assorted tired updates

[flea]

Dillo was up for the day at 5:10 this AM. Evil little rascal. I am so tired and it is only Tuesday.

We are planning a family (flea family plus Mother and her husband) visit to Athens for somewhere in the window of the 21st-26th. Wish us luck. There is a lot yet to be done.

Piedmont last night was a bit disappointing. We were seated upstairs, and it got very hot by the time we left, and my entree was kind of blah. I got the tagliatelle with shrimp and prosciutto in a tomato and white wine sauce, and the proscuitto made it very salty, and the tagliatelle were fresh and thin and floppy, whereas I like my pasta with a little more heft and bite. Ah well.

Tonight is Four Square. I've never been there. They have outdoor seating but I am not sure it's warm enough. Menu: http://www.foursquarerestaurant.com/menu.asp

I am thinking about the baby beet and wax bean salad, and the scallops, rice croquettes, or tenderloin for the entree. I realize, looking that the choices, that I actually like fairly plain food. These all seem sort of exhausting.

Question: if you had to choose between a banker mortgage where you liked the person and the fact that there's an actual bank involved, but the rate was higher, or a broker mortgage, where the guy was kind of annoying but the rate was better, which would you choose? I mean, you kind of have to choose the best rate, right? Since it's like, one zillion dollars in interest over the course of the loan, and even a variation of .02% is lots of money. Sigh. I really like the banker woman and I want to tell mortgage guy to eat me.

Comments

[serrana.livejournal.com]

Actually, on the mortgage, I'd go with the person who seems like less of a scumbucket. Because mortgage fraud is not unknown, and I have certainly heard stories of loan terms changing at the last minute, etc. etc. .02% is not enough money to risk that for.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Can you tell Banker Woman the other guy is offering XX%? See if she'll come down?

[susano.livejournal.com]

Can you find another mortgage broker that you like?

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

I got my mortgage on the internet. The original was through Quicken, but I had trouble finding what I needed from them (I forget what or why, but there was an issue) when I went to refinance, so I did that through through e-loan. I was very happy with them.

[gingerk.livejournal.com]

If the choice with an actual bank holds its mortgages, it might be worth a small premium. The broker mortgages usually get sold and sold again; I've had as many as three different mortgage companies in one year. Each time it's sold, they screw up something. This time it was not paying the homeowners' insurance out of escrow.

Do you have access to a credit union?

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think there is a federal employees credit union. Someone told me I should look into that. Maybe it was you.

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, Four Square. I went there with three others and we sort of passed our plates around so everyone could try as many dishes as possible. I didn't have a bad bite of food there. I hope you enjoy it!

Sadly, I have no experience with mortgages so nothing to offer on the question front.

[makaidiver.livejournal.com]

I haven't found that mortgage brokers are much worth it, really. Mortgage brokers make a lot of money that just gets added into YOUR closing costs.

On the other hand, they do know the news, like, that BofA is practically giving away HELOCs to anyone with more than 25% equity. But, see you CAN find that out on your own. Shop on bankrate.com to get the idea of what rates are. (It's a great site for figuring out mortgage stuff anyway - the tables section. Here, the calculators: http://bankrate.com/brm/rate/calc_home.asp

If you find a bank offering a really good rate, just go directly to their mortgage dept. and see what they will give you.