A small thing

So, incase anyone was wondering... I will not be buying anything buy a certain green with yellow trim company. I have seen to many cheep and crappy products to be comfortable buying them.

Recently I have found verified stories that were even worse.

So, no. That company will not be anything I buy.

The Saga of the Trees

Currently at my parents I have four trees that i need to dig up. Three are Japanese split leaf maples and the other is a trident maple. Originally i had gotten them to turn them into bonsai. This plan has fallen soundly into the 'not happening for a long time' list.

I planted them out side because they needed to bulk up their trunks. This is a normal bonsai technique. Unfortunately i don't have the same dedication to learning the art anymore. More so because i tend to slowly kill them once they are in smaller pots. There are only so many times you can over water & forget to water them before they keel over.

For the four that I am moving, over the years that they have been growing outside and they have become wonderful. The Japanese maples are leggy but will look great in the yard. The longer branches are still bendable enough to train into flowing shapes that will be too large for bonsai. Cutting them back at this point would not make make for good bonsai material.

The trident maple is a bit of a different story. It is ugly but it might work as a bonsai. I had to cut it back because it was looking like it would eat the house. (hint: don't plant small saplings near houses. They will grow big & eat the house.) It was a pretty drastic cut that got me thinking that it could look nice as a bonsai. Maybe.

This is all with out looking to see how any of the roots are doing.

I figure the best test will be when i dig them up in the 'spring'. I will have to bare root them because ground dirt doesn't work in pots. So they will be switched to potting soil for the next year or so. I will also add... That white light rocky-stuff to the mix to help with drainage. It will also keep the very large pots light enough to move around until i can plant them again.

This is going to be a very big project.

The second worst problem will be getting as much of their roots as possible. The shock of the transplant will be worse if they have no roots.

The very worst problem is how close to the house they are. I really, really hope they didn't do anything to the foundation.

For the bonsai the roots are best when they spread out and then down. Large tap roots get chopped off early on. I think i did that and spread the roots but that leaves the last... Five or more years for the roots to do what ever they want. Which knowing my luck would be right into the hosta growing with them.

I would take the hosta too but they do *not* do well in pots at all.

This will take a whole day to do. Mostly due to the logistics of were they are currently growing. Oh, sprinklers... I need to do more research.

Here is hopping i can get them up and into pots before they start to open their buds.  

The hidden evil of Closing Costs

It just kills me to see all of the emphasis put on the down payment. All the top articles in my searches are all about the big down payment. Blah this and blah that. Yes, a down payment will be a big chunk of cash.

Closing Costs are worse.

Closing costs are the devil in the detail of the realty world. No one likes to talk about them. Instead they seem to like springing an extra $20,000+ bill on you. Yes, it is mentioned when you go to get pre-approved, but it's mostly glossed over. Because who dosen't have that extra $20,000+ laying around for house hunting? On top of the fabled 20% down payment?

Doesn't everybody? *crickets chirp in the background*

Yes, people will talk about seller concessions. The TV shows certainly do, almost all of their house hunters seem to get sellers to cover 100% of the closing costs. That sellers will always pay closing costs! Blah, blah, blah!

This is, of course, a very big lie.

See, in New York Start sellers can only pay a max of 6% for closing costs. No more and probably less because even that small 6% can be a lot depending on the price of the house you want.

Think of it this way, 6% of $100,000 is $6,000. So that would be the max amount you could ask them to pay. Assuming 20% down payment, that would knock a $26,000 closing cash cost down to $20,000. If the math works out like that, which chances are it wont.

My goal is to save up as much as possible. I was originally also going to pull $5,000 from my 401k (but now thougs people are flipping around their own rules for what I can & can't take.) to bring my total cash on hand up to $12,000. Add in the $7,500 from the program grant and I will have $19,500.

But!!!

The bank wont do the mortgage unless you have 6-ish months worth of potential mortgage payments saved in the bank. That number gets taken away from what you are bring to this, not from the grant. This is why all the math is very, very muddy and no one wants to put their name on anything in case its wrong.

You really have to assume that you will be wheeling and dealing during the closing processes. This is one of the main reasons you want a great realtor and bank on your side.

In my case I am going to have to find the holy grail of realtors.

Personally I am going to try and find one with a lot of sales with the first time home buyer programs and a lot of experience on top of that. I do not want to be someones first foray into the world of realty. I also need to see about selling some things to bring my cash pool up. All's work in house hunting.