All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Connolly

I've never used them, but RedWeek.com has been around for a long time and that seems to be a go-to for timeshare week rentals. You could also try the TUGBBS forum (timeshare user group discussion forum). It's a very active forum and members can list weekly rentals. You can also get advice there on where else to try posting it. I have seen some on Ebay.

Just wanted to let you all know, I decided to pay off the balance on the car loan. I'm mailing my last check today :)

Rob, I already save $800 a month so the low income thing was a bit overstated. I'm actually mid-income according to the guidelines for down payment assistance. If I were living outside the northeast I wouldn't even be concerned about the DTI. I'm going to skip selling the car. It'll be paid off shortly after I close anyway.

@Eric Belgau , I get what you're saying and honestly it was my first instinct, but for now I'm just going to do what the gang giving me money is suggesting I do.

And wow, the masses of documentation. I'm going to go through a lot of ink and a lot of trees! I'm amassing all the stuff I need to take with me to the interview tomorrow with the folks who run the down payment assistance program. I'm going to go get a binder and make another set for my loan officer since he'll be wanting it all shortly too, I'm sure.

If I were offered an 8% interest rate on a car loan I'd take the bus! Mine's 2.9%.

Hey @Brie Schmidt , I've talked to two lenders and they both adv to partial pay, not pay it off. I will need to show proof of the payment and and write an LOE and show that I have the reserves to pay the balance and then they will exclude from my DTI calculation. They both indicated that it was better to have the reserves and an open trade line, than to have less cash and a closed trade line. I guess I will see what happens, but for now I'm going to follow their advice. I can always pay if things turn out differently.

@Duncan Taylor , my last car I drove for 10 years! It was nice not having a car payment for six of those years. I hope this one lasts me as long. :)

Thanks @Brie Schmidt , I'm aware of that.

Thanks for replying @Stephanie Medellin and @Jeff B. . I spoke to the lender at my Credit Union today and he advised paying it down to just under 9 months rather than closing out the tradeline so I'm doing that today!

Jeff, sorry if I didn't make it clear. There's no need for me to wait a year. I have the money now. It's just a tactical decision.

Hey folks,

I'm planning on getting a preapproval soon, but I have a DTI issue I need to resolve.

I pay $380 per month for my car and have 16 months of payments left on it. Unfortunately, with my low income my current DTI does not give me much purchasing power. On the bright side, I should qualify for both down payment assistance and the Masshousing loan due to my income and first time buyer status, but I still need to get my DTI to be more manageable so I can afford to buy more than a parking space in MA.

A lender I spoke to said that if I pay it down so I have less than nine payments remaining they "may" not factor it into DTI if I have enough liquid funds in the bank to show that I could pay it off and also have enough for a down payment. It's the "may" and the "and" that's getting me LOL

She recommended I do this and then wait for it to hit my credit report before applying for preapproval.

At this point, I could pay the whole thing off with just under $6k, but that would leave me with $5K for a down payment, which would probably be fine assuming a get another $3-4K in down payment assistance, but I hate to assume.

Alternatively, I was thinking I could pay $4K off now, which would leave me with around five payments left just to keep the trade line open a bit longer and probably by the time I get all my ducks in a row and get to closing on a property I might only have one or two payments left on it anyway.

What do you think?

I'd love to see what kind of answer you get on this too. My kneejerk reaction is that Springfield, MA isn't good for anything!