u/staykirk

Update: Thanks for the insights! We will be speaking with our credit union regarding a loan instead of the mortgage broker.

Original:

My husband and I have followed DR principles our whole 14 year marriage. Last year we received an inheritance and decided with prayerful consideration to pay off our mortgage for baby step 6. It felt great. We had an extra 60k and spent several thousand dollars more on donations, home improvements and vacation and now we are at around 45k in our sinking fund. As a one-teacher income family, we have felt very blessed.

We had no intention of moving any time soon, but then a specific home that we had our eye on for a long time went on the market. It’s in the best possible location. We went to see it and love it, and it’s only about $40k more than the value of our current home. However, when talking to the mortgage broker, we realized that because we don’t have the 20% cash for a conventional loan, our path to get this house is very difficult. He said a bridge loan will only get us 75% of what our home is worth, so can’t do that. HELOC only goes up to 250k, which isn’t enough. Even if we buy contingent on selling our home, we have to take out a 100k mortgage at minimum. We don’t need that much mortgage. And even if we somehow scraped the cash for the 20% down payment, we would drain our sinking fund and then that mortgage couldn’t be paid off until 6 months, which is cost prohibitive to us.

Please be kind, we are not financial investment savvy people but have worked on the basic principles to live within our means and to pay off debt. We just feel like if we had more cash instead of it wrapped up in our house, we would be able to get this house. I don’t know if that’s true, but now I feel silly for paying off our home.
Did we totally misinterpret Dave’s advice?

We listen to WCPE 89.7 FM classical station often as a family. A few times an hour, the host lists the sponsors, and in it, they say the phrase “PG Frog Level”. It always makes my kids go crazy with laughter. It’s become a family joke for several years now. None of us know what in the world that means. I’ve tried looking it up but with no luck. Does anybody know what in the world PG Froglevel is?

We live in an older home build in the 60s with the original septic. Unfortunately it’s looking like our system is finally on its way out 😭 and from what we were told years ago, we’ll be forced to tap into city sewage. I’ve heard prices range from 10k to 60k when all is said and done. Has anyone had to do this in WF proper? What was your experience and how much did it cost? I’m nervous..