yes joel, quiet a shift you pretty much have it one mate, yes a shift in lifestyle to a degree definately a shift in location, but not a shift in the philosophies i aspire. yes i will in all aspects adhere to what i suggest recommend to others, no i can't change the mcmansion manicured lawn set, yes the lawn on our place won't look that manicured it won't get any watering from us nor will it get any other man made or chemical application. as we are on a corner block the footpath represents app' the same area of available lawn space, so we will be planting the footpath with habitat trees as mauch as we can, that will minimise that grass area to a small degree, however there will not be much lawn in the yard, the yard will be utilised for those supplementry type activities (i find terms like sustainability and self-sufficiency don't carry any attributes to attract the masses it is like "tooth fairy" stuff isn't it, and sad to say with the undercurrent of making dollars in the permy' sector that word to is now being rejected by the lack of following building in the simple terms of it). so we need vege' gardens and as much room as possible for food trees as well as some of the more exotic natives especially to create atmosphere around the pool/patio area, where we will pretty much live in the summer time. at present (this could be modified) we are wanting to put in two 5,400 (24,500 ltr) imp' gallon water tanks, they will take up app' 14.2 sq/mtrs of space. the tank size could yet be settled back to the 3,200 imp' gal' (14,300 ltr) size, city administrators think that a tank in a garden looks uglier than most garden sheds but you can put as large a free standing garden shed as you like where you like, not so when it comes to water conservation, silly hey?? but yes i am still very much critical of what we humans are doing in the name of providing accomodation, in these new suburbs now the ruling bird is the crow (in my opinion not native but so out of control the officials don't want to deal with it) and the indian myna(h) ferel. so we have new generations of children who if they don't get to go to an expensive tourist attracting nature park/zoo/circus will never know that we have more birds than the 2 afore mentioned species winging our skies. where we are is close to some nature reserve so at least i can attract some of a small variety of resident good birds. there are no frogs but we can change that. still after spending many months living in a newer sub-division than that where we currently are there is no likleyhood that i can see of this mythical but wonderful shed-culture that existed in the 'burb's way back in the 40's & 50's and in rural up to about the 80's, but i would welcome it with open arms. and as our 2 car garage will be converted to a games room for the pool table and an area for tall tales and fishing stories we may well attract some of the neigbourhood hey? of course in today's world of litigation they will have to sign a waver won't they?? one neighbour has come over and introduced himself as i will when i catch site of other neighbours in their gardens, certainly want to be friendly at least. and our quicky vege' garden has already been a trail blazer though it hasn't attracted any looks from neighbours so far. and where the yuppy standard for water conservation is a tank of less than 1,000 litre capacity (no enough to brush your teeth with hey chuckle) our tank(s) will reset the goal posts. please excuse the typo's len

We took out a home equity line of credit on the old house at closing for the new house to temporarily cover the down payment until it sold. We put the old house on the market 3 months later after taking some time to fix it up a bit(I couldn't do it while we lived in the house as we had a new baby). Luckily for us it paid off- the house sold in 1.5 weeks. It was at the start of the real estate collapse (Spring 2008).

Normally, they ask for a deposit or earnest money to hold the lot and/or build the house. The deposit protects the developer from flaky buyers. The more desirable/prestigious the development, the more they may ask/demand. They might stage the deposits, asking for additional amounts as the company committed additional resources to your eventual house. Any deposit money would rolled into your closing costs (down payment, etc.) at closing. It's conceivable that someone could get cash back at closing if the total deposits exceeded the closing requirements. When you make your deposit, there should be paperwork that explicitly details what the deposit covers and what it doesn't cover. It should also state what happens to the deposit should the deal fall through. If you have already paid the $1,000 or $10,000, you will have to read the paperwork. If not, ask the developer. If they can't explain it to your satisfaction, that would be a warning flag. BTW, if you are planning on doing a 20% down conventional on an almost $200,000 house, it seems a little odd that you can't come up with the $10,000. Are the funds tied up somehow?

Even though interest rates are at their highest point in about 7 years, they are still so historically low. With the new tax laws, fewer people will choose to itemize (where you can deduct mortgage interest) rather than take the standard deduction. Many in the finance industry would tell you to leverage your house so the rest of the funds could be put into investments. Yes, if you take a loan out for 25% of the purchase price, you will have a very small payment. But if you can afford your house payment, you should still be achieving other financial goals. In figuring out the house you can afford, it would be wise to already be maxing out your retirement accounts. (Although very few people do this). Everyone has different financial goals. What are yours? Does taking out an 80% mortgage loan help you achieve those better?