h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Without intending to deliberately spy on anyone, I've recently noticed that you and your hubby are hoping to move to a new home in anticipation of the arrival of your second little one.

I don't know if this will be of any help to you or not, but I work for a company that operates manufactured housing communities, and we also have a lending division. I don't work in lending or sales, but could shoot you a link to the company's web site and certainly could help steer you toward the important information. We do own some properties in California, though I've no idea if they're anywhere near you.

What I'm not comfortable doing is linking to the company web site here- aside from the fact that it's a commercial web site and I'd be skirting the Rules, I'm afraid it'd be a bit too "identifying", if you know what I mean. If you're interested, send me an email and I will reply with a link. wyrdsister23 AT hotmail DOT com.

I appreciate the thought, but with our financial arrangements (Tom's basically self employed, I work only 10 months of the year, and of course I'll be taking maternity leave very soon--in fact my last day of work until next school year is tomorrow!) we were hard to lend to *before* the *ahem* current financial climate. About all we can do until I'm steadily employed again is watch for owner-carry properties. And I'm pretty sure all the mobile home parks around here are locally owned (don't know about the senior parks, but then, those wouldn't do us any good anyway)

Okie doke. If anything ever changes, you'll know of someone to ask. In the meantime, I wish you lots of luck. I especially hope all goes well with the birth of your baby and that everyone stays happy and healthy. We've never talked on hootoo, but you know how it is here, when you feel like part of a big family, even if certain relations are more distant or relatively unfamiliar.

If there's ever anything I can do to help...!

Just popped back to congratulate you on the arrival of PaperBaby #2. Hope you are all well (especially when you at last get to see this). I'm hoping for good things for you and your family this year and every year in the future.

Hi Amy, I just popped back to see how the house hunting has gone (or is going)? I hope you've found, or soon find, someplace just right for all of you. It really is a grueling process, isn't it? Thanks to all the investors who purchased numerous properties planning to rehab and flip them and have now defaulted on those loans, it's frustrating for those of us who just want a home to *live in*.

We took a break from actively looking earlier this year, when my better half was out of work for three months. We're back on track to resume our search shortly, after he's been at his new employer for a while. And there is a Plan B (my late grandmother's house is in a land trust and I am beneficiary- the trustee may let us rent-to-own it, if we decide we don't mind moving to that area). Sadly, he was laid off the day after we made an offer on a place we wanted; fortunately, it wasn't the day after we signed a contract!

We're actually currently looking. Tom's asked me not to chronicle everything this time, but I will say there's been some major frustration and I was very and blah on Monday.

I'm so sorry. I hope that your frustrations will come to an end soon. I'll be pulling for you and wishing you well!

Stumbled across a thread on Ask with the good news that you've found a house, at last. I wanted to pop by and congratulate you!

We haven't found one yet- we did find one we liked about a year ago, but the neighborhood was a little rough for me to feel comfortable leaving/ coming home after dark, which is most of the wintertime. So we're looking in our area again- we're pretty close to having enough saved to put 20% down as long as we find something for $500K or less, which is proving to be a bit of a challenge.

Anyway... I am happy for you that you've found the right place for you. I hope the escrow moves smoothly and that any issues that might pop up (appliances, for example) can be taken care of with a minimum of hassle. Good luck, and congrats!

Thanks! It's an owner-carry (not relevant to the question in Ask, and I've been in enough conversations about the difference between US/England/Scotland real estate procedures that I didn't want to get side-tracked) so, theoretically, we could take possession as soon as the inspections are done (or even sooner, but that would be just foolhardy--the house was built in the '50s). We decided on a longer escrow to gather up the downpayment, which in absolute terms, isn't that big, but relative to our finances, is--especially since we've been on Food Stamps and MediCal (California's version of Medicaid) and can only have assets up to $2000 Luckily, real estate doesn't count against you as long as you live there. We could, theoretically, put the down on credit cards, but we'd really rather not. We've managed to gather a little over 1/4 of the down, between gifts from friends and the first project of my annual temporary online scoring job (one more project to go, unless I get another offer email--but it's a little late in the season for that, now).

Heck, the down you're saving up for is more than the entire purchase price of this house (though equal to the asking price)

Oh good grief, the concept of putting down payment on credit cards just sounds scary. In worse times, I've had to use a credit card to pay rent, and the vicious cycle is nigh on impossible to get out of.

I've always thought putting such a low limit on assets before qualifying someone for Medicaid or food stamps (or whatever else they might need) is terribly unfair. Clearly if you have millions you don't need assistance, but it seems unfair to ask someone to live off of savings that really aren't all that substantial. Good to hear that a residence doesn't count as an asset though. Gosh, it just makes me seethe when I hear people complain about people on food stamps or whatnot, who are apparently living the high life at other people's expense. But I am relieved and happy that you've found something manageable and the owner-carry surely is a huge help. Financing companies suck now- punishing the very people who *didn't* cause the market to crash.

Housing in the city is overpriced, IMO. My dad's house, about 40 miles northwest of Orlando (FL), has four bedrooms, two full baths, and a swimming pool, and costs about what the down payment would be on the same house here. It's just the two of us, so we won't *need* four bedrooms or anything, but it'd be nice to have a second toilet! Housing prices do come down a bit as you get into the suburbs- with the exception of the really affluent ones, obviously- but then we get farther and farther away from work, shops, etc. I've always been a city girl, grew up just outside the city limit and moved into the city 20 years ago. I've never driven a car! I could never get anywhere if we went too far into the hinterlands.

So very happy for you!!