When we bought our current home several years ago, I was lucky to be on a company’s payroll (it was just after I sold my blog and was working for the company as part of the transaction). If I hadn’t been receiving a paycheck, it would’ve been much harder to buy a home despite my credit score or bank balances.
A little silly but that’s how it works, right?
Well fast forward to today, I wanted to check out refinancing our mortgage to lower rates and it turns out things are slightly better. I just need to have a tax return but since my accountant always waits until October (the extension deadline) because of how slowly K-1s come in, we haven’t finalized that yet.
All this to say that it pales in comparison to when J.D. offered $777,777 (fun number!) on a house listed at $649,000 and lost. Oh he also signed a $50,000 appraisal gap waiver and required no repairs. How wild is that???
We offered to buy a home for $128,000 over list — but it wasn’t enough! [Get Rich Slowly] – “That’s right: Two months after selling our home — and three months after beginning to search for the next place — Kim and I have waded back into this crazy housing market. We’re not sure how long this process will last (or what the outcome will be) but we’re prepared to be searching for many weeks, if not months.”
This reminds me so much of the frothy housing market back in the mid-2000s. Our townhouse back then was listed at something like $260,000 and sold for $295,000 – “only” 14% over list. My parents didn’t understand how a house was selling over list (different times Mom and Dad!).
May we live in exciting times.
The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping [Vox] – “In 1976, a school bus carrying 26 children and their driver disappeared from a small California town, capturing the world’s attention. Forty-five years later, we revisit the story. […] What happened to Chowchilla is the story of a generation-defining crime that briefly shook the world, and the ripple effects it had on the state’s heartland. It’s about the huge differences between urban and rural California, the rich and the poor, how a town overcame being dragged to hell and back, and what we have to learn from the fading ghost stories of the 20th century.”
Stay Skeptical of Personal Finance Gurus [The Sensible Merchant] – “No two situations are the same so no two outcomes will be the same when you start tweaking the dials. This is why it’s unhelpful to share your numbers and comes off as a platform for you to humble brag more than help.”