@kdfrawg he hung in there with us the whole time without complaining, especially when he started doing it by himself. He did a great job casting the rod, for only being three. We're going to get him his own rod for his birthday in August, if not sooner.
My father-in-law and I took Alistair fishing for the first time yesterday. Alistair had a blast.
@kdfrawg They are. They are also locally based, which we like. One of the banks we talked to that our builder has dealt with a lot before only has an office in Raleigh, NC which is about 80 miles from our land in Greenville, NC. That's a long way to drive to meet with a person if an issue can up with the loan.
// @joeo10
@joeo10 @kdfrawg it is. Best to know now than when go to sign papers.
Turns out a good friend and former flight student of mine works for the same farm credit/co-operative place in the office where we the land. He's going to run some numbers for us to give us an idea of what the monthly payments will be.
The interest rate there is higher than a regular bank but their closing costs are less and they pay dividends out every year to loan holders. They're a co-operative operation so when we take the loan out we become members of the co-op (shareholder, basically) which is why we get money back every year. (Typically 22-27% of interest paid)
Plus, they keep all loans and mortgages in-house which is another plus.
Nothing like getting conflicting information about how much we are going to have to borrow to build.
We were thinking that since we owned the land that the equity in it would act as down payment towards the cost of construction and we would only have to finance 80% of the construction costs.
The bank said the equity would go as down payment towards the combined value of land and construction costs and we would finance 100% of the construction costs.
A farm credit lender said he thought they would be able to finance 80% of the construction costs (along our lines of thinking) but he was going to check with his manage to make sure and we're waiting to hear back and now we're not sure how we will have to finance.
We will be able to use the farm credit place since the land is in a rural setting.
There's a big difference in 80% and 100% when you're talking construction costs of $250-260,000
@sumudu I'm doing well, just been busy. Trying to get the house construction budget worked out.
Instead of ending up in San Antonio, TX as originally planned, we ended up in Los Cabos. And had a little time to relax.
@JeremyCherfas nice. I get 45-50 down and about 5 up at the in-laws.
// @whoisashygirl