My advice is to find another home for the dog. You have enough caregiving going on without adding a dog to the mix, which is time-consuming and expensive. You raise children to grow up into adult individuals who will go off on their own; dogs are like toddlers that never grow up and sort of regress at the end. I am giving you my perspective as one who also is not a dog person but was talked into getting one by my family. My dh firmly believes that kids need a dog (I don't believe this at all). I have always liked dogs but have never wanted to own one and was happy with a cat. I'm not going to tell you all the nice things about having a dog, as I'm sure you know those, but I want to give you an honest assessment from someone with a similar mindset as to the negatives of dog ownership. We got our puppy a year ago and she is darling. She is sweet and good-natured. She is also, IMO, a pain in the neck in a lot of ways. There is so much training, feeding, and attention required in having a dog. They can be messy and dirty and you have to add that to your cleaning regimen or accept dog hair and dirt, water slops, drool, etc as a given, not to mention some less pleasant deposits like barf and pee (or poo, though I've not had that since the dog hit about 3 months) from time to time. They need so much attention, which some people find a bonus but to me is an aggravation. I am a person who REALLY needs a lot of personal space and dogs don't really appreciate that. I hate being followed around all day. I hate dog licks and wanting in and wanting out and wanting in and wanting out...you can't go anywhere for a weekend without taking the dog to a kennel or having someone babysit full-time. It seems I get a card from the vet on a regular basis reminding me it's time to get this shot or worm pill or what-have-you. I've already spent almost $2000 on her in the year I've had her just in vet bills (two escapes from the yard led to being hit by a car and being mauled by pit bulls). I have to clip nails and check teeth and provide chewies and pick up the shreds of whatever chewed thing is left. I have to pick up poop out of the backyard and sometimes clean off my kids' shoes when I miss some (YUK!!!!!!). In short, the dog has added as much work as having another small child without the benefit of having that child grow out of it. If I had it to do again and had any say in the matter, I'd not get a dog, even though I do really like her. I realize that I'm the kind of person who best appreciates dogs when they're owned by others. Oh, and now that we've had the dog a year, the kids don't even like her around most of the time because she sits on their cards or licks their dolls or tries in some way to participate in their games, something they don't appreciate. When the kids have playdates, I have to put the dog wherever the kids aren't because she tries too enthusiastically to play with them and little kids don't like that. BTW, my dh wants to get another dog. He claims that she won't need as much attention if she has a friend. Huh. The thought of getting another one leaves me cold, to say the least. If you were a dog lover, I'd give different advice, but you will probably resent the extra work a dog entails and you will not see the benefits of it the way someone else might. I like my dog (Bassett/Beagle mix) but honestly? I would not be broken up if she found a new home. I've had 5 kids, the oldest now almost 27 and the youngest 3, and loved it all. I don't love dog care.

The "FHA" fee is Mortgage Insurance(a.k.a MI) and that is part of your payment that the government charges for giving you the loan. Origination and Brokers Fee are the same thing but show on two different lines. The total of these should be no more than 1%. You want these to show as "Origination" because that is what is tax deductible. As for refinancing into an FHA loan is not something I would recommend unless it is the only loan you qualify for. The reason being is that yeah, you might get a lower rate, but the MI is not tax deductible. Unless that is the only loan you qualify for right now, you need to look at a different program that might have a higher interest rate, but no more than a 1/2 (.50%) and then you can can deduct all the payment. Your MI factor is probably about .58 or .75 which is essentially the same amount of interest rate increase although it is not showing as such because it does not reflect in the APR. Some people just like to have bragging rights so they can state they have the lowest rate and an FHA loan will allow that but you are ultimately paying the same payment with the tax benefits. Lastly, the rates plummeted this past week so you might want to check into that for your situation. I hope this helps.

We just finished doing this and encountered the same problem. In our case the bank (a small credit union) was willing to expand the area from which they drew the comps to pick up enough....but for us that meant that the house appraised well below even our worst case scenario since expanding that boundary picked up the edge of a neighborhood on the other side of the freeway that's been very badly hit by the downturn. (Of course when we asked the *county* to redo their appraisal in light of this, they rightly pointed out that the comps the bank used weren't actually in our neighborhood, and based on the one comp that was, the value of our house was substantially higher than its appraisal, and we would be taxed accordingly....figures! ;) We were fortunate to have enough equity in the house that we were able to move forward anyway by paying a small amount to keep the LTV at 80%, but it was definitely frustrating. Since we plan to stay in the house whatever happens to the value and we were bringing the interest rate down 1.25 percent which yielded pretty sizable savings in our monthly costs, it still seemed a worthwhile investment. (Also, there were a lot of sunk costs involved since we didn't get the appraisal figure till after we'd paid most of the fees....nonrefundable of course!) I don't think the bank would have accepted older comps, though, given the current trends.

Thanks for the replies. Roselvr, I didn't even think of it from that angle--I guess I assume that because the cities are so close together that agents know the neighborhoods in both towns, but it wasn't until I moved to Omaha that I really got a feel for the different neighborhoods. There's no signed contract, and Marys1000, you're correct, I've never met either. We worked with an NPDodge agent when we were looking in Iowa--Sharon Stokes--and she was wonderful. She stuck with us through a lot, even though we ended up not buying at that time. She's very good about helping you make the best choice for you rather than pushing for a quick sale. The agent I chose works at CBSHome, but thank you for the recommendation.