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Home Buying Tips

I’m writing out this post since I’ve been asked these questions several times on FB and I’m sick of writing it over and over.

Generally speaking, buying a home is a shitty, stressful experience. In my opinion, this is primarily due to lazy, greedy realtors. My family was in the building business from the 70s until the crash a few years back. My father was a Realtor™ so he could sell the houses he built. So I grew up in the building biz, I’m VERY familiar with how houses are built and I know what to look for when looking for trouble. I have also grown up listening to my father gripe about how shitty realtors are and how much trouble they cause. I never really believed him until *I* was trying to buy a house. It sucked when I had to tell him he was RIGHT. ;)

First time buyers of homes are just like rubes on the used car lot. Realtors are just like used car salesmen, but for hundreds of thousands of dollars rather than tens of thousands. First time buyers are typically freaked out and they usually mistake the cloying niceness of the realtor who’s preying on them as REAL. It is NOT. Realtors, inspectors and mortgage lenders are NOT your friends. They all have their own agendas and trust me, YOU are not one of them. The realtors are out for themselves and their buddies the inspectors, the inspectors are out to collect their $300 for passing ANYTHING for their buddies the realtors. Mortgage lenders are out to get their cut and of course have their buddies the realtors to funnel buyers to them. And around and around it goes. It’s an incestuous business and they all scratch each others’ backs, not yours.

Our buying experience had a couple of tense moments, but once I beat the seller’s SHITTY realtor into submission, it was smooth as glass. I had a very good realtor on our side, but I’m very well versed in the workings of the real estate world, so perhaps I just navigated well. The main reason things go awry is REALTORS. They are generally a lazy, greedy bunch who want to do NOTHING and get paid. Pretty much every issue I’ve seen come up w/ buying property is realtor related.

So, I guess the best advice for getting into the home buying vortex of chaos is to interview realtors and find one you like and trust. Yes, interview them. Get recommendations from friends and Yelp then call them up for a chat. Be on high alert for bullshit. Good luck. If you’re in Atlanta I’d suggest Karafotias Realty in Decatur. Those ladies do not fuck around and they are honest.

Also, do NOT NOT NOT act like a virgin on prom night. Even if you are unsure about something, just ask questions and get the answers one way or another (the internet is your friend!). Do NOT let these people intimidate you. Just like car salesmen, intimidation is one of the tools realtors use to sell property. They’ll tell you that your bid is shit and crush your dreams then turn around and accept your offer a week later. It’s all a big game to them. Know this and do NOT let them get to you. Be cold as ice and be willing to WALK.

Next advice is EDUCATE YOURSELF. This will go a long way towards giving you confidence when dealing with the salesmen. Learn about structures, what the basic building codes are, etc. Do NOT rely on “inspectors”. They are uneducated, lazy, and work for the realtors.

Inspect EVERY INCH of any property you’re going to buy. Climb those attic stairs! Crawl into that crawlspace! Inspect what you’re paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for! Do NOT be a pussy about it. Get in there and check shit out yourself. Check that fusebox. Know what type of plumbing is in there. Ask how old the water heater is. Count your hvac air returns! Check the roof for leaks! How much insulation is in there?

Get as much history on the house as you can – preferably from the seller. Realtors don’t like for you to talk to the seller for fear you’ll out them for the bullshit they’ve been feeding the seller, you see. But if there’s any way to find out the name and number of that person, GET IT and call them up. Fuck the realtors.

Finally: Be careful of your mortgage lender. Using podunk lenders who are out of state will fuck you every time. Try to use a mortgage lender that is decent sized and LOCAL or at least has a local branch. It doesn’t really matter in the long run, since your loan will be sold many, many times over its life. But in the short term, dealing with a lender who has local offices will prevent much of the miscommunication provided by realtors and various jackassery at closing.

