Edwards Family Blog

It’s a girl! I’m a new Daddy!

Born 2/3/09 at 3:45pm weighing 9lbs 5ozs and measuring 21 inches long. BIG baby. Also, keep scrolling down for more video and pictures!

Now watch Video below!

Also, Stephanie has requested no pictures of her just yet. So here are some older pics! Don’t forget to scroll down for more pictures & Video

Steph 3 months ago

Kada Morning After

Thats me below: 2 hours of sleep night after delivery. At least Briana was safe next to me and Stephanie healing. Changed a few diapers, burped, helped with feeding, etc.

For those of you who haven’t seen the pictures of our new house check below. 1500 sq.ft built on top of an old POA swimming pool that had gone bankrupt right in the middle of West Little Rock. Non Split Floor Plan so Briana is on the same side of the house as the Master Bedroom.

Front:

Another Front shot that shows off the shutters and bench I made to contrast with the siding and brick. Instead of buying shutters, I made them and then bench which saved enough money to purchase a new circular saw and some other woodworking tools. We’ll be attaching a metal wall fixture to the siding to give it a great look. Then this summer the front siding comes down and is replaced with cedar boards which will fit nicely inside the vinyl J channels. Maybe add a wide but short window to our Master Bath as well which is behind the front siding.

Land Development portion was fun. First, I met with a highly respected Engineer to get an opinion on how to handle the excessive concrete. He signed off on collapsing the pool walls, punching some holes in the bottom of the pool (pool took all weekend to drain btw, boring weekend), attach drain pipes to the deep end of the pool and have the pipes extend to the nearby surface storm drain that is right behind the house. Throw a load of shale, some geotextile, then top it off with a few feet of dirt. Basically turns it into a giant french drain with a compaction of close to 100% for much less $$$ then hauling the concrete off to the landfill.

Here is a great and simple solution to help people purchase homes.

1. First, leave the interest rates to the market, no government sponsored or any artificial ways to lower interest rates.
2. Keep it Simple: Simply replace all the laws and rules concerning seller paid closing costs, prepaids, dpa, sales commission, etc with a generic Seller can pay up to 6% for anything. Need to pay a Realtor 4% commission? Need to pay 3.5% for Down Payment? Need to pay for 3% closing costs? That is 10.5% subtract 6% from that which can be paid by seller, and the buyer must come up with 4.5% of their own funds to purchase or talk to one of the payable sources on lowering their % rate.
3. Create one additional rule that states if any cost is above the national average, the home buyer must attend or view online a training course about that topic.  So if a Realtor is charging 7% commission, and national average is 5%, then the buyer must be fully informed and not with just paperwork that is glossed over by a closing agent at time of closing. If interest rate is 1% above average, same thing. If origination fee for the lender is 1.5% and average is 1% same thing.
4. Appraisals need to focus more on Cost+ method instead of perception of market worth. Currently, most appraisers look at what homes have sold in the area the last 6 months. I believe Cost + 30% gross profit like any other business model would have limited the size of the bubbles. As demand increases so does labor and material costs so you would see rising house prices; if the location is excellent then the lot price of course reflects this.

If the person is 100% trained and informed, only then should they be allowed to move into a long term debt position.

I own some FNM & FRE stock and wanted to go on record about the whole housing mess as a licensed Realtor and licensed Residential Contractor.

Problem is so many investors are looking to cash out once they hit 10% return and plenty  purchased around 50-75 cents. I see the stock going to $1 then a sell off for profit bouncing back down to 50-60 cents until they do a 25:1 stock conversion.

You won’t see high stable prices on this stock, until they start pushing the dividend and making money instead of losing it. Long term 5-10 year investors might be fine but could be better off looking for a solid financial stock, since financial stocks will show the recession rebound faster then anything.