As you may remember if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, I’m currently using Bank of America for my banking, but, as they’ve really pissed me off, I want to switch. I’ve basically narrowed the choices of alternative banks to Wainwright Bank and Leader Bank, both of which have a lot going for them. However there are still some issues that leave me questioning whether or not I really want to go with either of these banks:
Neither Leader nor Wainwright have a branch in Porter Sq. They both have branches in Central, and Wainwright also has a branch in Davis, so it’s not a huge hassle, but it’s still an inconvenience if I need to go in for something.
Another issue is the lack of ATMs. Obviously neither Wainwright nor Leader are huge banks that can afford to have an ATM on every corner like Bank of America, Sovereign, and Citizen’s are (around here anyway). They are, however, both on the SUM ATM network, which means I’d be able to use any SUM ATM without worrying about fees. There is, fortunately, a SUM ATM in Porter Sq. (Cambridge Savings Bank has a branch here and they’re also on the SUM network), and I know of a few others, but I’m concerned about whether or not there are enough of them to actually make it worthwhile. I don’t want to be having to pay fees all the time because I can’t find any SUM ATMs.
The last issue is with online banking. Bank of America really does have fantastic online banking, and I’ve grown very used to having the features that they offer. I’m sure most other banks will have most of the same features (Wells Fargo did), but there’s one feature in particular that I really like and am not too fond of the idea of giving up. That feature is e-Bills. The e-Bills program, if you don’t know, let’s you arrange to have your bills come directly to your Bank of America online banking page. You get an email alert letting you know a bill has arrived, and when you log in it shows you the bills that have come in, your balance, the minimum payment, and the due date. You can then schedule you’re payment directly from the page. It’s an incredibly convenient system, and I quite like having it. Losing it wouldn’t be a deal breaker, of course, but losing it on top of less convenient ATMs and locations makes things a little more questionable.
Now that the whole mortgage thing is taken care of I’ll be doing more research into the matter. Hopefully it will turn out that my fears are unfounded and there are plenty of SUM ATMs around Boston to keep me happy. And, if I’m really lucky, one or both of Wainwright and Leader will have the e-Bill system or something similar to it.
I’ve been pretty busy lately, and don’t expect to stop being busy for the next couple of weeks, so posting will remain sporadic at best.
Anyway, spent a week in IL for Christmas and a weekend on the Cape for New Years as mentioned. Spent last week and will be spending this week getting everything back in order after the trips as well as preparing to move, because on Friday we’re closing on the condo. Immediately after closing on the condo, I’m getting on a plane again… So it will continue to be a pretty busy time for both Jessi and I.
But the end is in sight! Come February we will be moved into our new condo, there will be no more impending travels (except, possibly, a trip to Ireland in March), and hopefully time to relax.
Anyway, related to the move, we need to find some people to take our place in the apartment. If anyone is interested in sub-letting two rooms in our apartment (one is about 10×11 and the other is about 11×12), please let me know. More info is available in this Craigslist ad.
Say what you will about Central Square, or ‘Crack Head City’ as one of the cleverer denizens of my future home, Porter Square, labeled it on a map of the T, but living hear does have it’s benefits. Despite the occasionally shooting, there are definitely some good things about our current apartment. For example, both of the following photos were shot out the window of my office at sunset.
Back in mid-September I wrote about how I was finally starting to understand why people don’t really like the T. This was mostly in response to the implementation of the then-new CharlieTicket system which was obviously not very well thought out and could have been done much better and probably much cheaper (if only they had thought to hire me to do it…). Now they’ve started rolling out the CharlieCard system, and with it a whole new fare structure.
The CharlieCard, I think, is actually a good idea. It will make things much more convenient for both the passengers and the MBTA. And it really isn’t a system that’s particularly easy to screw up considering the infrastructure is all already in place. And yet the MBTA seems bound and determined to excel at screwing up. In January, when the CharlieCard goes ‘mainstream’ (right now it’s only there for the elite few who braved the morning commute at a certain time on a certain day at whatever station the MBTA deemed worthy of having CharlieCards that morning, or, in Jessi’s case, the elite few who were able to talk a security guard into giving them one anyway), we’ll also be getting a new fare structure. The cost of a ride will, of course, be going up. But it will be going up by varying amounts depending on how you pay for it. People with CharlieCards will pay the least, and will get free bus rides. People with CharlieTickets will pay more. I suppose that makes sense, as CharlieCards will save the MBTA money in the long term, but it’s still annoying and somewhat confusing. I’ll even go along with the fare hikes as a good thing, because the MBTA is clearly in need of more money with their mounting debt and all.
