8ball

I don't believe your plan will work with USDA- http://usdaloan.org/can-use-usda-loan-buy-land/ You can do a lot with the USDA loan, which many people don’t realize. It’s a common myth to believe that you can only buy an existing home with this loan program. In reality, you can even buy land with it. However, you will need to have plans for that land. You will have to build a home on it pretty much right away in order to qualify for USDA financing.

I wouldn't refinance to save $9 bucks. You will eventually get rid of the PMI but there are loan products with conventional loans that don't have PMI. Will you be eligible for a conventional loan within a year or so?

As a Realtor this is one of the things that scares the crap out of me. I always caution my clients to have a phone conversation with the Title Company and verify the wire routing number.

For store cards the wife and I have 1, a Kohl's card. At the most we might spend $400 per year on it. The only reason it gets any spend is you have to use it with their 30% off coupons. When we we were young, and bought more clothes and household large ticket items, we had Macy's (converted from the old Dayton's card), JC Penneys, Herburgers, Home Depot and Sears (mainly for appliances). Nowadays we just use a reward card for all those type of purchases.

I help my sister out on occasion and I always "mentally" view it as a gift. She makes promises to pay me back but it rarely happens.

The normal course of events, at least in my market, is to put the house up for sale. As soon as you have a signed purchase agreement you can make an offer on another property. A contingency of "based on the successful closing of X" is much more palatable to a seller than a contingency of "based on the sale of X". The general rule of avoiding taxes on the sale is- In order to qualify for the exclusion, the property must have been owned for at least the prior two years and lived in as your primary residence—and you did not receive a similar exemption from a property sale in the last two years.

Probably around $140,000. FHA, and most banks, want you housing costs to be around 30% of your gross income. With the current low interest rates we can take $2400 X 30% = $720 per month. A $140,000 loan at 2.75% = monthly principle payment of $571.54. Add in taxes, insurance plus PMI insurance, unless your putting 20% down, you would be in the $700's.

https://www.foxnews.com/real-estate/budweiser-house-for-sale-viral "The beer brand is offering to stock the fridge in the "House of Budweiser" with Budweiser beer as long as the owners “don’t renovate.” The home was listed for $100,000 and was purchased “following a bidding war,” a spokesperson for Budweiser told Fox News."

I have been considered a grumpy old man on more than one occasion. 😁

Just a cursory look around shows evidence of this happening. Red states like Florida and Texas becoming at least purple. The younger generation wanting programs that help them- forgiveness of student loans, rent control , affordable health care, basic income etc.. Programs and policies that used to be sacrosanct like unlimited support for the police and military, programs that gave tax breaks to the elderly, whether they needed them or not, are being pushed aside for things like the Green New Deal. The world be a changing.

Hello Semidevil. This is a great board for credit related questions but I might suggest https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php for some knowledgeable answers on investment and retirement savings questions.

Not that I'm the cynical type but I wonder how many renters just "chose" not to make their rent payments? We are still under an eviction moratorium here in MN, going on 5 months, and that's a lot of free cash some people have been able to pocket.

I do the appraisal measurements and photo's for a 3rd party company We work with local banks and Fannie Mae. What we provide them is overall measurements of the structure, an interior schematic of the property, photo's of each room and photo's of all the HVAC equipment. I don't look for minor blemishes but will look for obvious items that need repair. I also ask the homeowner about any improvements they have made in the last 5 years. Things like updated kitchens and baths, new flooring, roof etc.. add value.

I have been keeping more cash then usual because I'm thinking about buying a new car. My work vehicle is a 2013 Honda CRV but it only has 80,000 miles on it and has had no problems. I'm not convinced that the market won't take another big dump so I've moved most of my investments to 75% cash, 25% stock index funds.