Last year was very hectic for me. The reason for this is that in addition to working and running a few races, I was in the market for a home. There are a lot of moving pieces involved when buying a home, especially when you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is one of the hottest places to live (and the most expensive) in the country.

I thought I would break down my search into a few posts, starting with the beginning, which was financing. Oh the joys of getting a loan. Now, I have no idea what the right or wrong way to go about this is, but I will talk about the way that I did it, and what seemed to work for me.

First, I pulled my credit report. I have heard, and I am not sure if this is true, that it is better to pull it 6 times in one month than 6 times over the course of a year. So I pulled it, knowing that the lenders would also pull it. Luckily, it was in good shape.

The next thing I wanted was a pre-approval letter. I had no idea what I was getting myself in for, but I did know that a pre-approval letter was better than a pre-qualify. With a pre-approval, the lender gets mostly all of your paperwork and then they use that to figure out how much they will be willing to lend you. This is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is hard to figure out how much you can afford. I spent a lot of time on the internet plugging in numbers, but until the lender actually used my actual hard data to get an amount, I was just guessing (with the help of Google).

The second reason that it's important is that it helps to submit the pre-approval letter with your offer. This can help convince the seller that you are serious about the offer, and it will make them more comfortable that your agreement is not going to fall through due to lack of financing. In the Bay Area, your offer will most likely not get accepted without a pre-approval letter.

To get a pre-approval letter, you have to figure out who you want to try to get a letter and/or a loan from. How do you figure this out? Good question! Once again, I turned to Google (and Zillow) to find out who could give me the best rate. In addition, I asked several people who they had used and how their experience had been. I got a lot of different answers. Zillow named two internet banks and Bank of America as having the best rates. Two of my friends used Quicken (internet bank) and Bank of America.

So, I contacted one internet bank, Bank of America (who happens to be where I have had my accounts since I was a teenager) and Citibank. What happened next was this:

The internet bank asked me to fill out a form with my financial info and send it back to them. The lady was very nice and the operation seemed legitimate. I filled out the form and sent it back and got a pre-approval letter the next day.

Bank of America connected me to Texas. I finally got routed to a local agent, who barely spoke English (sorry!) and tried to talk me into getting a 5/1 arm (adjustable rate) instead of the 30 year fixed that I asked her for. She then asked me to send in about 400 different kinds of paperwork, including all of my Bank of America  bank statements. I sent them all to her and did not hear back from her for three weeks (when I called her, her message said she was on vacation).

Citibank sent me an unprofessional email with no signature or logo that looked like a 12 year old had sent it, asking for 400 different kinds of paperwork. I told them I would feel more comfortable seeing a real person and giving my documents to them and the guy blew me off.

Since the Citibank guy seemed unprofessional, I contacted a third option, a local broker, and I sent him all my 400 different kinds of paperwork. He was very helpful and even helped me run a few different scenarios, depending on my down payment and/or desired purchase price. The guy was easy to reach on the phone and answered any (dumb) questions I had throughout the entire process.

The verdict: The amount I could qualify for was less than I wanted, since they could not count bonuses or overtime unless you could show two full years and proof that it would be ongoing. Bummer. So that meant the amount I thought I could spend was not the actual amount... in addition, I found it very strange that they ask you how much you want to spend. Can't they just crunch all the numbers and then tell you what the absolute max is?

My advice: Try a bunch of different lenders. You have no commitment to them. Once you have all of your 400 documents in pdf form, you may as well send them to as many lenders as you can!

In addition, my realtor told me a few tips. (1) the big banks (BofA etc) take forever to get you an answer, sometimes meaning you lose the house because you can't get financing in time. I know this as well because I work for a big bank and I see some of the frustration over how long thing take. (2) The internet banks will give anybody a pre-approval letter and will often give you the number YOU want, rather than what you can really afford. This causes problems later when it comes to getting the actual loan. Due to this, often times sellers will not accept offers if the letter is from an internet bank.

So, there we have it, my new understanding of financing in a nutshell.

Have you gotten a home loan? What advice or tips do you have for others regarding the situation? 

*Disclaimer: I am not a professional. Any opinions I give are my own and you should do your own research before making any rash decisions. :) 

We are finally getting the rain that we have needed for so long. It was kind of ironic for a while there; where the rest of the country were suffering with record low temperatures and snowfall, we were sitting over here, dry as a bone. I went to Tahoe in January and went HIKING. This never happens. We really needed snow and rain in a bad way.