In summary, when buying property, these are things you should expect and do:
– Realtors lie.
– Inspectors have never built anything and work for the realtor and/or mortgage lender.
– Don’t pay an inspector unless you have to. You’ll do a better job yourself if you PREPARE.
– Educate yourself and be willing to inspect the property yourself.
– Have lists of things to check such as electric, hvac, plumbing, etc.
– Have lists of things you must have, could have or don’t care about.
– Take time to find a decent realtor. (Good luck!)
– Take time to drive around the neighborhood at all hours to see what kind of people live there.
– Be willing to walk away from the deal if the realtors are being dicks.
– Find out which mortgage lender is being used and check them OUT.
– Pull your own credit before the mortgage lender does.
– Do NOT be intimidated. It’s the kiss of death for getting a good deal.
– Speak up, ask questions, be impertinent. Make the realtors work for it. It’s good for them.
– It’s YOUR money and YOUR deal. Don’t let it be controlled by the seller (or his minion the realtor).

With this knowledge, you should be able to go out there and enter the fray of real estate with the best of them. :)

I hope you guys find this useful. This same post is on a permanent page and can be linked with: http://misangela.com/home-buying-tips

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Why the First Amendment is Important

Freedom of AND FROM religion is the core of the United States of America. It’s why the Puritans left England and it is the foundation of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ever wonder why it is the FIRST THING our founding fathers wrote down?

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It amazes me that this Republic is on the fast track to becoming a theocracy. The last two decades has been a watershed for the religious right. Their plans to take over the Republican party have certainly succeeded and they have changed the political landscape of the United States in the worst way possible.

Why does this matter? Well, first, let’s look at the other theocracies in the world; in particular, the Islamic ones: Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Oman and Iran. Ring any bells? Yes, you’ll notice many of the places where the most strife in the WORLD is caused. And that’s just the Islamic ones.

I love that Americans are so oblivious to the obvious. All the whackjob far right Christians choose to think that because they are Christian, taking control of this country is NOT creating a theocracy – because that’s only happens to Islamic states! We can’t have Sharia law here! We’re Christians!

I hate to point this out, but Sharia simply means “the path to follow”. It can just as easily refer to ANY religion.

The United States is a laughing stock amongst its peers. England, the rest of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the other First World countries find it odd that American politics is basically a religious fight. In secular countries, a politician spouting religion as a platform would be drummed out immediately. But here? They are presidential frontrunners. WTF? If that doesn’t sound like THEOCRACY to you, then you are either dumb or avoiding the truth.

“By mobilizing eager volunteers down to the precinct (and local church) level and handing out 33 million voter guides — often in church pews — prior to last November’s election, the Coalition is credited with providing the winning margin for perhaps half the Republicans’ 52-seat gain in the House of Representatives and a sizable portion of their nine-seat pickup in the Senate.” (Time, May 15, 1995 – from Theocracy Watch.)

The steady creep of religion into American politics should be a very real cause for concern for all American citizens. I think it’s safe to say theocracies are bad, ummkay? This is happening because Americans have become so lazy and uneducated that few know anything about the Constitution at all. Which is why the religious whackjobs have taken over the Republican side and the nanny government slackers have taken over the Democrats. Never the twain shall meet. Both sides have completely different agendas, but both have the same goal: to control the citizenry. The right wants to control your religion, your diet, your behaviour, your reproduction and pretty much everything you do. The left wants to control your behaviour, your diet, your income, and everything other than your religion.

The bottom line with ALL politicians is CONTROL. It doesn’t really matter any more which party you identify with, both want to control your life and behave like monarchy. Our “public servants” make millions, pay no taxes, get free insurance, travel, meals, everything. Does that sound right? I think not.

Anyone who thinks that it’s only Republicans to be feared is seriously drinking the Kool Ade. Who do you think has renewed the Patriot Act three times? That would be Democrats. Who wants to rewrite the Constitution, allowing the government to force citizens to pay a PRIVATE COMPANY or be fined? That would be Democrats. Who gets millions from banks and mortgage companies and hands them BILLIONS – only to have them continue destroying the lives of millions of Americans? ALL OF THEM. Politicians are granted far, far too many perks and are overpaid. They have made themselves royalty while Americans are busy bitching about the latest Facebook change.

The First Amendment matters. It matters in ways that are obvious and subtle. Just like Obamacare is trying to subtly rewrite the Constitution to allow pretty much unlimited government power, the Republicans are trying to rewrite the First Amendment to create a theocracy to get unlimited power. See the correlation?

My point is that our current political situation is dire. Americans have no idea who they are voting for and don’t seem to care. Allowing this perversion of the Constitution to continue will only result in disaster for this Republic. Short term thinking is pervasive in our government and society. It’s a big factor in what got us here in the first place.

