Real Estate & Romance

A lot of things happened all at once when I started to finalize the house deal last summer. I already had my loan pre-approval squared away before I started looking, and things were looking good. When I found my house I submitted an offer for full price. (I did not want to lose this house!)  The buying process was well underway by probably a week or so when someone at work mentioned VA financing during our conversation. What?--I can save a quarter of a point or better in interest? With no mortgage insurance?! Up until that point I didn't know that the industry standard 20% down payment actually determined whether or not you needed mortgage insurance. (It's not like I buy houses all the time!) Anyway, like I said--I had already gotten my financing process underway, using a conventional loan, and when I found out about the VA loan option I talked to my lender again. "Sure, I can switch it over to VA no problem," he said. Cool! 3.25% instead of 3.50% is always a good thing! Well, it was cool for a short time, then I found out that the seller said no and threatened to nix the deal. It turned out that the only reason she accepted my offer was because it was not a VA loan. Why? Well, if it were a VA loan she would have had to put a new roof on it. She had no intention of doing that (even though it badly needed one), so she refused anyone wanting to buy with a VA loan. Shit. Well, I talked to my finance guy again and asked if there wasn't some other option I had to side-step around the mortgage insurance and he said he would look into it. In the meantime he switched it all back to conventional loan and things progressed. Imagine my surprise when I went to sign all my papers and found that there was no mortgage insurance on my loan after all. Score!

Now let's address the romance part of the title. For that I'll have to back up a little. No, a lot...

All through my elementary school years I went to school with Brenda. I had a pretty good crush on her. She was the spunky little red-haired girl that didn't take shit from anybody. I must have thought about her a lot because I can remember a lot more details about her than I can from pretty much anybody else of that period. When I finished 6th grade my family moved and I lost sight of her. We didn't move far--it was just to downtown Auburn--but that meant we went to different junior high schools. Life goes on when you're an adolescent, and I eventually forgot about her. She moved out of state at one point, and didn't return until our senior year of high school. I think I remember catching a glimpse of her once, wondering why she looked familiar. Could that have been her? Fast forward a couple decades. Our 40th reunion was in the making, and as usual, I'm on the lookout for new names registered for the event. When I saw her name I was excited. We emailed a few times, comparing stories and rehashing memories. The reunion kinda came and went, but she wasn't able to attend. Time went by and we went our own ways and communication waned. Fast-forward to last summer. We had been friends on Facebook for a while by then. She had spent 7 months in Oklahoma tending after her aging parents' affairs, and was super-excited to finally get to come home and wake up in her own bed. Imagine her surprise when she came home to an empty house. It turned out that her husband left her the day before she got home. Though I was skeptical to open my doors to a potential roommate because I treasure my alone time (especially when I was going to be moving soon) I did so anyway. After all, I had an extra bedroom at my rented duplex, and would have two extra rooms at my new house, so why not? She accepted my offer to move in, and we have been hopelessly in love ever since.