House closing

Today, finally, after numerous delays and more ridiculous paperwork requests than a Freedom of Information Act request, we are closing on our house.

I’m hoping several things occur from this event.

  1. We relax. My wife is up for promotion at work and buying a house at the same time. She’s so high strung right now she’d snap if I plucked her. So no plucking.
  2. Writing begins again in earnest. Nothing kills the creative spirit quite like paperwork. I believe, once we’re settled in and the mortgage payment is on autopilot from the bank, we’ll have the opposite of paperwork. Which means more time to be in the writing mode. When life is on automatic is when the mind is freest to roam.
  3. I get the basement made into the coolest non-commercial neighborhood bar around. Pinball machines, theater, karaoke… Relaxation and fun are important things to a long healthy life.
  4. We live those long healthy lives. With a 15 year mortgage, we can reasonably expect this place to be paid off comfortably early. That’s a lot of time for family bonding, seeing the world, and writing those books.
  5. Financial security. The housing market in this area is INSANE. It’s definitely a sellers market, and I know that changes with economic events. But the housing shortage here is huge, and we were quite lucky that the owner of the house we’re renting (and love) wants to sell. He wants to sell it because… you guessed it… he’s sick of the paperwork. Bureaucracy and government regulation kills small business. This is the only time I can remember this ever working in my favor. I expect after 15 years this house will be worth a lot more than we paid for it, even with inflation factored in. Short of societal collapse, this seems a prudent investment.

So in 4 hours we sign, hand over a check, and then start landscaping. The house has been a rental for 8 years, so has some of the issues that come from that. But we will fix it all. Because we love this place so much, we are buying it.

One Response to “House closing”
  1. Scott says:

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