Dave is dead on with all of these. I would escrow your taxes, it is a bunch easier. On my third house now and have escrowed all three. Not like they are stealing money from you. If you can't handle the extra money for the escrow each month, get a cheaper house. That money has to come from somewhere.

If I were you, I would have about a 10k buffer as a checking account. No less than that after down payment, first years insurance premium, and startup deposits for all utilities.

 

My ex mother in law is an agent up in your area if you want her name and number I will PM it to you. She is pretty straight about things and a good person.

Let me know.

 

Has anybody here bought a house with a RE lawyer instead of a realtor? How did that go?

 

I can tell you that here in CO, lawyers (even RE laywers) tend to run sloppy transactions with little attention to contract deadlines and ignoring many of the issues that the state-approved contract provides for. If you're a lawyer you can write up a contract pretty much however you see fit. Realtors have to use state-approved forms which outline exactly what happens and who's responsible for what during the executory period.

There are definitley some amazing and knowlegable RE lawyers out there, I've met many of them, but unless they sell real estate on a regular basis (i.e. for a living), I would be a little hesitant. This is along the lines of why would you hire an electrician when you need a plumber?