I’m on vacation and I don’t have any plans. That’s a new switch for me. At some point, I need to arrange to get my sister back to Ohio. I should work on that, my parents might like to know when to expect her. If the weather holds, we will be going to a water park with my friend and her younger sister next week.
I’ve been wanting to buy a house, but I’ve been reluctant to go in and talk to the bank about my chances for getting a mortgage. Caution: credit cards in college are bad. Too bad they weren’t so open about that when I was in school. Lets just say the hole I dug myself into wasn’t small and my credit report was quite ugly for a while. On the positive side, I have successfully paid off all my credit cards from school and automated draft is a wonderful thing for bills (like student loans) that are the same amount every month and are due on the same day. Anyway, I’ve been reluctant to consider if I could buy a house now, because I didn’t want to deal with the rejection. I’ve been watching my credit report and steadily paying things off, hoping to get my FICO score up to 700 and then I was going to go to the bank. See I was under the impression that you needed something that high before you could get a loan that large.
On a whim, I was looking at sites for first time home buyers and found a place that asked you rate your FICO as Excellent, Good, Average, Fair or Poor. I know the score itself, but I wasn’t sure which category it fell under. Luckily, this site had a FAQ that said if your score is from X – Y, then your score is Excellent, Good, Average, Fair or Poor. The picture I got from this was a lot brighter than what I was assuming.
So I figured what the heck, the site offered to send me information so I said okay. They also sent me the name of a Loan Consultant in my area that specialized in first time home purchasers. I’m meeting with her later today to look at my options. It’s kind of cool to think that I may be able to have my own house, stop dealing with renting, be able to paint the walls colors that I like and even manage to get a bit of a tax break from Uncle Sam. I know there are other costs associated with having a house, but I lived in the same house from the time I came home from the hospital, until I left for college. Knowing where the house is going to be next year is something that is very comforting to me.
So this next week, I’ll be sleeping, reading, going to Ohio at some point and maybe something else. I’m taking it easy. Maybe I’ll drag Rugrat around and look at some houses. I’ve suggested taking her up to Ohio a little early and then going to Cedar Point to check out the new roller coaster, but so far she hasn’t been real keen on the idea. She isn’t a roller coaster nut and I think she likes it down here. I like having her down here. As she gets a little older, I hope she still wants to come down during the summer. I’ll definitely miss her more if she doesn’t.