But with all that mounting debt, what is that money going towards? Is it going towards the poorly maintained red line (the one Jessi and I ride) that, nearly killed a child and woman yesterday due to faulty doors? No, it’s going to a new MBTA website. A new MBTA website that doesn’t even properly implement the Google API. When you go there you get a warning about the Google API key not matching the site. Basically, they never got a new Google API key for the live site and were still using the one from the development site, which doesn’t work (I learned this the hard way when developing the dy/dx tech website). Admittedly, the new website looks better, and it won’t take long for them to fix the Google API problem, but it seems like an egregious waste of money to me, when they are so in debt that they can’t even properly maintain their trains.
The MBTA needs to improve their service and systems, that will improve their image, that will encourage more people to ride the T more often, that will increase their income, that will work to alleviate their financial situation, that will allow them to continue to improve their service and systems, ad infinitum. Basically, their current path would run any ordinary company into the ground, but thanks to the miracle of government subsidies they don’t really need to worry about it. Ah, but for the luxury of a government contract, we could all be wallowing in the depths of our own ineptitude and indolence.
As promised, the first stage of buying a new home.
Obviously, there are three very important things to know when going into the first stage of buying a home: where you want to live, what kind of place you want to live in, and how much you want to spend on it. In Jessi and my case, we wanted to live in Cambridge and within walking distance of the red line so that Jessi could still easily take the T to the office. We also knew that we wanted a condo with at least two bedrooms and at least one bathroom (duh…), but we didn’t really know much beyond that. We started our actual shopping online. It didn’t take too long to discover that by far the best web site for searching and getting the basics on properties for sale in the Boston area is Hammond’s. It has all the listing you’ll want to see and, in my opinion, the best interface by far of any of the options. It let us specify exactly what our search criteria were, including neighborhood. It really helped us get a better idea of what was out there and what was in our price range (and we were lucky enough to discover that, in the current market, there were plenty of places that met our criteria and were in our price range).
The next step was finding an agent. it’s not strictly necessary to have your own agent when buying a home, but it makes the process vastly easier, and the seller pays their fee so why not. Since we didn’t really know what we were doing and we wanted to be sure we got someone we could work with we initially talked to a couple different agents. We ended up, as I mentioned before, going with Anne Munson from RE/MAX Destiny in Cambridge, mainly because we just felt like she was a good fit for our personalities. Once we had signed the paperwork with Anne and told her what we were looking for she signed us up with MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and we started getting daily email updates on whatever new properties showed up that met our criteria. She also was able to give us copies of the Rosenoff Report, which is basically a giant printed out spreadsheet with info on all the properties for sale in Cambridge and Somerville. That was more Jessi’s domain, so I’ll let her write about that if she wants. Anyway, this is the point when it starts actually looking like house shopping. Based on the properties that came to us through MLS we would tell Anne which ones we were interested in and she would arrange for us to go see them. We also went to some open houses.
Around this time we also went to get our mortgage pre-approval. Chris Smith, of Capstone Mortgage, was recommended to us by a friend who works in real estate in the area. After telling her our financial situation she was able to pre-approve us for a mortgage that was in exactly the range we were looking for. Again, just to be sure, we also went to someone else to see what they would say. In this case we went to Cambridge Savings Bank. They weren’t quite as good. For some reason they said that, unless we got someone to co-sign our mortgage they would only approve us for around $15,000, significantly less even than the down-payment we already had. So we went with Chris.
Eventually we found a place we wanted to put an offer in on and went into negotiations. But that will be the next post.
In other news, Pigpen is now famous: Cat Art Gallery. Jessi says I’m going to turn into a crazy cat lady…
I’m writing this from The Druid in Inman Square where I’m stuffed to the gills with what was, by far, the best Shepherd’s Pie I’ve ever had in my life. Rather than the standard ground beef with some peas and carrots topped with mediocre mashed potatoes it was a fantastic lamb stew with vegetables topped with fantastic mashed potatoes. And they didn’t skimp on the meat either, there was plenty of nice big chunks of lamb to last the whole way through the meal. Plus they’re one of the few places around enlightened enough to offer free WiFi. So you get a fantastic Irish Pub with fantastic Irish food, good prices, great atmosphere, and internet access so you can spend the whole day here and still claim to be working. I think I have a new favorite casual eatery.
