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August 6, 2010

Well I looks as if The Most High might be leading us to a home of our own!  Out of the blue it seems we are being led to this ONE house and are now in the process of trying to buy it.  This is our first time ever buying a home, as we have had some credit issues in our past and never thought in a hundred years that we would ever qualify for the kind of loan one needs to purchase a house.  But as it turns out we are more than ready and it look's like we might even be able to buy our first house (here's a secret: if we get the house we want, than we will be buying our first and last house, Yah willing!)

So far we have gone to see the property with an agent who's name is Leo, he is a really nice man and I don't feel as though he is looking to take advantage of us in any way.  We have also contacted a Mortgage Specialist, Monica.  She is apparently a real life miracle worker ;) and has given me a list of items I need to bring her first business day of next week:

  • The last 3 years Tax Returns (with the w-2's and 1099's), we cant find `07's return if you can even believe that *shrug* but Monica says no worries we can get a copy from he IRS... whew.
  • The last 30 days worth of pay stubs.
  • Our Bankruptcy papers from 6 years ago.
  • 2 months of bank statements.
  • My divorce papers from my first marriage.
Monica says that she needs all of this paperwork so that we can get an IHA/FHA loan, she also explained to me that if my credit score were 4 points higher I would qualify for the 0% down program..... GRRRR.  So be it, I should still qualify for the first time home buyer program and only have to put 3.5% down. 

Another good thing to know is that whomever gives those IHA/FHA loans allows for 'gifting' of the down payment, which means that  you can rally the family and friend pool to help with the down payment (for those of you who are not in possession of a few thousand dollars, but could easily afford the house payment) and the bank wont get all nervous.

So first of next week I will drive to her office with all our pertinent paperwork, minus `07's return :(  and hand them over and then I will continue to pray that if it is His will for us that we will get our house, and help provide us with the down payment we will need.

So, for anyone who is wanting to buy a home, do yourselves a favor and get all the paperwork I mentioned above together and get pre-approved or pre-qualified before you start looking, it saves a ton of time, and I really wish that we could have gone that route, as all I can do now is stress over the possibility of someone else putting in a bid before we can get all the pre-approval stuff done. Our agent Leo explained to us that the pre- qualification lasts for 90 days!  Pretty cool, huh?

Don't forget people that it is a buyers market, if this goes through we will get 4.25% interest!  That us soooo low.  And man are there tons homes available, you cant throw a rock in our neighborhood and not hit a foreclosure, I'm just sayin........


More to come.........

 
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We are currently being blessed by The Most High with an opportunity to live in a Torah based community.  Some close friends of ours are visiting from the South with their 7 children.  We get to have them here for only a couple for months but we are all looking at is as a chance to see what it would truly be like to live in a Torah Community full time, all together there are 17 of us in our home!

Of course it helps that I just love Star, she is the other Mama in the house now, and we seem to be on the same page most of the time.  She is a true Mommy and has a deep love for all children and is an inspiration to me, as I can be a bit on the cranky side and sometimes have a hard time relating to little children. 

We home school our children and have split them into two groups the 'littles' and the 'big kids', as I said Star is super good with kids so she teaches the littles  and I teach the big ones.  I am more of a drill sergeant and littles kids don't respond well to that sort of environment.  The big kids however seem to be handling it just fine. ;)

We get together as mama's twice a week for a planning session.  This is where we plan the menu for the next 3 days and go over any school issues that need to be addressed.  We alternate shopping she goes and then I go the next trip, which is nice because it takes a ton of stress of of each of us.  We also have weekly Family Meetings where all 17 of us get together to go over issues and make changes that need to be made.... Family Meeting is a must to make sure we are all on the same page.  There have been a couple parents meetings as well, when we need to address issues without the kids.

In a community I imagine it would be impossible to have "theirs" and "ours" when it comes to food, so we all share everyhting and that cuts down on a lot of drama.  We also share just about everything else, the laundry detergent, school supplies we even share cloth diapers as we are both using them for our babies.

So far at almost a month in I would suggest this experiment to anyone who strives to live in a Torah based community, as my husband and I lived in a situation like this years ago before we were believers and let me tell you, it was horrible!  We didn't share and there were always problems!  This is MUCH better.  More updates to come, stay tuned.......


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