Buying a House - the Neverending Saga

So, May 23 we put an offer in on a house and it was accepted. With ignorance of the turmoil to come, we entered the process of getting a mortgage.

At first things seemed to be going well. We got the inspections arranged ASAP, we were pre-approved for twice the amount of the house we wanted to buy, and we were off earning a good income in the real world. This shouldn't take too long, right? Wrong. What we didn't realize was that the competence, or lack there of, of our loan processors would set the pace of this sale.

First, it took over a week to actually get a hold of our processor. We were directed to several people until we got the name and number of the actual person with our file. As frustrated as we were that we couldn't contact anyone right away, he was very pleasant and seemed optimistic. We wanted to move the process on as quickly as possible, so we sent him everything he asked for within a day, if not within hours. It seemed like a glass that wouldn't fill at times because he kept asking for documents we had already sent him. Still, we tried to keep things moving and called him every few days for a status update.

On the phone, he would say things like, "everything is looking great, we're just waiting on x-y-z." Or he would say, "we just need x." We'd send him the information, check that he got it, and follow up in a day or two for the same routine. One bright day, we heard that the appraiser had appraised the house and we were just waiting on some corrections they needed from him. With that news - the process stopped.

It was just about this time that our 30 days of temporary living were up. We frantically applied for an extension, daunted by the possibility of paying for a hotel room ourselves for weeks. Right in the knick of time, our approval comes through and we have our hotel room for 45 days. Whew, now we have time for the last few things we need on the loan. This is the first time we will hear the words "when the appraiser gets back to us, as long as nothing else comes up, we'll be able to close in a week." So we wait for the appraiser. And we wait, and we wait.

Our 45 days are up, and we learn that the request for corrections was never received - they never got the e-mail. To keep time straight for you, it's been a month since the request. We learn that, 4 weeks after the face, the processor is just learning that the e-mail was never received. Great follow-up, right? Plus, it's not like we weren't calling in the interim and asking about it. At this point, we make the first calls to his supervisor and finally get some fire under him to move things along. We've told him that our contract is nearly up, and he has less than 2 weeks now to get the loan approved. In the meantime, there was a scheduling glitch, and the hotel thinks we're checking out a day early and the approval for an additional 15 days of temporary living has not been received. I spend time at work calling our relocation agent and the hotel working out our extension. It comes through - we know someone above is looking out for us - and we have another 2 weeks of reprieve, again just in the knick of time.

By this time, we've stepped up frequency of calling the bank and speaking with his supervisor. He has stopped regularly returning phone calls or answering his phone. Finally, we hear that he's sent everything except what he needs from the appraiser to underwriting. He's planning some grand culmination that should happen in a few days. The result of the culmination - he now wants 3 paystubs, which we won't have before the end of our contract, and still hasn't heard from the appraiser.

Now, we knew we'd be starting new jobs and we wouldn't have 3 paystubs before closing. We asked these questions before starting the pre-approval process, before putting an offer in on the house, and at the beginning of our interaction with this loan processor. The answer was always "you have an offer letter, you do not need any paystubs as long as you have started or have a start date." Well, great. We protested, and they decided they could do it with a written employment verification. Evidently, this was too difficult for their office, and 3 days after beginning to try, I get a call from our processor with the list of people at our job he had talked to with limited success. I sent one e-mail to help speed things on our end and got 3 phone calls and results within 24 hours. This should be it, right? Wrong, the appraiser has still not come through. He's got someone keeping him to deadlines, though, and he's optimistic for a closing date of July 23 - the last day of our purchase contract. At some point, he gets something from the appraiser and the whole file is finally in the underwriter merry-go-round.

At this point, we are looking at a close date of - tomorrow (well, it's after midnight so, today) aka the last day . From the tone of this you can probably guess that we aren't closing tomorrow. He submitted everything on Monday, and found out today that the hold up is that the appraiser didn't put a couple of dates on the form. The bank would like a contract extension until July 30. So, the movers are scheduled on Monday and our final temporary living extension is done on Saturday.
We are very fortunate that the sellers are good people. I had a good feeling when I saw the statue of the Blessed Mother in the bedroom and they've turned out to be very generous. We are arranging a rental agreement with them so we can get into the house this weekend and rent until closing. The rate they're proposing is more than reasonable and we'll be able to keep the same schedule with the movers. This way, the only real thing we'll have to do is the paperwork and final exchange of money. It will be nice to not have the 3 Swobodas and Allison living in the same bedroom. We've all gotten along well - much to everyone's surprise - but the reality is that it is stressful and everyone needs some privacy!

We've definitely had blessings in this process - 60 days of temporary living instead of 30 as well as the kind sellers, but the difficulties abound. Hopefully, the house will be officially ours by the end of next week (if they hear from the appraiser). Regardless, we will be moving in this weekend! We'll post some pictures when we're really in :). I don't know if we'll believe it until then. Our feelings about the process? We don't plan on banking with them after this - at all. We'll close our accounts and move to a new bank. The upside? We'll soon be home owners! Hopefully ...