The Money

As anyone that has ever purchased a home can tell you, it's a trying experience. Up front, I will say that working with Chase Bank has been wonderful, and they are very helpful in the process, but I forgot how much paperwork there is when deciding to purchase a home. I bought my first home back in 1999, and it's only gotten worse.

They want to know everything. How much do you make, how much do you have in savings, what holdings do you have in stocks and IRA's, what are your debts, do you have insurance, previous home ownership experience, tax returns for the past three years, credit reports, and so may documents to sign it will make your head spin. Three hundred dollars for this and three hundred for that, pay that guy, and this group, and this much down payment. Fax this, sign these 24 documents and scan them and e-mail them, yada-yada-yada. Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. What a pain in the ***. But, we trudge along and grit our teeth.

I do understand that they have to be careful loaning large amounts of money to people they know nothing about, being that we had a major financial meltdown in this country because of bad lending practices and fuzzy math. I'd do the same thing. But so far, everything is looking good. Both our credit scores were in the "excellent" range, plenty of money for the down payment, a good price for the house, and a wonderful interest rate will all add up, in the end, to being happy homeowners once again.

Rusty the dog just watches us buzz around the apartment and wonders what it's all about. He probably thinks we're doing it all for him, and in a way, we are. He has never known what it's like to live in a house, or have a yard, or not be attached to a leash. He's about to experience it all for the first time, and he'll be a happy puppy. We'll all three be happy homeowners, and we can't wait.