Montana Jones

Montana n: A state of the northwest United States bordering on Canada. Admitted as the 41st state in 1889. The fourth largest state in the union, it includes vast prairies and numerous majestic mountain ranges.
Syn: Treasure State, Big Sky Country, Last Best Place.

Jones n: slang. An addiction or very deep craving.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Buying and selling

Me:
Well, the radon test results are now a moot point. My financing has been shot down.
Dad:
Uh-oh.
Me:
Yeah, I'm pretty bitter about that. I have some options, but I am angry right now so I'm not gonna make any decisions until I've cooled off.
Dad:
So what did R have to say about it?
Me:
Not much. She did give me the name for a different mortgage guy but she was thought the problems I have with the bank I will have everywhere.
Dad:
What about a down payment? You can probably change the numbers in your favor with a larger down payment.
Me:
The few thousand dollars I have to throw at it won't make enough of a difference. To get the bankers to pay attention I will need about 10 to 20 percent of the asking price.
Dad:
You should try to find out what the minimum down payment you need is. The bank of mom might be able to help.
Me:
Hmmm Okay, I will look into that.
Dad:
Does the bank have any other options?
Me:
Yeah, but not good ones. They have a higher interest rate that I can't afford. Funny how my income is too high for the affordable housing people, to low for the board of housing people, and the first thing the bank can suggest is a bigger cut for themselves and a higher payment I can't afford.
Dad:
Welcome to being in the middle.
Me:
I would never have gotten into this process if it wasn't for the bank giving me a good faith estimate that I could afford this thing. Two of them even. Now it feels like a bait and switch. The banks good faith estimates are loosing credibility with me. Did I mention I am pretty angry about this?

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Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:12 AM 1 comments

Thursday, March 01, 2007

An Offer

R:
So here are all the sell prices for the neighboring units, we can use these to help figure out an offer.
Me:
Hmmm, yeah. This helps.
R:
It looks like most of the sales were at or close to the asking price. I'm not sure how low you can really go.
Me:
Well here, this is the low price. It looks like about half of them have sold for this.
R:
Yes, but keep in mind that was a year ago. If you offer too little the seller may not even bother to counter offer. Or worse, he could decide you are not worth dealing with and wont budge from his asking price.
Me:
Interesting game, this. All the more interesting because it's my money. I knew there was a reason I didn't like gambling.
R:
You can ask whatever you want really. The worst he can say is no.
Me:
Well let me do some math here, gimmie a minute. Lets see, that sold for… and that was… so you subtract that from… and so the difference is three percent. Hmmm. The calculator is not helping with my mind reading.
R:
Mind reading is never easy.
Me:
Well in my business I can usually mind read pretty well with a calculator. But I don't know anything about real estate. I don't know if these are the numbers he wants to hear.
R:
So what do you think?
Me:
Well, I have a couple numbers here that appeal to me. Matching this low price sounds good but you think that may be too low.
R:
Right, I don't think you will get very far with that.
Me:
This neighboring unit sold for three percent less than it's asking price, three percent off this price is X. I like that number, lets offer that.
R:
Sounds good. I'm curious if your mind reading will work.

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Posted by: Montana Jones / 10:13 AM 1 comments