In other news, we met with our mortgage broker this morning to apply for our mortgage. When we were first starting the process we were told that applying for a mortgage was like getting a root canal. I’ve never had a root canal, but, if that’s what it’s like, sign me up! I think the mortgage has seriously been one of the easiest parts of this whole process, which is saying a lot considering every other person we’ve worked with on this has been really good and really helpful. I think we must have had one of the best possible house shopping experiences, and I almost can’t wait to do it again (Cape house, anyone? Maybe in a few years…).
So we’re now pretty much finished with buying our condo. Everything that we need to do has been done, and now it’s just up to our lawyer, agent, and broker to take care of the rest. We’re definitely on track to be moving in by our closing date of Jan. 12.
I haven’t been writing much lately, just too much going on. I’m very close to getting my first client who will hire me on retainer rather than just for projects, I’m trying to keep on top of various opportunities to pursue for the new web venture as soon as all the paperwork for that is all ship shape and Bristol fashion (as an old boss of mine would say), trying mightily to find the time to get the work needed on cellphonetechnews.com done so that it can really launch, and, of course, buying a house.
If you had told me when I started this blog, way back on June 21, that today I would be buying a house, I would have thought you were crazy. None the less, this evening Jessi and I will be signing the Purchase and Sale agreement for our new condo in Somerville (and you’ll notice that I now have a Somerville category to complement my Cambridge one), and handing over a cheque for more money than I’ve ever actually seen at one time before. Of course things won’t really be finalized until Closing, which will be happening mid-January to avoid complications with the holidays, but the really important step of signing the paperwork and handing over a lot of money happens today (and we’re meeting with our mortgage broker tomorrow morning to deal with that aspect).
So once again, this blog will be chronicling a move. This time I’ll be moving less than 2 miles as opposed to the more than 3,000 before, but I think it’s just as big a move in other ways. We’re moving from renting to owning, a big enough step in its own right, but more importantly we’re moving from a temporary residence in the area to a commitment to stay here. We had always planned to stay here for probably at least 5 years, but now that we’ll own our condo it’s a little more official, and much harder for us to just up and leave if we feel like it. So for the next 5 to 7 years, we’ll be living in Somerville. Other than college, this is probably the first time I’ve ever really decided that I’d be staying in one place for any extended period of time. The only question that remains is: How will Pigpen handle all this?
The process of buying a house is a very strange and convoluted one. I guess I had always imagined it as being like buying anything else: you find what you want, negotiate a price, and buy it. Instead it’s a long, involved process that involves hiring several different people to manage it for you, takes about a month, and involves several discreet steps any one of which could fail and bring the whole deal crashing down. I suppose, despite its apparent complexity, that it’s really probably one of the most well-honed business practices there is. People have been purchasing land for thousands and thousands of years, so all these steps are probably there for a reason and serve a very good purpose. I definitely intend to write more about the process, and our experience with it, in more detail, but I’m waiting until it’s all over so I can collect my thoughts on it.
And so, I’ll leave you with this:
An example of just how important editing is to film and our impressions of it.
One of my friends came back from the polls around 2:30 this afternoon. Apparently, at that time, only 400 people had voted at our polling place, a polling place which covers Cambridge’s Ward 2 Precinct 3, Ward 3 Precinct 3, and Ward 5. When he voted, as when I did (around 8:30 am), there were no lines. Something tells me that 400 people is a very small fraction of the total people covered. It’s probably safe to assume that a lot of people will be voting after work, but how big a fraction will that be? The polls are only open until 7, which leaves less than 2 hours for most people.
In a neighborhood in which I’ve seen very little other than Deval Patrick signs, it leaves me to wonder if the polls we’ve seen up till now are actually representative of the people who vote rather than just the people who are eligible to vote. Sure 51-ish% of the people polled before may prefer Patrick, but who knows if they’re actually going to vote. And if Patrick’s monstrous lead is eroded, who knows what will actually happen.
