# Where are MY leather seats?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-my-leather-seats/296989>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [March 30, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-my-leather-seats/296989 "2005-03-30T19:52:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-my-leather-seats/296989/41 "2005-04-02T16:07:08Z")

</div>

> [@LordVor](#):
>
> [unsolicited financial advice]  
> I really don’t believe in PMI. In almost all cases, you can take out a home equity loan  
> to cover the difference between what your mortage balance is and the 80% equity value you need to not need PMI. So you take out the home equity loan, pay down the mortage balance by the same amount, and then pay the home equity loan payment instead of the PMI payment, which is usually about the same monetary expense, with two important differences:
> 
> 1. The home equity loan payment actually goes towards your home equity, where PMI vanishes into the bank’s pockets.
> 2. The interest you pay on the home equity loan is almost always tax deductible.
> 
> Sometimes, when you have a person who makes the same as you but who seems to be able to have more/better stuff, it actually is because they’re doing a bunch of seemingly little things like this that actually does give them more spendable money than you.  
> [/unsolicited financial advice]

In our case, we actually paid quite a bit less than what the home’s worth; we bought it HUD, and the other homes in the area are selling for about 15-20K more than what we paid (we lucked out and saw this the day it was listed, which was the day after Thanksgiving, so there weren’t a whole lot of other people looking). The area’s growing, too, as more people move out of the city, and we have easy access to the main bypass through the city–we’re pretty sure that this area’s going to appreciate at a fairly good rate. We’ve also put some work into it, too. Most if it’s cosmetic stuff (painting and such), but we’re also going to change out some of the original cabinets. We’re pretty sure that, in a year or so, we can get the house re-appraised and eliminate the PMI.

The only 80/20 mortgage that the company I work for (and therefore financed with) had offered a choice between a higher fixed rate or a variable rate. We didn’t want to go with variable, and our monthly payment would’ve been a little more with the higher fixed rate than it would with the PMI, and–as we locked in our rates back in December–we didn’t want to go variable, for good reason.

But we _did_ almost go with an 80/20, so that’s pretty good advice :).

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-my-leather-seats/296989.md?page=2)