They Finally Close at 2:00 Today... we hope

My best friend is finally on the downward swing of her long-time-coming move. Through all the bumps and bruises, the mountains and valleys and twists in the road she is due to close on their new home today.

They closed on their old home over a week ago. They've been living a nomadic life since then, paying double for storage for their things and having to in essence move twice as the owners took her and her husband down a bumpy road of 'For Sale by Owner'. Yesterday I heard from her, finally back in town after staying with her sisters 'up North' for the week with her 4 children and husband. She was back in town for an hour before learning they will be expected to come to closing with a much higher check than anticipated. This involves scrambling for more money than originally thought...

In the end her email to me summed it up; "........I know you won't heed my advice- but as I have told everyone in the last week, "STAY IN YOUR HOUSE UNTIL YOU DIE!" Your children are perfectly capable of sorting through your crap and finishing up your bills."


Words of wisdom from my best friend. LOL.

Here's a little Midwestern fireworks for those who weren't able to see any last night to celebrate and commemorate the Independence Day celebration of the United States of America! We've seen fireworks all over the country and although the ones we went to see last night are not spectacular by any standards, we like them because it's an uncrowded venue and from the park where we sit we can actually see about 9 different displays all at once!

We see the huge display of the downtown area of our city in the distance to the west. "Our" fireworks are just a few degree's south of that. Another display is just South of us with another suburb setting them off to the East and another to the North. In between all these are a few of the mansion's personal displays.

Product Review: Mosquito Repellent

One of the downsides of living where we do is a heavy does of mosquito's each year. Some years are worse than others depending on the rainfall, the height of the grass in the park, and whether or not the cities have sprayed that week. Not knowing how bad it will be, each year we come prepared with 'bug spray' (repellent) in addition to our blankets, a couple chairs and sparklers to help pass the wait time. Our family hates insect repellent and admittedly we wait until we absolutely need it before putting it on because we hate to apply the chemicals to our skin and we hate that we all have to go home and shower before bed to get it off our skin and clothing.

This year I decided to try a new product. I'm a member of a product trial site and am called a BzzzAgent. They send me products and I try them and let people know whether I like them or not. I get to be honest, no one pays me and I get to try awesome new things.

This time instead of the bug spray, I grabbed my new OFF clip-on repellent. Although it can be made to clip on to your clothing, I found it to be just a little too heavy to be used as thus so I pulled the red tab, turned it on and attached it to my folding chair. Being bright blue, it caught the eye of my husband, daughter and her boyfriend and I had to explain what it was and what it does. They laughed at me and shook their heads, but admitted it was better than spray!

About an hour later my daughter sniffed the wind that was blowing lightly and remarked "I smell bug spray. Yuck!" and sure enough, the families farther 'up wind' from us were having to apply it to their children. They were probably about 30 feet away but we could smell the scent of the spray and were thankful we weren't applying it!

It says it lasts 12 hours - we used it for about 3. Did it work? I don't know. I think so! I assume so as not one of us were bothered by mosquito's but of course we don't know if they were out or not since we had the Off Clip-On going. My daughter was bothered by two June Bugs that flew near her head and I had a small black winged bug fly into my right eye, but other than that, no bugs and no certainly no mosquito's. I still have a few hours left on the 12 hour span so I'll have to give it a go in our own backyard one of these evenings.

Journal Entry - The First Steps Towards Refinancing

It's here. The first of July. My self-imposed deadline to hear if we were going to be relocating any time in the immediate future.

As the calendar now starts to speed forward towards that November 1st date when our ARM that we signed 5 years ago expires and rewrites itself to prime plus 2.25% I have to admit that since we've not relocated yet, I will have to start the wheels rolling towards refinancing.

This is a step I've not wanted to take as the cost to refinance is going to be between $4800 - $7,000 (current numbers as of this morning). This is with excellent credit, about $120K in equity and little debt. While expecting the typical $3,000 - $4,000 closing costs I was disheartened to see they've gone up considerably in the last 5 years since we've moved to our current home.

When you take out a mortgage a lot of people simply write the cost of the refinance into the loan. I wouldn't mind doing this if we intended to be here another 15 years but to rewrite the loan and have to pay $6,000 for what we hope is very short term is disheartening and seems such a waste of money! Then again, letting the loan rewrite itself at such a high rate is even more of a gut-wrenching payment to make each month.

This morning I got a few rate quotes online from my current mortgage provider as well as our main bank and company we've previously had a mortgage through in the past. I'm hoping that by going with a company we've already done or currently do business with the paperwork may be less and the refinance streamlined as they already have so much of our information in their system. Even if they don't, they are well known companies with firm standings in this tumultuous housing market and not a fly-by-night mortgage broker.

The W-2's are gathered, the pay stubs, the bank account statements, federal tax copies from the past two years... we're gearing up for the inevitable.

Staging. It's Not About Theatrics Anymore

Now it's all the rage, the catch phrase and yes... even a lot of new start up businesses as someone decided to put the word 'house stager' in front of their name and charge people for telling them just what they can find on the internet for free, in magazines for free, and by using their friends and family for free.

Now, if you have the money to spare, by all means go ahead! But in our family we are frugal with a capital F and even $10 is debated before spending, much less a hundred.

So here is a quick, easy, cheap and sometimes even free way to de-personalize your walls and yet give your home a comfortable 'lived in' feel.

We all know that personal family photos are a no-no. You want your buyers to walk in and see themselves in your home. No matter how adorable you think your kids or grandkids are and and how much you love your wedding photos, other people see 'just another kid' and 'old wedding pictures' with bad hairstyles and puffy sleeves.

So down come the photos and up goes..... what? You don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on pricey art work? Join the club. Instead, if your home's decor fits the theme, how about hanging up a pretty quilt your grandmother made? If you have a game room, creatively showcase your collection of hockey sticks or perhaps hang a rack of your pool sticks. If you have a deep frame, an NFL jersey or NBA jersey of your favorite player, framed might be just the thing to take up the space on the wall yet not be so personal that your potential buyers feel uncomfortable walking through 'your' home.

Here is a great tip - Print out some attractive black and white photos of historic buildings, European streets, old time photos or artfully arranged flowers or settings and hang them in black frames you've purchased for a buck or two each at the local dollar store. You can hang them gallery-style on a focal wall for a striking yet comfortable decoration. Don't try to hang things on every wall though! Wide open space is your friend when trying to sell your home.