u/Disastrous_Store_767

HYSA, specifically I use a Vanguard cash-plus account which has worked well. One thing to note though is you can't directly wire from that account, so for your down payment you'll need to plan to move money around ahead of time (either to a brokerage account at Vanguard, or externally to an account you can wire from).

+1 to an independent appraisal to make it fair. If they sell direct to you, they will save on some fees (listing agent, buying agent, staging, listing, etc.) and you'll just have closing costs and perhaps one agent to act as dual agency (representing both of you to handle the transfer) or hiring a real estate lawyer.

If you can't afford to buy it, then maybe they sell on the open market and give you a cut as a gift to help with a down payment on your own house?

I'm not saying it could never work, or not make sense, but to adequately protect yourself and prevent headaches in the future you'd want to spend a good bit on legal fees consulting with an attorney, drafting the appropriate changes, so is the juice worth the squeeze?

For most people, their home is their most valuable asset, so it's worth protecting from future headaches. Especially if the security of it is based on goodwill and relationships, versus a clear contract/protections.

Looking at the law you're referencing, it looks like one of the criteria is:
>Proof of Interest. If the applicant is not on the deed, documentation proving legal interest in

>the property is required. Examples: Trust or operation agreement

You could talk to a lawyer about what that means, for example, if you did define some kind of structure where one of your parents (may not need to be both) has a 1% interest in the property. But in my opinion, messing with the title, trusts, etc. gets complicated and expensive (lawyers). No such thing as a free lunch.

Well there are two things here - and I am not a lawyer:

The mortgage: agreement between you and the bank/lender on who pays for the property

The title: who owns the house

For example, you could have a title that says 2 people own the house, 50/50, but only one person is on the mortgage. So one person in that arrangement has the benefits of ownership of the property, without any of the risk/liability of paying for the property.

In your case, it sounds like by adding your parents, you could maybe benefit in terms of reduced taxes (if that is a real thing), *however*, they get true claim to the property. They can leverage that property and is it considered their asset in part, meanwhile you're still on the mortgage itself and if you stop paying the mortgage / lose your job, the bank comes after you and not your parents.

Adding anyone to the title declares that the other person is an owner of the property as well.

I'd be incredibly wary of changing the title and/or using a trust on a whim. The basis for this may be genuine / good intentions, but I had to unravel a complex situation in my family where my grandparents got swindled out of their property by a son of theirs, or a different situation in my family where a property was put into a trust owned by an LLC, and the LLC wasn't maintained.

If you do consider anything in this realm, hire your own attorney who is reputable and represents YOU (not all of you "sharing" a lawyer), otherwise you will need to hire an attorney again later and unravel an expensive mess if there becomes any reason to contend who the owner is. tldr: don't go into real estate with family

It's a cute house, but also consider re-sale value. You may like it, but it's also got some design choices that may not have a broad appeal. Most look pretty addressable though if you did want to make changes later (painting, trim, etc.)

I shoot a lot on my 1V and love it, it's reliable, decently fast autofocus, and solid with useful features. Coming from other Canon cameras over the years (50D, 5D MK II / MK IV) it feels as solid and of my cameras I'd hesitate the least to use it for anything.

A good meter is valuable in certain situations, but do question if you will use it as much as you think. It can end up being a thing that stays in the bag or you don't bring cause it's extra, versus your phone that's on you. Most of the time I use my various camera's built-in meter and adjust from there with my own guessing, or some of my cameras have a built in spot metering mode that is sufficient.

Kind of like "the best camera is the one that's with you" same applies to a meter. It's cool to have a fancy light meter, but will you actually use it? what are you shooting (landscapes? portraits? etc.) where you need this meter?

still, is the 15K just going to pay the broker and underwriters 8K cut? seems high.

well the points are itemized at around 1K there, and the remaining 8K seems high? On my loan the points were similarly separated like yours.

Might be worth shooting a roll and sending to a lab just to see. But otherwise these just look underexposed. If your camera lets you choose your settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture), try to meter from a proper external meter or app on your phone and see how the results come out. How are you setting ISO on your camera? does it have a DX code reader or a knob you set?

Hmm, the loan origination fee seems high.

On my recent mortgage (for a 1.25M home):

Origination Charges

Processing Fees - $1,395

Underwriting Fees - $995

The seller is paying for all my closing costs + all the points btw, so I don't care as much.

Have you had any rolls on this camera developed by a lab? if so, did they come out well exposed? What film are you using, is it expired?

1 and 4

I had a similar threat from my insurance about the state of my roof, they noted "discoloration" of the main house roof from satellite pics and told me I needed to replace it or they'd drop me. I already needed a new garage roof, so I had 3 different roofers quote the garage, and inspect the house roof, all the roofers wrote quotes that stated the condition of the house roof was good. I gave those quotes to insurance and they took back their claims re: house roof condition.

You could try something similar to get an independent review and fight back.

Given that, and if the development steps have been clear, these all look underexposed. How are you metering? not familiar with your camera, but if it has a built-in meter it may be broken or the battery may be dead.

Have you shot well exposed photos on this camera that were developed by a lab? Need to separate the variables, it's very common as a new film shooter to underexpose for a variety of reasons (unfamiliar with metering, bad meter in camera, forgetting to change ISO, bad settings, etc.) or improperly develop.

How are you developing? how are you heating / measuring temps on your chemicals?

If there is a volunteer department then yes, walk in and ask for info (if it's not on their site) and take the initiative. That is where you start. If there is info on a site, like some paperwork, go and fill it in person and meet folks, introduce yourself, be polite.

also, the insurance doesn't cover the land, so this doesn't make a lot of sense..

Did you tie an expiration to your offer? I made an offer recently which had 24 hours, they countered at hour 22, I accepted the next morning.

I stuck my extra cash (intended for a down payment) into a HYSA and just kept adding to it, the monthly interest earned is a nice little incentive and feels productive. Anything more than that carries some risk (and reward), so YMMV.

Don't try to impress / tell stories / joke around on day 1.

Listen, be thoughtful, be humble, ask questions when appropriate (eg: debrief after a call).

Even if you already think you know something, let others show you, you can always learn something.

Don't put your feet up, always be learning / practicing a skill / exercising / helping out. If another FF is doing something (cleaning, inventory, etc.) try to help if they welcome it.

Learn to cook, pitch in to meals, and if you can't cook yet, then bring some good ice cream.

Have fun, be safe!

Seattle area, not San Diego. But nationally the trends look more favorable for buyers generally.