Home is Where Your Internet Bill is Addressed

My house appraised for what I bought it for! Yay.

There is still much packing to do before moving day, but I wanted to share good news because I don't do it often. Therefore, I won't go into the other headaches of buying a house from these people... but they are kinda annoying. Let's just say I'm not too concerned with people stealing stuff, and if I am, I actually tell the police about it.

The final walk through is on the evening of the 18th, closing is at 10am on the 19th, and the cable installation people will be out between 2 and 5pm on the 19th... (This is very reminiscent of the move to Kansas City from DC, as I'm sure Mom will remember this conversation we had over IM):

Nikki: I made an appt. for the cable/internet dude to come hook me up on the morning of the 27th.
Mom: Monday? or Tues? I don't have a calendar.
Nikki: Monday
Mom: LOL
Mom: You cannot go more than 3 days without internet?
Nikki: I can give it up anytime I want.

FYI, I moved in on the 26th of February and had to drive for three days to get here. This time, I'm moving into a house that will already be wired and hooked up. I could still quit if I wanted to.

I haven't switched any of the other utilities yet. I know where my priorities are.


End Blog.

Insurance Magic

I wanted to get a whole bunch of quotes for homeowners insurance so that I knew I was getting a good price. But, it turns out, that within the first two quotes I received, I got both the highest and lowest quote humanly possible. One, All State quoted me at $930 a year. This floored me because my mortgage people were estimating something around $600 for all the estimates they gave me. Then I talked to a guy at MetLife, who told me it would only be $415 a year.

This intrigued me. So, I kept getting quotes. And kept getting quotes... and kept getting quotes. Then, I got quotes from different agents within the same company. Insurance is an insanely crazy thing, let me tell you. I've gotten four different quotes from All State: $930, $706.25, $614.03, and $489.44.

Crazy. Look at all those different numbers!

You know what else is crazy? I can't stop myself. I've gotten 16 quotes. I need to go to Insurance Quote Addiction Anonymous or something. I just can't believe how different they are. And did you know that Farmers gives you a discount for being a scientist? Now I just sit here and ask what kinds of crazy discounts I can get. I have a new roof, can you discount that? I even got a discount because I'm a GW Alumnus. Seriously, this insurance thing... it's magic.

I think you should become super good friends with your insurance agent, because the more they know about you, the more discounts they can find. I'm gonna go back to that MetLife guy. He was one of the first people I talked to, so I didn't know of the magic that is random insurance discounts.

And this is all without the 10-20% discounts you get when you insure your auto with the same company as your home.

So, learn your lesson well - shop around for insurance to find the best rates. The sad thing is, I'm comparing apples to apples on these because I make sure they're all quoting me the same replacement value numbers and personal liability and whatnot... and they're STILL so different.

Insurance world is a mystery.


End Blog.