Hit up people for money? I never thought of that...

I've been working on trying to see if I can afford a house. It's on the backburner for a few weeks, until I take a homebuying seminar from the state in order to qualify for the More House 4 Less program.

But I thought it would be a good idea to get a better understanding of mortgages, since every time I talk to a mortgage broker I seem to find out something I didn't know or another fee I would need to pay or piece of information I would need to supply.

So I decided last week to buy Mortgages for Dummies. I had previously read Home Buying for Dummies and thought it was pretty good, plus there was a $5 rebate on Dummies books, and I loves me some rebates.

There was some good info, and some stuff I didn't think about. But there was one thing that got on my nerves. They talk in one section about things you can do if you don't have enough for a down payment. These amounted to putting down a smaller down payment or hitting up family members for money. They act like asking your reletives is some original idea, like nobody about to drop a quarter of a million on a house ever thought to wonder if their parents can give them some money towards it.

They then refer to this a few times, like everyone has some rich relatives they can hit up for money, but didn't think about it until someone told them.

Umm, no guys. My 'rents don't really have the money to give me, and I'm not sure I would want it if they did - there is something to be said about doing this on my own. And I'm going to guess I'm not the only person who doesn't find their advice real helpful.