On Sat, 8 Apr 2017 10:01:17 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 4/7/2017 8:27 PM, OFWW wrote:
On Fri, 07 Apr 2017 20:41:31 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 7 Apr 2017 11:29:50 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 4/6/2017 7:43 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 6 Apr 2017 15:41:44 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 4/6/2017 2:12 PM, wrote:

Lots of rich folks (and businesses) have mortgages that they could pay off
this afternoon if they wanted to.

Oh, hell, I could have done that some time back but why bother?


To keep from having to make a money transfer or write another check.
Even automatic transfers can screw up. And if you are paying interest
at all it is costing you money to keep the mortgage.

Sure, my payment to the power company can screw up, too. So what? The
cost of money is so low, it doesn't matter.

Our builder knocked an additional $5K off the price of our house for
paying cash plus no extra expense for mortgage insurance, or mandatory
flood insurance.

Why did your builder care?

The builder does not have to pay extra points for loan qualification.


Whether you have a mortgage or not, it's
all cash to him.

More or less, builders pay a lot for certain additions of difficulty to
get loans added in the mix.

There is no mortgage insurance unless you have more
house than you can afford.

Unless you finance 80% or more IIRC.



If you're in a flood plane, you're stupid
if you don't have flood insurance. Don't you have fire insurance?

I do not have fire insurance specifically, I have home owners insurance
which covers most anything except flood.

Every one is in a flood plane, some 500 year, 100 year, etc. I am in
the 500 IIRC and buy the insurance anyway, relatively cheap. My
precious home was in a cheap zone until it was rezoned, that can happen
any time and if it happens and you still have a mortgage you may have to
get flood insurance. If you don't the flood insurance the mortgage
company will get it for you.

My precious home went from about $260 per year to $3600 for flood
insurance. That was just after Katrina. Had I still had a mortgage my
payments would have gone up $300 per month.

If you have a mortgage you may incur more liabilities than just the loan.


I'm over 100 feet higher than the Grand River and Laurel Creek at just
about the highest point in the whole neighborhood. It would be a more
than 1 in 500 year event to flood overland,


You would be surprised how they figure ground water damage. I'm going
through that right now. House is 3.5 to 4 feet above everything, with
no water barriers like concrete to stop the water from draining off.
They still wanted to call it ground water damage instead of Heavy rain
storms twice in the same month with heavy winds driving it into a hole
and some cracks between the flashing and stucco. All 6" above the
ground.


Typically in the Houston area, which floods on a regular basis, if the
damage to the walls is from the floor up, it is rising water and
flooded. If the damage is from the ceiling down, it is not rising water
and or flooded.

Mine was from the ground up, but it would be impossible for it to have
flooded here as the land around me would have to be under 4 ft plus to
have even hit the bottom of the stucco. That would have hit the
national news had it happened.

One guy said it "trickled up", but even with all the earthquakes we've
been through there is nary a crack.

I was glad that our garage door has a nice seal to it at the bottom,
without that the rains would have wet the whole garage the way the
winds were blowing.