Closing on the House

I waited a few weeks before I felt I could post about the closing on the house. What an amazing near fiasco! I'll not mention any names, but my mortgage broker made so many mistakes that I came very close to not closing! Just to name a few, the broker checked my credit so many times that my credit score dropped to 3 points below what the mortgage company we were using would accept. Then they denied that they had done so. I had the facts of dates and times when they had checked it from the credit companies, both in writing and from discussing what had happened on the phone with a representative. This resulted in a months long delay while another mortgage company was found.

Then, as far as I could tell, not a lot of attention was put on my account. I wanted to close in December 2010 and I had provided all of the documentation that had been requested in early November. Then various other requests would trickle in, some being requests for the same items that I had provided earlier. I constantly got stories of how it was the mortgage bank's fault.

I wound up having to pay upfront for an appraisal for homeowner's insurance, for 2 FHA inspections (a second one because the broker didn't bother to tell me that I needed to get electric and water turned on!), for the property survey and of course deposits on utilities, which turned out to be over $600!

Many other little stories unfolded as to why there was a delay. I was calling the brokers every other day. Finally, I started calling every day, then, finally, a closing date was scheduled for the final days of February.

I took the day off for the closing because I was told we would close early in the day. It was delayed at least 3 times. Finally, I was given the closing costs. The were over $500 more than my good faith estimate AND THE BROKER WANTED AN ADDITIONAL CHECK OF $2400 MADE OUT TO THEM Unbelievable!! I freaked.

I had been in control of myself and very cordial throughout the many months of waiting, however, when I heard this, I began to yell that I did not have it and that we could just forget the whole thing. I was sick of the whole mess anyway and they could just drop it. I would just call it a "learning experience." They tried to calm me down and tell me that I would close on the house anyway. I became DEAD calm and said that if I had to come up with that money, I would definitely NOT close and that was the end of it. Then the broker came off of it that the "bank wasn't paying them" and he thought that I would "be a human being and pay them something." Stunned, I certainly was. Then he said for me to just forget it and just pay my closing. I did. What a story to tell the grandchildren.