My impression from watching the polls and people’s opinions over the past few weeks has been that very few people actually like Kerry Healey. I suspect that the vast majority of the 21% of people who poll in her favor are doing so because they’re party-line Republican voters and not because they actually like her. Patrick, on the other hand, has all the party-line Democrat voters, plus the moderate Democrats and many moderate Republicans. Whereas Mihos has the disillusioned voters from both parties, probably a good portion of the Libertarian vote, and those Republicans who don’t like Healey but can’t bring themselves to vote for a Democrat. Ross, well Ross has the environmentalists, and a portion of the gay vote.
While obviously it’s difficult to impossible to predict the way the vote will actually break down, my hunch is that low turnout would probably hurt Healey the most, then Patrick, with Mihos and Ross tied for least affected. Healey will be hurt the worse because the people who I think area actually going to vote for her are the ones that are the least emotionally invested in the election. Patrick has obviously done a good job of drumming up public support, he’s very charismatic and that’s what’s going to carry his vote, but he still will suffer when the generic Democrats don’t care enough to go to the polls. Mihos and Ross are only getting votes from people who actually care. They don’t have the apathetic party-line voters who might or might not show up, which, I think, artificially deflates their ratings in opinion polls.
So my prediction is that in the final count, Mihos and Ross will come up from their previous polling numbers. Not necessarily because people came out to support them who weren’t represented in the polls, although I think that will happen for Mihos as well, but because Healey and Patrick will lose votes to apathy. I wouldn’t expect Healey to get much more than 17-18% in the final count. Patrick, I think, will remain strong, but still drop to high 30s to low 40s. I’d give Ross around 5%. And maybe I’m being optimistic, but I think Mihos will break well into the double-digits, possibly into the 40s beating even Patrick.
For the first time in my voting history, I actually got to the polls before the lines today. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to discover that Cambridge uses the same kind of polls that I used in Northfield, MN: the kind where you just fill in the bubbles with a marker. Just once I’d like to use one of the old machines where you actually pull a lever. At least these ones are simple, easy, and unlikely to cause confusion.
Sticking with my view that you should vote for a candidate, not for a party, I cast my ballot for a mix of Republicans, Democrats, Green-Rainbows, Independents, and even a candidate from the Working Families party; I also like to vote for the third party candidates, especially in races where they’re only running against one other candidate who’s almost definitely going to win. As I’m sure you all have guessed, my vote for governor went to the independent candidate: Christy Mihos. In the last poll he was only polling at 8%, but we can always hope. I do think he’s likely to break into double-digits in the actual polls, if nothing else, and I would definitely like to be able to congratulate him as my next governor tonight. Time shall tell.
I hope everyone out there who’s reading this is going to vote, if they haven’t already. And if you’re in Massachusetts, vote Mihos for governor!
Though it involved no gunpowder, treason, or plot, this Guy Fawkes Night (Which is also one of my favorite holidays, even though I’m not British and don’t celebrate it. There’s just something about a holiday during which you burn people in effigy…), it was certainly still a night to remember. Tonight, Jessi and I made an offer on a townhouse/condo. I think this means that we’re officially Big Kids. It also means that, barring unforeseen problems, we’ll soon no longer be residents of Cambridge, but of Somerville, the second move this year for both of us. The process of home-buying has been, so far, pretty painless. I’ll write about it in more detail, but I’ll wait until we finish the process first.
In other news, I went to my first Carleton College alumni event the other night. I don’t know why, but I never really bothered to get involved with any of that stuff in San Francisco. I suppose it probably had to do with already knowing lots of people in the area and having a regular office job that brought with it some really great friends, whereas here I know fewer people, and don’t get to meet as many new friends through work. Anyway, the event was actually a lot of fun. It was largely ‘05ers and ‘06ers, then myself and one of two others from the class of ‘04, and a couple from ‘02 and ‘03. Amazingly enough, I actually ran into someone that I played rugby with freshman year. I also met a guy who’s currently a corporate lawyer working with biotech firms. He pointed me towards some Mac users he knows in the industry, so hopefully I’ll even get some business out of the event which, I suppose, just goes to show that a little networking is always worthwhile.
Oh yeah, I’m also in need of a haircut. I haven’t had to do that yet here, so I have no idea where to go. Any and all recommendations are welcome. Preferably somewhere that’s likely to be able to squeeze me in before tuesday night when I’ll be attending Christy Mihos’ election night party.
