Em Emalb's Journal: Contract on new home, trying to get GA tags on the Em-mobile

Here's an update for you kind folks on the home purchase.

Jen and I were really digging the home I was telling you about last week. However, google is my friend and I read up a lot on Louisiana Pacific siding. In particular, OSB siding.

Basically, it's shit siding, and LP knows it. There is currently a class action suit in about 6 states against LP because of it. The house we were looking at had LP siding, and it was in bad shape. This wouldn't have been an issue, but the previous resident decided to file a claim in January. It normally takes 6 months for the claim to even be looked at in cases like this, and I was suspicious as to why this guy placed a claim after he put his house on the market. Well, needless to say, this particular home fell through.

I am, however, extremely happy to report the following information:

Em and Jen's first home is now under contract!

Said house has 2000 sq feet, hardwood floors throughout the lower level, Brand new Hardiplank siding, brand new carpeting throughout the upstairs, an awesome backyard, level and fenced already! as well as a patio off the kitchen.

Said house has 2 very large (with walkin closets) secondary bedrooms and a giant bedroom the likes of which I haven't seen before. HUGE bathroom, all that jazz.

Oh, the previous owner is paying my realtors commision as well as all closing costs. And the price is $10,000 less than the other house we almost put an offer on.

This r0xx0r5. Man, I don't write leet worth a damn.

Now onto more fun stuff. I went to Tag place today to get my tags changed from NM to GA. (Yeah, I know, I've lived here a long time, but whatever) Anyway, they needed insurance, registration, proof of residence, a note from my mom, a sample of blood in a clear vial, 2 sperm samples and a check with no amount written on it, signed and dated with the clerk's name on it.

Sheesh. Ok, I get there, not a long wait at all. I get to the counter and the nice lady tells me to show her all the stuff I brought with me, which I did. License, registration, proof of insurance and proof of residency. I had her all of that and she says that she needs proof of Georgia insurance and a copy of the title.

Well, two small problems. One, I just paid 6 months of insurance. It was for NM insurance though. So, I basically have to swallow $685 for that and then pay an additional $106.00 for a month of Georgia insurance.* My title was not given to me when I bought the vehicle. I called the bank I got the loan through.....this is classic. Me: Can you please fax me a copy of the title so I can register my vehicle in GA? Them: Sure, you'll need to send a request via mail to the following address, with a $10 processing fee. Me: Can I interest you in a flying leap off a tall building?

FUCK. I am trying to work through it, but damn.

*The only positive out of this whole thing is I will save around $40 a month.

getting a home loan

[banky]

How much trouble did you have? I'm wondering how I'm going to qualify for anything, my credit sucks balls. I'm a total 4F right now.

Re:getting a home loan

[Em Emalb]

Well, you have the va loan still right?

Baically what it does is insure the lender against you failing to make payments.

I have excellent credit luckily, so it wasn't a problem. I am using what is called an 80/20 interest only loan.

This means I was not wanting to put any money down on the house. What I did was take a loan on 80% of the value of the house and a secondary loan on 20% of the value and pay both of them.

For a $185,000 home, the VA's payments were $1450.00 a month. The same loan amount under

Re:getting a home loan

[baby_head_rush]

The loan I'm getting in only requires 3% down, and no PMI (insurance on the loan until you've paid off 20% of the principal). This required me to purchase a home in certain zip codes though. You may want to go in and talk with a realtor/loan person to see what you can do.

I have some older bad credit, but nothing lately. Increases in income of the last few years has helped greatly as well.

Start saving every piece of financial paper you have (bank statements, pay stubs, rent checks).

Re:getting a home loan

[mekkab]

Hey! I got the same loan! 3% down, no pmi, I had to answer some "test" questions on homeowner loan responsibility over the phone, and there was a salary cap, too.

My credit used to suck, some 60 days late and two 90 days late, but for two years I had been living clean and once I told realtors & loan officers that they said "don't even worry about it. We'll get you a loan"

Re:getting a home loan

[gmhowell]

I doubt you can beat me. My fico (retrieved for a couple bucks from myfico.com) is 520.

Of course, it was much higher in 1999 when we got the loan. FHA is your friend.

Refund

[turg]

Can't say for sure how it works in NM but I think that when you get the GA insurance, you can call up the NM insurance to cancel the policy and get a pro-rated refund.

Re:Refund

[Em Emalb]

yeah, I've been harping on my new agent to figure out how to get the refund. thanks for the tip though.

She basically said the same thing you just did.

Re:Refund

[turg]

In the juristictions where I've lived (New York State and Ontario), you just call up the insurance company and cancel the policy and they are obligated by law to get the refund to you (just make sure they have your current address)

Re:Refund

[daoine]

Legally, they have to do it I think -- it shouldn't be hard. Once the GA policy takes effect, call up your old insurance company, cancel the policy, ask them how much the refund will be (they can usually tell you) and give them the address to mail it to.

I've had to do this twice so far (moving to GA and then to MA) and haven't had a problem yet.

Can't read this

[baldass_newbie]

I'm moving end of April and your JE is making me think of all the stuff I still have to do.
*argh*
You should be able to get a pro-rated refund, as outlined elsewhere. My company did it automagically. Cancel with no loss of coverage. Since I'm moving from NJ to MD, my insurance is going down 48%!!! Real Estate tax is going down 45%!!! w00t!!!

... not to be a

[Raiford]

smart A or anything but do you have a GA DL ? I procrastinated for 3 years out here in CA before I got my CA DL. They almost made me take a road test because I didn't get my DL changed within 10 days of moving to California.

Re:... not to be a

[Em Emalb]

that was another rant. It took me 7 hours to get the GA DL. I did have to take a road test, written test and damned near had to be strip searched before getting that stupid laminated photo.

Heh. It was funny kinda. Some dude from *-stan sitting next to me trying his damnedest to get me to cheat for him. The funny thing was, his test was in like latin or something...

Final tally:

written: 100
road test: 100
hours spent fuming in rage at stupidity of government beaucracy: 6.5
getting your license with a loo

insurance

[gmhowell]

Unless your insurance company are complete assholes, they should refund the unused portion of your policy.

congrats

[subgeek]

a house seems so distant to me. can't even imagine it at this point. but good for you, man.