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I live in Columbus Square (The Gables). Came to these forums for advice leading up to purchase, and everyone's insight was invaluable. I've been living here since April 1 (not an April Fools' Joke). Like many of the neighbors around here, I expect to live here for 15-20 years, so I'm not...

We're in ;). Dealing with our escrow company on our sale, and with the escrow company, broker/lender, and sales office on the new purchase was pretty much one of the worst experiences of our lives. However, having the new tasks at hand (emptying boxes, painting, landscaping, etc.) sort of puts...

And thanks, All, for the kind words re the move and the new development. We're looking forward to being in the new house (and me being closer to work). We don't have any delusions about the fact that this property will likely drop in value over the next few years and probably never get back up...

Thanks again, IPO. We picked up the book from B&N but will be returning it, as it turns out our broker had already had us sign the forms when we first signed up to be listed with him. What a relief. Reason: the broker had some kind of kidney problem that required surgery. He does have a...

Wow, that's pretty cool. Thanks, IPO. Since we need to have these forms signed and delivered to the buyer tomorrow A.M., we'll see if we can find this book at the local bookstore. Re the rates, I'll have to ask again tomorrow about the 5/1. The investor for our loan is US Bank, so we have...

Just a quick update here: we are in escrow with the sale of our current house and the purchase of our new one. Loan docs for the purchase should be done tomorrow, and we'll most likely go with the 5.95% 3/1 Jumbo. Only problem is that our broker for our sale is in the hospital, so we're having...

No.

$2870/mo. in expenses. We try to live frugally. Our current I/O mortgage pmt. is $1696. Painfully, HOAs are $333. Not sure why we should be spending more each month in expenses. Thanks for the words of caution; I think we'll be ok to make this purchase, though I am still investigating jumbo loan...

Not formally accepted the offer yet. And we're choosing to buy vs. rent because after having looked at used and even recently new unused properties over the last several weeks, we haven't found anything we'd be completely happy with. Whereas w/ the house we're eyeing, we're not thinking of it as...

LL: We thought about that, but by the time those funds come in, we will have had to have turned down the existing cash offer on our current house, and the value of our house will have possibly dropped below what we paid for it, and the good deal on the home we're looking to purchase will most...

Just good bonuses coming in w/in next couple of years. Principal pay-off will generally be 30k per year barring any large expenses. It's still going to take us about 20 years to pay this off. If more bonuses come in, then fewer than 20, and if we take on some add'l big expenses then more than 20.

Thx IPO. Just woke up and am researching rates now. Our situation is that we'll be taking an 835K first and a 100k 2nd. We'll be able to pay off the 100k w/in a year and pay down the 835k another 100k w/in 2 more years. That's why we were looking at the 3/1, but we'll see what else is out there.

Thanks for the loan tips. I was eyeballing my Navy Federal Credit Union 3/1 jumbo rate, but like most other ARM rates, that has climbed .5 over the past few weeks. It's still at a good 5.625, and with no origination or discount points, I could have it at 6%. Regardless, I'm going to heed the...

GUII, I was set on the 3/1 jumbo but I've read enough here in this thread and w/ your comments to think about stretching that out. Might be worth to pay more for a 10/1 jumbo (assuming it'd be less than a 30-year fixed jumbo). I'll probably have to make a decision pretty quickly, so this will be...

Actually, it's not so much that we need a big house, we just need certain features (such as a bonus room) and we need certain rooms to be larger than average (such as for our office), and a certain number of bathrooms so we can keep the cat box out of used space (indoor cat). Aside from the...

Right on. For those still concerned, we're not going to go with the 4200 sf property. Thanks to your input, I was able to form a solid opinion against that. We're going out looking one last time this weekend and will likely settle on the other VOC property I mentioned. It's priced closer to 1M...

Thanks, IR (and haven't said it before, but thanks for all the work you've put into this site). Re the Tustin property holding value, it would not be ideal, but if this 1M house drops down to 600k-800k permanently or even semi-permanently (meaning beyond 20 years), then I think we'll have to...

I think I'll bring that 7 Salvo Westpark property up to her once more, but I'm thinking having the Tustin VOC property exactly as we want it for roughly 150K less will probably be more attractive than having the greater potential resale value in the Westpark property.

IrvCommuter: that's a good call on the 4200 sq. ft. property being to avoid having/wanting to move anytime in the near future. I'm thinking the 3,000 sf house will be enough, though the room we're selecting for the office will be too small. I've resigned myself to the fact that the shorter...

Just want to reiterate that the $600 would be after all expenses. Our monthly-expense calculation (including cars, electricity, gas, even maid service, etc. etc.) is $2870. So after mortgage payments + HOA, we'd have $3470 (based on the house I was discussing in the original post), $2870 of...