If you’d like a primer of how things will look when religion takes over and this Republic falls, may I suggest The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Yes, this is fiction, but it’s also plausible when compared to the push for theocracy that is our current political agenda.

I implore everyone to brush up on your Constitutional knowledge. Learn why it’s important to refuse the politicians’ desire to control us. BOTH parties are equally guilty. It’s time to toss the bums out and create third or fourth parties or NO parties and take back our country from the corporations who currently own it by way of our broken and corrupt political system.

It’s not the Constitution that needs to be rewritten, it’s the government. We are the ones who must do that. I’m just not sure Americans have the will to do it. I’ll say it again: I fear for our Republic. The rest of you should, too.

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Ah, Spring!

NOT! Gods, I really hate this pollen. The last coupla weeks have been about setting our minds towards our goal of getting out of here. The top reasons:
1. We are sick of the ghetto.
2. We are sick of the South.
3. We need a better artist community.
4. We are desperate for a CHANGE in general.
5. We want better weather, as in, no pollen and less humidity.

There are tons of other reasons, but these are the top 5. That’s all I’m saying right now, but change is in the works. And it can’t come soon enough for me, I can tell you.

Change seems to be the theme of this year. LOTS of shakeups in friends and family situations: divorces, moves, new houses, spawning. Someone is even leaving Nick’s workplace (GASP!!). We feel that all this change in the air is only helping us do what we need to and we hope to garner as much of that energy as we can.

I’m even leaving my long time domain registrar bargainname.com. It’s become a zombie site that is part of Dotster, but even the Dotster employees don’t know about it. All domains are registered with Dotster in the whois, so apparently the site is somehow affiliated. But it’s totally unmanned and that makes me nervous. So as domains expire, I’m moving them to namecheap.com, which is a bit clunky, but definitely NOT a zombie site and has good prices. My hosting company’s pricing is a bit high, so I decided to continue my practice of using a separate registrar. It’s also better to keep your registrar separate so you can change hosts with minimal disruption.

Speaking of domains. What to do when an old client’s domain is up for renewal and you can’t get ahold of him? I’ve emailed the dude for 2 months and I’d intended to let the domain expire, but thanks to ME not turning off goddam autorenew, now he’s got a year of free domain. Harumph. He has not paid his GoDaddy account and the site is not up, but the GoDaddy account is still there. WTF? In any case, that’s $10 I’ll never get back. Dammit.

Our anniversary is right around the corner. We’ve booked at The Iberian Pig, as usual. I tell you, we’ll certainly miss our favourite restaurants and bars. The Porter, in particular, we’ll miss like crazy. We love those guys!!

But, change is good and change we will. We’ve needed it for a long time and have just been too complacent to do anything about it. When Wells Fargo (those asslicking sons of bitches) told us, basically, to fuck right on off when we asked for a refi or something to help us out, that sealed it for us. We can’t keep this place and if we’re gonna move, we’re gonna MOVE, ya feel me? Yah.

We’ve got our two cons coming up. Trek Trax is in a month and Heroes at the end of June. We have not a single thing new to offer as of now and I don’t think we will, period. I’m just not feeling it for the comics right now and I know for a FACT that Nick is not. He’s not drawn or written much of anything in MONTHS. The goal was to have Awkward Ninja Squad launched by now, but it’s not happening. The longer term goal was to have something for the cons – especially HEROES – but I have little hope of that. I think the comics are pretty much dead for the time being. It makes me sad and sucks every last bit of what small amount of creativity I have right out of me, but there it is. I can’t force him to do it. I can’t force a new comic or even the old one. I wish I could, trust me, but that’s not the way it works. :(

And finally, we’ve got to do fucking taxes this coming Monday. Buh. Our regular tax guy has disappeared (he could be dead, he was old and sickly) so we’ve got a new tax guy. It doesn’t really matter to me, we don’t have much to write off anyway with the bankruptcy taking all the cons and stuff with it. We did buy a bunch of equipment at the end of the year, tho, so we’ll get to write that off plus the usual office stuff, etc.

That’s the exciting update. Not much going on to the naked eye, but LOTS happening behind the scenes. We’ll probably be even more difficult to get ahold of from now on, so always use email as your first choice to contact us. I’m busy and I won’t stop what I’m doing to answer the stupid phone. I don’t particularly like FB messaging, either. However, I do like a good game of Draw Something, so feel free to find me there! :)

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In other news!

