Alexa's Mom

My daughter and hubby have been bugging me about getting a dog for a while now. My daughter is 4 and an only child so I thought a dog would be a good playmate for her. We got a well behaved dog that a family member had to give up. But my daughter seems uninterested (not scared) and says that she only wants our cat now (the cat is not getting along with the dog and has to be separate). They are definitely not bonding. Any advice?

I don't have any instant pudding but I do have the regular cook and serve kind. Can I use that instead?

The home I am buying was built last year. The homeowner is the builder, we was planning to live there but his wife has been transfered and must move. Everything in the home is less than 1 year old. I have a friend who is a contractor who will look at it for me but my realtor wants me to use his inspector who wants 1400 for structural, radon, termite and septic. My thought on the matter is that the contractor will either have built a good home or probably have the ability to hide any short cuts he took and since home inspections are visual the builder will likely know what he is looking for. It's not as if they can tear open the walls to check the plumbing and since the roof, foundation, furnace, appliances, septic and hot water heater are all new what the point to paying almost 1.5k for an inspection??? Since the builder and the homeowner are the same person he can't disavow any knowledge of the home on the disclosure without risking fraud and a lawsuit. I just can't think of a reason to shell out the cash, but maybe I'm missing something...

I'm buying a house. On our contract our seller listed an arbitrary closing date mentioning they might change it because they needed to find a rental to live in. We originally placed the bid over 2 weeks ago. Had to wait a week to go into attorney review because the seller's attorney was on vacation and now we're commencing attorney review today and still no word on a closing date. I've been bugging my real estate agent about but every few days he tells me "Well they're going to know by tomorrow" then it gets pushed back again. Can the seller change the closing date after attorney review or will they have to stick to the arbitrary date they put on the contract?

I received some advice lately saying instead of using a large portion of my savings for a down payment on my new house I should just put down the minimum and keep the rest in savings. What do you think? I'm doing an FHA mortgage if that matters...

I want to switch realtors. Mine is not being communicative. I want to use the seller's realtor who works for the same broker as my current agent. Provided I can make the switch what will that do to my bid on the short sale? They've been working on it 2 mo and have made some progress so I would hate to back track at this point...

Involved in a short sale that has already gone on 2 months. My agent is becoming less and less attentive. When I call or email him it can occasionally take days for him to call me back or answer a yes or no email. Two or three times with the email he doesn't answer at all (he has a blackberry so I know he is checking). If I email or call and don't get an answer back how long should I wait til I email/call again?

I am having problems with my realtor. We are trying to buy a short sale. We offered 100% of the appraised price, covering 100% of the first mortgage and 28% of the second and there are no other bidders, which I consider a pretty good offer. We are also selling our house through him. In the beginning he always picked up his phone and returned email, now it takes days for him to call me back, has ignored some of my emailed questions and I feel he has given us poor advice. Generally I always get the feeling I am bothering him and I feel like he is giving me an attitude. What can I do? I'm willing to wait on this short sale but working with this agent is becoming more and more difficult.

It looks spectacular but can anyone share any stories/experiences about its quality?

We have a bid on a short sale with 2 liens. The first bank ordered an appraisal and came in 11k more than our offer (I think it's still a steal, the house sold for 40k more than that appraisal 3 years ago before improvements). The bank contacted the sellers agent and "suggested" we increase our bid to full appraisal price. What does that mean? Is that a counteroffer? I asked my realtor, he was unsure since he was not the one communicating with the bank. Can anyone shed some light on the situation or experienced this?

I need new major appliances. Washer, dryer, dishwasher, fridge and freezer combo, secondary freezer, oven and trash compactor. I want to buy them from Sears (I'll prolly buy Kenmore) and spend between 8k-10k. I have heard because of the economy people have started haggling even in major stores like Sears. How much should I be looking for them take off the retail price? What percentage is fair?

Is there a technical term for this for digital cameras? One that I could find in the specs for a specific model?

I've brought up homeschooling a few times with my husband. My daughter is only 2 but I've been thinking about it already because my husband works 2-10pm so once she's school aged she wouldn't be seeing him much during the week. He subscribes to the notion that home-schooled kids are socially underdeveloped. I don't think that's true, however in our case we only have 1 child (def not having more) and I fear if we homeschool she'll be lonely. Especially since we don't have any friends or family with children. Anyone in this situation, what kinds of educational/social outlets are out there for young? My ideal would be for her to have some kind of classroom socialization but not full day school but I don't know where to start in researching it. Also what are your thoughts on homeschooling an only child?

I'm just getting into spicy food and I heard sriacha is good so I bought some but don't have any recipes that use it as an ingredient (as opposed to just putting it on top). Does anyone have a recipe including sriracha?

For the last week I haven't been able to sleep (except 1 night). Every time I start to drift off I get and itchy/tickly feeling in my legs, feet and neck and head especially but it can be all over. What could this be? It doesn't bother me while watching tv in bed. My hubby isn't itchy. I slather on lotion before bed as well as taking zyrtec for allergies but it doesn't go away. Can anyone think of what could be the cause of this or a solution?

I put in a bid on a short sale, we're the only bidders. The seller's real estate agent seems to know what she's doing and she and the sellers attorney have both been in contact with the bank multiple times. I just heard they're sending an appraiser to the property. Does that mean we're going to hear from the bank soon? If not, is it indicative of any sort of progress?

I'm making homemade soup for a party, what kind of soup do you think will be liked by the most amount of people? I'm leaning towards a cream soup because it seems a bit more fancy than a broth soup but what do you think?

I put in a bid on a short sale, I bid asking and there are no other bidders right now however the homeowner is dragging his feet about getting his hardship letter in and we're also dealing with 2 lenders. This house is such a good deal I couldn't pass it up but if I don't get it I'm not going to end up moving at all, I'm not interested in looking at other properties. Considering how long I'm going to have to wait to hear back from the bank and the homeowner's laziness in submitting his paperwork when should I put my house on the market?

I have a bid on a great deal short sale property and understand I will be waiting a LONG time to get. So my realtor put my house on the market. We priced it really low and I'm getting SO many requests to show the house. I have a 1 year old and there's only so long I can be out of the house. I feel like if a realtor calls and says they want to show it at a certain time and I can't accommodate them that I will loose that potential sale. Is that the case or will the realtor call back to try to show it at another time?