Rainy day in the city

So, it never fails, as soon as you wash your car it rains, right? For me, it's not about washing my car, it's about having back to back long runs planned for your weekend run. Currently, I am in the midst of a really strange training schedule: week 8 of 18 for the Boston Marathon and week 4 of 16 for the Miwok 100k. I know, it probably wasn't the best planning to have to train for both of them at the same time, but that's the way it is, so I am rolling with it.

Which meant I was supposed to run 20 miles on Saturday and 18 on Sunday. My plan was a nice long run in the city after work on Saturday and then a trail run on the East Bay on Sunday morning. However, after work on Saturday it was raining. Hard. But these miles weren't going to run themselves. So I went on a loop around the city.

And it was great. I admit, I cut it short at about 17 miles, but I still felt good afterwards. In fact, the only thing keeping my from the last few miles was my own laziness. I had it in me, but I had returned to the start and didn't feel like doing an extra three mile loop. I wanted some dinner.

The next day I woke up to no rain and hurried out of bed to get going. However, as I was eating breakfast, the skies opened up. I procrastinated for a while, hoping that it would ease up, but finally it was time to go. It poured the entire time. My feet were raisins, my shorts were sticking to me like nobody's business and my hat brim was like a waterfall. I cut this one short too because I had a rubbed raw spot on my heel and I tried to band-aid it, but it was really giving me grief.

I have to admit, running in the rain is probably my least favorite weather to run in. If it's cold, you warm up after a couple of miles; if it's snowing, it's cold, but not wet. However, when it's raining, running more doesn't make you any drier. And as you run, things are sticking to you, rubbing and pruning up. The other one I really dislike is extreme heat. It may be a toss up.

However, running in the rain makes me feel like a rock star. There is nobody else out; there weren't even any cars on the road. Everyone's hunkered inside watching Breaking Bad and you are outside, braving the elements. The few people you see, usually other runners, give you a knowing look as they pass you on the sidewalk. It's that look that says, "yup, you are one of us and we are awesome".

On Saturday, a bike rider said as he rode by me on a hill, "we are obviously dressed for different types of actives". He was wearing boots, waterproof pants, gloves and a rain slicker. I was wearing a tank top and shorts. I laughed at him and puffed up the hill, feeling like superman.

So, overall, last week was a good one. California is avoiding a drought and I am starting off this week feeling like a rock star. You can't ask for much more than that.

How was your weekend? Are you getting any wet weather? What makes you feel like a rock star?

If you are planning on visiting the Bay Area this week, don't. You have probably heard about the BART strike, but in case you haven't, here's the low down. About a month ago, the workers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system went on strike because they thought they deserved higher pay.

The BART workers are unionized, and according to sources, are requesting a 23% pay increase. According to the same source, the average BART worker makes $83,157, up from $80,588 in 2010. Supposedly they also get pensions without contributing anything, and only pay around $90 a month for health insurance, regardless of family size.

A month ago, the strike lasted for four days. Luckily, it was the week of the 4th of July and so there were not as many people going to work that week. However, the average daily ridership of the BART is about 400,000 people.

They went back to work and were going to try to work things out in a month. Well, the month is up and they still have not worked things out. So today, they are going back on strike (as far as we know).

I do not use the BART. As you know, I take the casual carpool. So I should have no problem, right?

Wrong. Everyone and their mother who normally takes BART is going to have to get to work somehow. Unfortunately, there are bridges and you have to get over them. So there are going to be a lot more people driving. So there is going to be a traffic back up a lot earlier than normal.

The question is...when?

As you are reading this, I may be waiting in line for a carpool. I may be on a bus. I may be sitting on the Bay Bridge with a million other cars, at an ungodly hour of the morning. All I know is that it's not going to be easy, or fun. It's going to be a huge cluster.

I am not sure how or if they will come to an agreement. If they do raise the wages, likely it will mean a huge cost increase for riders. If they don't, well, I don't know what will happen. But I hope it doesn't take too long.

**Edited to add: Last night at the very last minute, the governor of California stepped in and a 7 day investigation is going to be done, so the BART is running today! However, if no resolution is made by Sunday, there is still a possibility of a strike next Monday.**

What do you think? Should they get a raise? Have you been following the story at all?