Comments on: Homeownership is a privilege, not a right

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:28:06 +0000

Me and my husband own two homes, one we live in, the other is a rental property. Buying that first one was easily the most stressful times of our lives!! Good luck with everything.

By: Foo Fighter

Foo Fighter — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:25:35 +0000

That’s interesting. I’ve bought two homes and sold one. I certainly wasn’t stressed about it at all. I took care of my finances, did my homework, hired pros to guide me, and signed after reading the small print. If someone screwed up I knew it wasn’t me and I’d covered the bases so I wouldn’t get screwed myself. I guess we country bumpkin in the fly-over states are just naive that way.

By: thacker

thacker — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:30:22 +0000

Imagine being able to go to the bank’s Web site, drag and drop digital information from those e-Mails onto the Bank’s Web form, quickly research the Payees’ address from the Internet, drag and drop that data onto the Bank’s Web form, attach your digital signature to the form and transmit. Don’t forget to save an encrypted copy of the form to your hard disk. Naturally, the fees and transaction amounts from the saved form will automatically be entered into your accounting software. Walk into the branch, provide additional authentication/verification if needed and pick-up the Cashier/Certified checks.

Now the questions that you may want to ask yourself, how is that going to happen and when. The market will wait that long for development of open standards or will private APIs and frameworks fill that void. Just food for thought for an evolution to Net 2.0.

By: Carolyn Wood

Carolyn Wood — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:07:41 +0000

Your story sounds awfully similar to that fish puzzle they had at Coudal. I love those puzzles. I’ve figured out who the seller’s lawyers are, who your lawyer is, who the accountant is, who sent the addresses they were supposed to, and so on. Using a homemade chart, some PHP, simple logic, and the help of family members, my final answer is: Zeldman, in the little hat, with a headache, excess perspiration, bad dreams, and empty pockets.

With sympathy,
Carolyn

By: Bill Dolan

Bill Dolan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:56:25 +0000

Good luck with the new place! Good advice about keeping your signing wrist on ice. My signature had degraded to just a flat line through signing 27 papers including the last one with the burnt edges that smelled of brimstone.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:15:41 +0000

Congrats, Jeffrey!

The pain is worth it, although I wish it wasn’t so darn complicated.

By: Daryn St. Pierre

Daryn St. Pierre — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:22:52 +0000

Hi Jeffrey. I hope everything from here on isn’t as stressful as this situation sounds. I have a cousin that works and lives in Manhattan and he’s one of the most restless people I know. He’s moved repeatedly. I ~~can’t~~ don’t want to imagine what he goes through. Luckily for him he bought a house outside of the city so hopefully he didn’t have to go through as much red tape as you encountered.

All the best!

By: Dean Collins

Dean Collins — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:09:45 +0000

The part that bothered me the most was when they ripped out my soul, put it in an old mayonnaise jar, then handed it to the mortgage company.

By: Kevin Pelletier

Kevin Pelletier — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:21:52 +0000

Good Luck Jeffrey. I wish you the very best! I’m almost done with your book and it has helped me a bunch!

By: Gail Dedrick

Gail Dedrick — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:08:06 +0000

Jeffrey, correct me if I am wrong, but you are not just buying a house, you are buying into a cooperative, correct? Essentially joining a Limited Liability Company — which adds a whole other layer of stuff. Just buying a house can be a bit more straight forward.

Still, it requires good luck and good cheer! Sending you both from the Upper West Side.

By: Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:54:36 +0000

Hoop-jumping isn’t abnormal in the U.S., I’m told by friends who already own homes. One, who lives far from NYC, wrote to me about today’s closing:

“Keep your wrist on ice, you’ll be signing like a retired third-baseman at a card show.”

By: John Lampard

John Lampard — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:41:22 +0000

“In the absurd economy of middle-class Manhattan home-buying, nearly overlooking an extra $5500 is like forgetting to mention the dollar charge for gift-wrap.”

We’re told (locally of course) that Sydney is one of the most expensive places in the world to buy property, but I never had to jump through that many hoops to settle on our place. One lawyer handled the whole deal, and they issued all the cheques (six or seven from memory) as well. It’ll all be worth it on settlement day though :)

By: Ray McK

Ray McK — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:38:46 +0000

You want to reconsider standing in line for the Madison Square Garden tickets. I’ll pay you ; )

By: mike

mike — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:44:41 +0000

wow, i guess my escrow company handled all the nastiness for me.

By: John Hattan

John Hattan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:19:54 +0000

Have fun with it. Just as a lark, my wife and I counted how many signatures and initials we had to make at our closing. IIRC, it was 36 signatures and 56 initials each.

Post your count for your entry. We’ll see if New York closings have more initials than Texas ones.