We're caught in something of a catch 22 here and are seeking answers before we act.  To buy a house you need to have homeowners insurance (among other, more obvious things), but you also need good credit.  My wife and I have excellent credit with FICO scores near 775 each.  We didn't get scores like that by running credit willy nilly, we are careful about what we buy and how much debt we take on.  Well in shopping for an acceptable homeowners insurance policy we've come to find out that insurance companies want to run our credit to quote us for a policy.  The insurance company swears that it won't affect our scores, but I'd like to hear that from an independent body.  So I've asked around and no one can really give me an answer.

Well, we were riding home from grocery shopping the other day and were listening to a show hosted by financial planners.  Joni suggested that I call them and see if they knew.  So I get right on the air and get to ask my question.  After explaining my query, I was met with yet another "Hmmm, I don't know", but that isn't the worst part.  The financiers dug a little deeper and asked how much the house was that we're buying and how much we made (so if you live in Raleigh and were listening to the radio yesterday...the cat's out of the bag...you know our income and home price; which isn't information we give out readily).  With that information they proceeded to rip me a new asshole, exclaiming that we are buying WAY too much house and living FAR beyond our means, "No one should ever buy a house where the payment is more then 25% of their monthly after tax income".  My heart sank, we'd done the math time and time again, we wouldn't have gone forward with this place if the numbers didn't support it.  Every bank we talked to said we were well under their debt ratios and we were approved for a loan with out the blink of an eye.  I didn't know what to do or say, would this be the end of our dreams of owning a home?  Had we in fact bitten off more then we could chew?

I spent most of the night running the numbers again and again...looking at budgets, expenses, inflating for worst case scenarios, adding fees that don't even exist trying to make this NOT work on paper.  No matter how things worked out, we could always afford it and in best cases we'd have about $1000 left over each month.  And that's after we subtracted generous eating out bills and entertainment expenses.  So I woke up this morning, my stomach still upset from all the worrying, and my back with a huge knot in it no doubt for the same reason.  I went for my afternoon run and all I could think was maybe I'll have to get a second job, or get rid of cable or high speed internet.  I think I sprinted most of my two miles and was back here in 20 minutes (including changing clothes and stretching).  I quick opened a calculator as I thought to myself...I wonder what percentage of our after tax income a mortgage is, exactly...  26.4%.  Those mother-fuckers cost me a night of sleep and a near migraine headache because we went over by 1.4%?  Near everyone I talk to is spending more like 40-50% and I got shit because I went over his limit of 25%?  I don't know what my retaliation will be, but they'll pay somehow...for starters nobody listen to "Money Matters" on WPTF or utilize "Lewis Financial Services"!  More to come...