Movie Love

In honor of Valentine’s Day I thought I’d ignore the twelve steps and take a moment to discuss love in movies. Movies are largely responsible for our idea of what love should be, despite the fact that they’re rarely accurate to real life. The best example I’ve thus far seen is what I call the “end of movie coupledom moment”.

Have you ever noticed that at the end of these romantic movies the couples seem to always end up in the middle of a city, kissing passionately in some public place? It’s almost always outside and everyone stops to smile at them or has to walk around them. I’m not making this up- I can list dozens of movies that work on some variation of this as a last scene. Sabrina – in Paris, Breakfast at Tiffany’s – in the rain with a cat, You’ve Got Mail – in a park with a dog, Two Weeks Notice – on a street corner, Just Like Heaven – on a roof top. In fact, the movie Someone Like You went so far as to have two endings: one on a street corner and an alternate one on a rooftop.

Since this is apparently the way love is supposed to go, and since I have neither a boy to kiss nor an appropriate open-air, public spot to do it, I’ll instead be sitting on my couch, watching sappy movies and counting down the remaining days of my feminine desirability. I'm not really that broken up about about it- just righteously indignant at the mis-representation. In 48 hours Valentines Day will be over and I won't need an outlet for my annoyance.

Pre-Approval vs. Pre-Qualification

Pre-Qualification: Answer some questions online or over the phone about what you make, what you spend, what your credit is like, what you think you can afford/want to spend. You answer as you decide. However you decide.
The amount you are "pre-qualified" for depends on what you tell the lender. This will not get you a mortgage, just get you an idea, again, based on what you tell the lender, of what you'll be able to afford.

Pre-Qualification: Fill out lots of forms, give personal and financial details that allow the lender to SEE (vs. hear it from you, you big liar) what you make, what your debts are like, and what your credit report says. This will allow the lender actually decide how much they will lend you and at what rate.
These days they'll give you whatever you ask for (to some extent) but the numbers will of course keep getting bigger depending on what you want to spend. They won't stop you when your monthly payments become 60% of your take-home paycheck. You get to hang yourself!
My suggestion would be to get a "Good Faith Estimate" from a lender. This will break down all the costs in the mortgage, the closing, the inspections etc. Some of this may be a surprise. You should also look for points on your interest rate- which allows it to fluctuate (sort of) even if you're looking at a fixed rate.

Complicated, huh? I can't figure out why there isn't a class on this in college... :P

Define Needs for Your New Home

The big challenge on this one is to define the NEEDS vs the WANTS. I don't need hardwoods or built-in bookcases or a third bedroom. My problem is that I want all these things.

Since I've jumped ahead a few steps I can tell you that making a list of "wants" rather than "needs" actually isn't a problem. It's really very fun! Until you start the house hunt and the realization hit you that not only can you not afford the hardwoods, built-in's and a third bedroom, you can't afford ANY of them. Unless you enjoy a three-hour commute. But that's for the 'Neighborhood' post...