and made it clear that I expected quicker results and for them to be straight up about our situation. They said they didn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t get approved, even with hubby being 3 months short of the 2 year work history. We have had some frustrating moments in our communications, but we finally got our preapproval!
We had found a house on 3 acres that we really liked. But 2 hours before we were about to make an offer, they took it off the market and we haven’t been able to reach the bank that owns it. So, we continued looking and found another 1,800sqft property in a nice neighborhood for a really good deal. We just made an offer on it last night… literally… in the middle of the night!! So, we are just waiting now. Fingers crossed!
Our realtors have been fantastic! We have been working with a second agent while our primary is out of town.
The house we are buying needs some roof repairs and a small amount of drywall repairs. Because of that, we have to go with a FHA 203k rehab loan. We can’t use straight FHA apparantly. That sucks a bit because the 203k loan has a slightly higher interest rate. Not much… about .25% higher.
The lender was trying to get us to use the Ohio Financing Agency (OHFA) grant that offers 2.5% of the purchase price for down payment and an interest rate increase of 5%. I just told him that’s not the program we want to use. The city of Columbus has a better program that offers up to 6% or $5,000 of the purchase price for down payment, closing costs, and/or principle reduction. There is no interest rate increase with that one that I know of. So you can see, that is a much better first time home buyer down payment assistance program.
We lowered the price on my parents home by $2,000. We are hoping that if we move out, it may help people see the potential of the house better. Of course, we will leave some furniture for staging purposes, but I do think it will be much easier this way. I’m tired of constantly having to keep this house spotless anyway! Haha!
Everyone… keep your fingers crossed and pray for us that we get our first home!!