After much round and round with DirecTV, we finally got our TiVo!! Gods, that company has no idea what is going on, do they? Getting new service usually goes fine, it’s CHANGING something that gets them all confused. They have a serious disconnect between what a customer orders and what they tell the tech. Judging by the order people I’ve spoken to (not the CSRs who take your order, but the ones who tell the techs), it seems that perhaps they have a Short Bus Outreach programme of some sort for hiring in that department. ;)

It’s been another week full of change and resolutions here at Casa Mizgala. As depressing as the mortgage news is, on the other hand, it’s good to have an absolute answer. No more debate on how to handle this property! Yay! And with the debate off the table, it leaves more room to do planning and recon towards our goals. When we are ready, we stop paying, hoard the money and make a break for it. I like this plan.

Nick has begun his change in direction, as well. He is trying out writing for a while rather than drawing. I think this will work for him. I think his creative blocks have had to do with stories in his head that needed to be written, so once he starts on those, the blocks will come down. Fingers crossed! We’ll see!

The weight loss is stuck around 10#. Which is actually pretty good since I’ve been eating and drinking pretty much what I want this week. Those stupid Shakeology shakes still give me nasty side effects sometimes, but I’ll keep using them. I think lunch may be a better time than breakfast for me. Also: damn you Girl Scouts!

I know I need to work out moar, but goddammit, it is so fucking boring! ARGH. And my knees have been giving me some problems lately, too. Eh, well. The problems of the old and fat. Blech!

A fat hausfrau’s exercise and housework beckons. Happy Friday, all!

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Further Contemplations

Update: welp, it’s 2017 and things are even worse. This country is in decline. I am ashamed to call myself American. It’s sad to watch a country spiral down. Hopefully I’ll be dead before it gets unbearable.

The mortgage info was such a bummer. It’s made me so ashamed of our country. The politicians and banks do NOT give a FUCK about anything but themselves. Hell, why should they? they are treated like royalty! Politicians make VERY good salaries, get free healthcare, free transportation, even free stamps fer chrissakes! They also get lots of money from banks and large corporations in payment for funneling the country’s money back to these coporations.

The TARP money was basically shunned by the banking industry and is sitting around waiting for them to use it. So what they did was work out a plan to “help” borrowers by allowing the borrowers to default, throwing them out on the street, then getting paid IN FULL for the loan from the TARP money. Um. ‘Scuse me, but I don’t think that was the intention of those funds? I’m pretty sure the intent was for TARP (and the myriad other programmes) to be used to RESTRUCTURE a borrower’s loan to more closely reflect the market value of the home. As in: CRAM DOWNS.

But, no, instead it’s basically more free money for the banks/mortgage industry to continue its annihilation of the American Dream™ and America’s neighborhoods, one foreclosure at a time. It is so completely defeating.

Why is this happening? Well, it’s because politicians are treated like royalty. They don’t have to play by the rules they lay out for the peasantry – you and me.

Corporations are the court jesters who entertain and collude with our royal government to keep the money flowing.

The only way to stop this collusion and destruction of our country is to VOTE THEM OUT. Not Obama, obviously, since having a Republican in office would be even worse (the candidates are nutbags), but the rest of them. We need to start local and work our way up to state legislature, then federal representation. Vote out every incumbent on the ticket. Don’t look at party, just look for INCUMBENT. Vote for the other one. County commissioners, state reps, governor, US senators and reps. ALL OF THEM. Vote out everyone you possibly can. This is our ONLY power against what is happening to our country.

So, for a change, can the citizens of America put aside partisanship and race? I doubt it. But it is so easy to just vote them all out. And keep voting them out until we get people who really represent US, the peasantry, rather than the royalty. If the French can pull up cobblestones to get their revolution, then I think Americans should be able to cast some votes. Right?

RIGHT?

To be outdone by the French is a sore point for lots of Americans. Well, we have been outdone. What happened to American Pride? What happened to participating? I just don’t know.

And it makes me sad that I live in a country that can’t even control its government. ;_;

Thomas Jefferson said: “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

I think we should ALL take this to heart. And read more Jefferson.