Leaning north
We haven't written much
about our upcoming move for a while because the
adventure has mostly consisted of a mass of unphotogenic paperwork.
Still, here's a glimpse behind the scenes in case anyone else is taking
notes in preparation for their own land-buying episode.
First of all, we broke
up with our original bank. Despite my post on the topic, choosing
a local bank doesn't
seem to be the be-all and end-all of finding a good mortgage for a plot
of land. The bank we chose was on board, but when the loan-estimate
paperwork came in they'd more than doubled the proposed interest rate.
Too bad we'd already paid for an appraisal --- that's $374 we'll never
see agin.
On the plus side, a
little sleuthing turned up the fact that you can join the Ohio
University Credit Union by simply making a donation to the
library (which means I'll come home with a university library card in
addition to a mortgage --- score!). Working with the credit union has
been like night and day compared to the other bank. The credit union
didn't balk at funding a plot of land with only electric and water on
it, didn't bait and switch on interest rates, and each step of the way
has been ultra fast. I highly recommend them.
That said, the funder
swap has set us back a week or two. So I guess I'll have to let our
earliest potential move-in date slide by and instead start crossing my
fingers for mid to late September. Here's hoping my kale seedlings (and
impatient personality) can handle the delay.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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My husband. D I are also about to start over on another piece of property. Wishing you all the best for your new adventure!