The house is mine! Well, mine and the bank’s. But some of it’s mine!
Closing finally happened yesterday afternoon. It wasn’t the smoothest of processes getting there, and I got my final numbers for settlement not an hour and a half before. Thankfully, I could just do a wire transfer online. Let me tell you, transferring that amount of money is absolutely terrifying. It’s all too easy to do. But it was easier than trying to get to the bank (at lunchtime, of course) and also trying to get to the house to do a final inspection, and then drive across the city to the Realtor’s office.
It was a lot of papers to sign. Before settlement, I did my research and read up about what sort of papers I would be signing. That made the process a whole lot smoother, that’s for sure. And the seller did all his signing earlier, so he wasn’t even there.
And then that was it. It was mine. Honestly, it was pretty anticlimactic.
Rather than celebrate, I went to Home Depot and picked up some of the things I knew I needed, then walked around the house in the dark. And discovered one of the living room switches doesn’t work. Not the greatest of things to discover, but my Realtor said to let her know if I uncovered anything else that the seller should have fixed. Honestly, by this point, I don’t expect them to do anything. There’s also a broken handle on a bathroom cabinet that happened sometime between inspection and closing. Should it be fixed? Probably. Do I expect to have to do it all myself? Absolutely.
But that’s not a big deal. The house is mine! I’m giving notice at the apartment building on Monday. Unfortunately, I’ll have a month of paying both rent and a mortgage, but I factored that in to my moving expenses. Today, I moved over a bunch of boxes that I already packed, made a trip to IKEA to scope out some storage ideas, and cleaned the entire second floor. Now I’m home packing up some more boxes. It’s been a productive day.
Oh, and I finished my taxes too. I’ve already changed my withholdings for next year – I got a decent sized return from the feds this year, and with the mortgage interest deduction, that will only increase. Clearly, I need to change things so I’m taking more home every paycheck. I’m going to let all my bills settle out over the next few months to get a handle on my finances and then, hopefully, be able to increase my 401k contributions.
It’s all very exciting. And overwhelming. But exciting.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Congrats on closing!! I’ve been reading your story and it sounds like you found exactly what you were looking for. Don’t worry too much about the rent/mortgage double-payment for a month – that extra money is so worth the peace of mind you have while you move. I’ve done it most time’s I’ve moved apartments, by at least a couple of weeks.
Congrats and enjoy!
Congratulations!
Congrats!
I’m kind of in awe at how fast you did this – but then I know that my own experience is completely ridiculous in how long I took 😀
I’ve decided *not* to change my deductions – knowing myself, the difference each paycheque wouldn’t be enough for me to actively save it, and I’d end up spending it on nothing – whereas, right now with the interest rates so low, the amount I’m foregoing on interest over the year is small enough that I’d rather get the lump sum in a refund – which I know I won’t be tempted to fritter away!
How exciting for you! Best of wishes to you in your new home! I’ve enjoyed reading about the process.
Jen
Congratulations!!!!
~Angela~
Congratulations! How exciting. Good luck with your finances and being able to decorate your own HOME! 🙂
congrats!
Congratulations! And celebrating with a trip to Home Depot isn’t a bad thing – to celebrate when we bought this house, we pulled out sledgehammers and knocked out a wall in preparation for the delivery of our washer/dryer to replace the itty bitty stackable set that they had here originally. And I was 5 months pregnant, too! But swinging that hammer was a good way to deal with the anxiety of all those zeroes in the mortgage. Enjoy it!
That’s so exciting!! Congratulations on your home purchase 🙂 there’s nothing more fulfilling than owning your house…hope that the packing goes well and you get settled in soon enough.