Home Ownership & Credit Matters

The economy sucks right now but one thing is for sure, if you are able to purchase a house, now is an awesome time to do it.

My mom is a licensed real estate agent and therefore I enjoy logging in to the local multiple listing service to check out the goings on of the market.  I love looking at houses.  I love playing "let's pretend" while doing it.  Do you know the game?  It goes like this. Let's pretend I can buy any house listed on for sale between $150k and $300.  It's a fun game.  And even more fun is the Let's pretend I can buy any house listed between $300k and $500k -- which one will I buy.  And the best game: let's pretend I can buy any house listed between $500k and $900k.  Oh yeah, baby, that one is fun!! They all are.  It's the same game I play with the papers on the weekend in the real estate section.  If I could buy any house on this page, which would it be?  


I digress.  The game is all just self-infliction of emotional distress.  I often compare myself with my peers (or worse, compare myself with Suzie Orman's guests) and give myself quite the beating for it.  I do not have a savings.  I do not have a retirement.  No IRA, no 401K.  I have no investments.  No stocks and bonds.  No real estate.  I have negative assets.  Just my Sallie debt.  And my car.  Yeah, I don't own that outright either.  And by the time I do, it won't be worth much to speak of.  


I have one credit card.  Just one.  It is almost maxed out.  I pay it down and then put groceries or gas or some other necessity on it when there is no where else to turn.  I make sure to make payments though.  I don't want that going bad, too.  So there you have it.  In my name (and on my credit report) I have one credit card with a $500 limit, one vehicle, and a crap load of student debt.  Oh, and that pesky little bankruptcy I had in 2005.  


I guess my point is that I will not be purchasing a house.  Probably ever absent some significant (very significant!) change in my income.  I guess it is just difficult (bear with me, let me have my pity party) to see my friends doing it when I actually being in more money than they do.  But I have Sallie.  And the bad credit.  Which is certainly not improving with recent default.  


So forget the house, it's cool.  I remind myself that it is a good thing to rent.  No property taxes.  The repairs are (generally) not my responsibility.  It's a good thing.  And for now it really, really is.  I do believe that.  I just have my moments.  

But I would really, really like to repair my credit.  And it just isn't going to happen with defaulted Sallie loans.  


Sallie is such a bitch.