from the desk of stinkpot

christina and i got pre-approved for a mortgage the other day.

craziness.

over the past couple of months, we’ve doing some math regarding how much it’s going to cost to live in boston for 5-7 years. it turns out we’d spend over $100K in rent – who knew we had that kind of money? whereas if we buy a place, even if it doesn’t appreciate, it works out that we only lose about $30K (due to paying interest on a mortgage).

so before we knew it, we had started going off to open houses and visiting mortgage brokers. trying to get a mortgage was especially interesting; i found out that since i’m being paid by a department of defense fellowship (i’m one of donny rumsfeld’s minions), i withhold my own taxes and am therefore self-employed. “self-employed” evidently means “unreliable source of income” to a mortgage broker. ultimately, we had to go straight to a bank (the MIT credit union – god bless them) and beg directly for a loan.

nonetheless, true love eventually conquered all and we got approved. immediately, the oddest feeling swept over me. i’ve never felt so grown up and immature at the same time. on the one hand, having a mortagage and the ability to buy a house is a certainly a very adult thing. but, on the other hand, christina and i both really have no idea what the hell we’re doing. for chrissakes, the majority of our house-hunting training has come via google and “the idiots guide to buying a house.”

oh well. luckily, we’ve found a really nurturing buyer’s agent who hasn’t seemed to mind hand-holding christina and i. we’ve had to have dragged the poor guy to at least 2 dozen condos by now. thankfully, he mostly refuses to encourage us to buy things, instead pointing out all the flaws of a house – exactly what you hope a buyer’s agent will do. and, he buys us snacks before he meets us. if you’re you want to want to buy a place in cambridge and like snacks, i highly recommend him: jonathan mitchell of coldwell banker.

of course, take my recommendation with half-a-grain of salt; i could just be suffering from a mild case of stockholm syndrome.

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