Renting Or Buying A Home | The Pros & Cons Print

Jay Harper join us to discuss our favorite gardening book reviews.  After a week of much needed rain...

TEXT:  Is it too late to put down pre-emergent on an existing weeded area?  

BOOK:  Sunset Western Garden Book.  A general plant encyclopedia for the western states including Arizona.  Broken down into zones.  What plants will grow well in each zone.

BOOK:  Jay talk about a book handed down by his Dad.  Thompson's English to Spanish, Spanish to English Illustrated Agriculture Dictionary.

List of gardening book reviews!

Two sources we recommend to find books:  Thrift Books.com  And Book Shop.org will look for a book at your local bookstores and ship to you.  Our way of supporting local bookstores.

BOOK:  Practical Gardening In Southern Arizona.  Available at Valley Garden Center.

BOOK:  Bounty From The Box: The Community Supported Agriculture Farm Cookbook  Details on various things to grow and how to prepare them for eating.

Romey's favorite salsa Kylito's Salsa.

BOOK:  Yard Full Of Sun by Scott Calhon  A gardener's obsession that got a bit out of hand.

Jay explain the two mistakes beginning gardners make:  preparing the soil and timing.

Taylor your garden to your lifestyle, your age and grow what you like to eat.

Discussion of Square Foot Gardening.  Invented by Mel Bartholomew.  Plus growing in containers and even kiddie pools (with holes on the bottom)

BOOK:  Grow A Living Wall by Shawna Coronado  Growing gardens vertically/trellis

BOOK:  City Farming by Kari Spenser

Book:  The Encyclopedia of Country Living

Book:  Pollinator Friendly Gardening by Rhonda Fleming Hayes

 Book:  Desert Garden of Steve Martino

Things to consider now are fertilizing citrus, pruning roses and deciduous trees.

Organic fertilizer from The Farms Choice.com

Harold Perkins of Galaxy Lending  joins us to discuss the low interest rates and see if your monthly rent payment could be enough to afford buying a home.

CALLER:  Renting a one bedroom 850 square foot apartment with a year left on the lease.  Need to decide on buying a home or continue to rent.  Monthly rent is $1500.  Harold has some figures and advice.

With a year left on lease, you have a luxury of time to find homes for sale and go thru pre-qualification to have a loan ready.

Talking the Pros and Cons to homeownership.  We discuss the con/downside:  the down payment. 

Harold gives some options like VA Loans (if you served in the military) requires no down payment.  And some pretty low interest rates.

What to look for in credit scores.  Great to start pre-approval way in advance in case the score needs work.

Sanderson Ford

CALLER:  Stuck in a jumbo loan and looking for refi options.  Rate was 6.2%.  Refied to 4%.  Hearing all these low 2-3% rates wants to see how to get there.    Harold explains the Conforming Loan Limit and how it could help him get a lower rate.

Downside to renting:  bad property management.  Carol Vore tells her 'horror story' about it.

Should you refinance, what will it cost?  When is it wise to grab a lower rate and what does the cost of refinancing to get that rate not justified to do it?

The lower interest rate might have higher closing costs.  Harold explains. 

Discussion on your prequal loan and competing against cash investors on a property.

Prediction on how long these low mortgage rates will stay low.  Determining factors that may cause them to spike up.

Hot market can be frustrating for buyers having to competing with other buyers.  Jennifer's suggestion is write a letter with your offer on why you want the home. 

Harold tells a real story about how he saw that work.

Rosie got many responses on two things he mentioned recently:  The wall mounted Dustrite Dust Collector for his garage.  And the book 'Anything Can Happen' by George Papashvily. 

TEXT:  Recent moisture has cause the inside of my dual pane windows to fog up.  What can be done to repair it?

CALLER:  Water supply line from the meter to the house is leaking.  The leak is under the concrete driveway.  Suggestions on how it can be repaired.

TEXT:  (we don't know how this happened but here is goes)  The spring loaded spindle from the toilet paper holder was flushed down the toilet by accident.  What can be done to keep the toilet from possibly backing up?

Rosie has some ideas for the previous caller with the water leak under the driveway.

TEXT:  Awful sewer system in a 32 year old home south facing.  Odor coming from bathroom drains.  Has a smoke test done, ran bleach down the drain, nothing.  Any suggestions?

Romey and Rosie explains an inexpensive extention of the plumbing vents on the roof.  Plus other ideas.  

CALLER:  Has a belly in the sewer line to the street.  Every couple of years they have to Roter Rooter the line.  Can anything else be done to solve the problem.  (We explain the belly).

CALLER:  (Not Aired)  Recall the name of a free standing dust collector/air purifier for a kitchen remodel.

CALLER: Replacing the sliding glass door.  The tile from the old door didn't adhere to the bottom of the door.  Recall Rosie mentioning using rubber from a bicycle tire.  Rosie discusses a caulk mastic solution and others.

Takeaways from the show!