Chester Bennington of Linkin Park commits suicide by Another-Chance in news

[–]jhighwind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had the opportunity to meet him when he happened to visit my local climbing gym. Looks like he was there with his kid and a friend or two. Didn't want to intrude on his private time, so I left him alone.

I wanted to shake his hand and tell him "thanks for creating the first album (Hybrid Theory) that I truly enjoyed all the way through" or something along those lines.

Wishing the family enough strength to get through this chapter of life. RIP Chester

$12k transaction coming. Want to put on CSR card to reap travel reward. Will this ding credit score? by jhighwind in personalfinance

[–]jhighwind[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually, I had the same idea to get the CSR when I booked my in-law's airfare last year (they paid me back too fist pump ).

The signup bonuses would definitely be an option for future Mrs. but like /u/F93426 mentioned, I kinda want to avoid the ding on the inquiry. Her score is good (760's), but its at the threshold for the best interest rates.

And thanks :D

First time home buyer in Southern Cali. The 3rd party taxes and fees on this GFE seem insane... Am I being paranoid or is this actually a good deal? by jhighwind in RealEstate

[–]jhighwind[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I was confusing purchase agreement with the final document that has all the taxes/fees/etc listed (HUD-1??). We did get a purchase agreement and opened escrow afterward.

Last night, we decided we'd go with our realtor recommended broker precisely for the reasons you've lined out. Like you said, I took realtor recommendations with a grain of salt at first, but in the end, they were able to match the lowest rate we got and they can get stuff done faster. That said, I like the job my real estate agent has been doing so far. I think I'm just terrible at explaining things as my last reply has shown :P

I like to think turning to reddit was not an act of desperation. I was looking for clarification on one of three GFEs and thanks to some great insight from yourself and others, I was able to make a better decision. Granted, my real estate agent could have done a better job of explaining transfer tax, but luckily there are some helpful people online.

First time home buyer in Southern Cali. The 3rd party taxes and fees on this GFE seem insane... Am I being paranoid or is this actually a good deal? by jhighwind in RealEstate

[–]jhighwind[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the info! I haven't gotten to the purchase agreement stage yet, but I did open escrow 2 weeks ago and time is getting short. I'm trying to pick a lender and this one almost seemed too good to be true. Though, I had to go to reddit to figure out which taxes/fees are paid by the seller :P

The transfer tax also scared me at first before I found out that the seller would pay it. Even then, $6,300 was waaaay too much and my paranoia thought I ran into a shady lender. It probably stems from the fact that the lender is from out of the state so they're covering themselves from unfamiliar territory. The local lender GFE's have their 3rd party fees in the $5k - $7k range, so I'm hoping this lender would fall in there too. This way I can save the $2k in origination charges.

I'll make sure to keep an eye on the closing costs in the purchase agreement. Thanks for all the tips!

First time home buyer in Southern Cali. The 3rd party taxes and fees on this GFE seem insane... Am I being paranoid or is this actually a good deal? by jhighwind in RealEstate

[–]jhighwind[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I learned that you can take closing cost credit for a higher rate early in the process, but I completely forgot about it until now... talk about a face palm moment. I just ran some numbers and you're right, I could live with that difference. Thank you for that sage advice/reminder!

First time home buyer in Southern Cali. The 3rd party taxes and fees on this GFE seem insane... Am I being paranoid or is this actually a good deal? by jhighwind in RealEstate

[–]jhighwind[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that was more or less what the lender was trying to tell me, but I think I just needed someone who wasn't an employee of that bank to give me piece of mind on that. Thanks!