"100% of people who do not save money do not have any!"--Dave Ramsey

[JSH]

I’m not seeing anything odd about the Owens St listings except they aren’t allowing sight unseen offers. The rest is refreshing straightforward- they are taking offers for a week and then will select the highest offer.

If you are really interested the house on Sandstone or buying a house in general you need to get prequalified for a mortgage. No realtor (buyer or seller agent) is going to take you seriously without financing lined up. It will likely be more complicated for you with 1099 income instead of W2 income so start now so when a good deal shows up you are ready.

Once that is done you just need to start looking at houses - physically in person - to get an idea of what your budget buys in your area.

[Xist]

I was preapproved by USAA on 5/13/2020, Veterans United on 2/5/2021, and Navy Federal on 5/13/2021. After answering many questions last night, I am preapproved with Navy Federal again!

I read that if you want a house you need an actual approval, any monkey can get preapproved.

I got preapproved four times so far!

I don't know why they would care that I have a 1099 instead of a W-2, but they want everything for the last 2 years. I had both 1099s and the 2019 W-2, but I don't have the 2020 W-2 saved anywhere. The first thing this morning I e-mailed the HR lady of the charter school company, but I haven't heard back, so I will call the first thing tomorrow.

Apparently I can also pay the IRS $86.

Is there any better option?! I don't want to make that Plan B!

It isn't in TurboTax. Every year I try to import files, it gives me an error, and tells me to just tell it my numbers.

[JSH]

I had my terms backwards. Prequalified is useless, just an estimate without verify anything. Preapproved is what you need to be taken seriously and that involves what you have been doing. Providing pay stubs, w2s, tax returns, bank statements, etc to prove you aren't lying on the application.

Banks care about 1099 vs W2 because 1099s are for people that are self employed. Self employed people tend to have greater swings in income than people with a steady W2 job.

Getting preapproved involves a hard credit inquiry on your credit history so you should be careful how many times you do it with different banks. Too many can reduce your credit score and the bank will check your credit score again before they close to be sure you haven't been up to any funny business during the process. I know people that have been deny the loan after preapproval because they did something to ding their credit. (This is one of the many reasons sellers prefer a cash sale to people getting mortgages)


If the school used ADP for payroll you could look up your W2 on the ADP website. Otherwise you are out of luck if the school won't give you another one and you lost the paper copy. You'll have to pay the IRS. (You should keep all your W2s and 1099s and other tax records for at least 6 years)

If you are preapproved for a mortgage large enough to purchase the house on Sandstone I would set up a time with the realtor to check it out. It may sell but it is good to see at least a few houses in person to see what your price range will buy. Houses always look better in pictures than in person.

[Xist]

The school company used something called Ultipro, which apparently bought Kronos, and changed names. While I had an account I could use the app I used to punch in and out to pull up my records, but they say I don't have an account anymore.

My agency used ADP for a year or two. I wonder if they used something different before I came along.

They use something different now and when Navy Federal tells me that they need current pay stubs I will have issues because the boss told everyone to sign up with the new service, which was pretty much just verifying that everything transferred over correctly, but when I tried to log in it told me that my brand-new account was locked.

That is default?

My price range might extend all of the way to small fixer-upper.

I definitely think that it includes old single-wide mobile homes.

Meanwhile the agency that provides therapy for my brother apparently has so many clients they needed to hire a new SLP.

[Xist]

Someone told me that I should have put my savings into Vanguard so that I would beat inflation, not lose to it while I save for a house.

The Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO) has returned 13.94% over the last 2 years. Navy Federal paid me $29.22 in interest in that time.

Simple math indicates I would have made another $1,600, which is a little weird since I have less than $8,000 in that account, but that is after paying off $12,200 in debt.

[Piotrsko]

As I have might said before: go find a realtor who is well connected, or a shyster, either works but you might trust neither. They will hold the lantern showing you the right path and probably guide your steps and show you shortcuts. The owner of the company works as does the broker of that company who may be the same. OR you can spend, what, 14 weeks of a semester getting qualified for a RE license for the same smarts. Your call

Vanguard helped me retire.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Xist

Someone told me that I should have put my savings into Vanguard so that I would beat inflation, not lose to it while I save for a house.

The Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO) has returned 13.94% over the last 2 years. Navy Federal paid me $29.22 in interest in that time.

Simple math indicates I would have made another $1,600, which is a little weird since I have less than $8,000 in that account, but that is after paying off $12,200 in debt.

Investing money you are saving for a short to mid term goal like buying a house makes sense compared to having that money sit in a bank account. However, personally I wouldn't put the money in a 100% stock fund like VOO (ETF) or VFINX (mutual fund) I would invest the money is something like VTINX which is a targeted retirement fund that is a blend of stocks and bonds. You can look at Vanguard's targeted funds and see which blend of stocks vs bonds you are comfortable with.

https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual...-retirement/#/

Recessions are generally a good time to buy a house - they are also the time when stocks fall. VFINX's best year in the last 20 was 32% in 2013. However it dropped 37% in 2008. VTINX's best year was only 14% but in 2008 it only dropped 11%

Personally I have money that I expect to use in 2-3 years when we retire in VTTVX which is a Vanguard's retirement 2025 fund

[Piotrsko]

Nice thing about vanguard is easy-peasey buying and selling funds. My ETF's kicked butt on my wifes 2025 targeted, but it's a bumpy ride and causes a lot of broker calling to you. I suppose it depends if you firmly believe the market will continue to gain long term like I do.

I suspect that is churning the account, seems it only happens when the ETF falls.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Nice thing about vanguard is easy-peasey buying and selling funds. My ETF's kicked butt on my wifes 2025 targeted, but it's a bumpy ride and causes a lot of broker calling to you. I suppose it depends if you firmly believe the market will continue to gain long term like I do.

I suspect that is churning the account, seems it only happens when the ETF falls.

Yes, Vanguard makes thing very easy AND they have very low fees which is way more important than most people think. A difference in 1% turns into tens of thousands of dollars over 30 years.

Vanguards targeted funds do make things easy and automatic. You also have the choice to pick from 170 mutual funds and 80 ETFs if you want to make things more complicated. As people save more money things can get more complicated but things don't have to be complicated for investors just getting started. My wife and I stuck to Vanguard and our company 401Ks until last year when we hired a financial planner to help us as we start planning for a more complicated early retirement.

The biggest thing is to start investing as early as possible - especially for members of my generation (40's) and younger. Our retirement is almost completely dependent on how much money we can save and invest

[Xist]

It has been 19 days since Zillow says the smurf house is off of the market, so I guess that I won't know how much someone paid for a while.

I guess that I will never know what is wrong with it.

Meanwhile, I still don't have that W-2.