One five-week, secret project I didn’t want to discuss on the site was completed this morning. Well, it wasn’t that much of a secret with some of you, I just didn’t want to jinx it since it had one annoying setback.
Today the refinancing on our house was finalized as a really nice notary guy came by to have us sign all the paperwork; Kuroneko probably liked him the most because he would play with her between signatures. Noticed I said our house. Technically, it has always been mine. When I bought it in 2001, we weren’t married yet so I owned it and in Texas that’s important; this is a joint-property state with no alimony. Now with Somara on the title, there shouldn’t be any disputes over her keeping it if I drop over dead. Nice, two unpleasant things about home ownership.
Here’s the silver lining. Obviously we received a better rate; we dropped from 6.5% to 5.875%. Despite all the stories in the media going on and on over the credit crunch, foreclosures and the real-estate bubble finally bursting, Wells Fargo was more than willing to do this thanks to the advice of my friend Nelson. Why? I have a pretty sweet credit score, a strong history of paying off debts (which explains how I was “elected” Treasurer of the Maggi Republic in 2006) and banks prefer to issue new loans over continuing to handle existing ones at higher rates, thanks to the fee business. Then again, this fee business is what led to the housing mess in the first place. The difference with us is that we’re not morons who bought more house than we could afford via fraudulent pay stubs. We may also be starting over at 30 years but it will shave a significant amount of dough from the monthly payment to put toward Sallie Mae. Trust me, a house remains a great asset even in tough economic times and I’ll live with it taking longer to pay it off if this leads to dumping Sallie Mae sooner. Last week, I had to call and talk to customer service rep “Emmanuel” over his company failing to distribute the monthly payment for the third time.
Next step, enjoying the lack of a house payment for one month during the transition…but that money is already “spent” on dental work.