No no you do the windows you don't know how to open here I show you no come back

[prog]

There's a cleaning lady in my house, at the invitation of my landlady. After a few moments of working around her and even helping a little with my own messes, like taking out the trash, it seemed wisest to just withdraw into my room and her do what she likes. I kind of hope she gives my room a pass; it's been a sty since I stopped using it as a workspace two years ago. It's been a little better lately but I am not proud of it yet.

The rough part is that my landlady is there with her, ordering her around. Neither are native English speakers but they're using it as a lingua franca, which I think is always kinda cool to see, but my landlady adds the extra stumbling block of being batty and cranky, so they're both getting frustrated with each other. Cleanlady is a consummate pro with her own system, and landlady is at her heels telling her that it's all out of order. Gah. I didn't want to be witness to that either.

---

On the subject of housing: can any of y'all give me an idea of what I should have in the bank in order to obtain, let us say, a two-bedroom condo in the vicinity of my current location? Is doing this sort of thing as simple as paying a mortgage every month - just like I do now with rent - after dropping a single phat down payment? I don't know, I'm asking.

I passed the magic barrier not too long ago of wondering why I'd ever want to own property to wondering how one goes about this.

Comments

[keimel.livejournal.com]

No specifics on prices, but I like a lot of what I saw in the Motley Fool article. But I would add to watch out for the special loans that are still floating around. Interest only, reverse, whatever - they're crap. If you can get a 15 fixed at a nice rate and afford it, do it. And once you get your mortgage, DO NOT get a second one. If you can't afford the new kitchen, don't finance one. Save the money.

But if I had it to do over again, I would have bought smaller, done a 15 instead of a 30 and never taken the second mortgage out.

I would also say it helps one hell of a lot to have as few debts going INTO a house as possible. So kill the credit cards, the personal loans and anything else you might have out there before you go for hte mortgage. If you have recently HAD credit cards, don't believe anyone that tells you 'you have to have credit cards or car payments to get a mortgage!!!' - it's bullshit (though I haven't seen Penn and Teller talking about it that way yet).

Good luck.

[jazzfish]

If you have recently HAD credit cards, don't believe anyone that tells you 'you have to have credit cards or car payments to get a mortgage!!!' - it's bullshit

That's actually very relieving to hear. I was kinda worried about having paid off my car with my bonus, since that meant it was no longer providing my credit report with good karma.

The debt thing

[prog.livejournal.com]

This doesn't sound like something I can do with my current break-even income, but that can change whenever I decide to change it. Probably not this year. Maybe next year.