Good news from the bank

Karen called the bank today, and asked about several things. First, she wanted to find out what we could be pre-approved for, and based on our credit scores, our incomes, and our history with the bank, we were told we could qualify for a $500,000 loan. Now, we've run the numbers, and we know what a $500,000 loan would cost us monthly, and we're not sure they know how hand-to-mouth we are willing to go (or not go) ... but suffive it to say, we are not looking for a loan anywhere near that amount. It will still be a sizeable loan, but more on the order of $300,000. But it is nice to know.

Next, she asked about a bridge loan - the builder will require a 10% down-payment to break ground, and that is non-refundable. They said it would be pretty simple: we already have a home equity loan, which we used to pay for the sunroom and new flooring, and we would just increase the size of that loan. When time came to close on the new mortgage, we would just decrease the size of the loan by that much (of course, the money to pay off that loan would come from our principal, but it all washes out in the end).

So that was good news. The buyers/lookers came to see the house and, the Realtor said, took a long look at it and had lots of questions, which is good. No more word than that, but it is good to have our first prospect under our belts.