Those of you following my saga.......well, I don't think you'll be one bit surprised to hear that our buyer rescinded his offer today! Got back from his month long trip out of the country yesterday and back of of it today. Thanks for wasting a month of our time.
It's actually a blessing. Since our financing got so screwed up, this now gives me time to figure that out before we do anything else.
at least the roller coaster has slowed down a bit.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
and almost another week gone
People just plain suck. When I contacted this very last lender Tuesday of last week, he sounded all gung-ho (ya ya, so did the rest of them). I sent him all my financial info right after we got off the phone. And then heard nothing from him the rest of the week, despite a couple of follow up emails and a voicemail.
Monday - I gave up on him and wasn't going to try calling him again. Everyone else said no, so would he. I was trying to work on my "new plan", when Monday afternoon this lender calls me up - still all gung-ho about a construction loan. I was like, well, it really doesn't appear that it will go through with anyone, so this is our alternate plan. He was still like "hold off on that, I really think we can do this construction loan. I will call you tomorrow morning"..........and here it is mid-day Thursday. 3 emails, 2 phone calls and even an email this morning by our realtor and NOTHING back from him. This is beyond rude. If you can't do it (I didn't think you could anyway) then just let me KNOW! How freaking hard is that?
Finally, the stupid original lender emailed me this morning (my last contact with her was Friday afternoon) to tell me she doesn't have any news - she said her underwriter had given it an approval, based on the info they have, but it was now going through complete underwriting and that takes "time". Ok - so you still didn't answer my simple question from Monday's email: do you do land/lot loans? and your underwriter gave me an "approval" for what? a conventional loan or an FHA loan (she had mentioned both on Friday)? It took like 4 emails back and forth to answer my questions. She'd answer one of my questions and then not the other. She still hasn't answered my question of when it should be done with underwriting. Well, until I have a real approval an I "think" you have approval isn't working. She said the "approval" was for conventional not FHA.
So, there was another lender I had spoken with a couple of weeks ago (referred to by our realtor). Turns out they don't do construction loans, so I didn't go any farther with her. So, I emailed her back at like 5pm yesterday. Told her the construction loan is dead, we are trying to get financing (FHA) for a cheap house and a land loan. Can she help? She emails me right back she'll work on it first thing in the morning. NOTHING. What the hell is wrong with people? I guess I am the one that sucks, because I filed bankruptcy 6 years ago and apparently am no longer worthy of peoples time and effort. Never mind that I make almost $98,000 a year, have been at my job 11 years, that we'll have $110,000 to put as down payment, and we have no other debts, and my credit score is 714.
oh and the buyer for our house? the one that's been out of the country for 3 weeks and done nothing to get his financing figured out and the FHA appraisal done? He supposedly got back yesterday. I told our realtor we want an answer today as to what he is doing.It's been a month now and since they left the country and then supposedly changed lenders, we have no updates. I want confirmation of financing and the FHA appraisal scheduled.
Monday - I gave up on him and wasn't going to try calling him again. Everyone else said no, so would he. I was trying to work on my "new plan", when Monday afternoon this lender calls me up - still all gung-ho about a construction loan. I was like, well, it really doesn't appear that it will go through with anyone, so this is our alternate plan. He was still like "hold off on that, I really think we can do this construction loan. I will call you tomorrow morning"..........and here it is mid-day Thursday. 3 emails, 2 phone calls and even an email this morning by our realtor and NOTHING back from him. This is beyond rude. If you can't do it (I didn't think you could anyway) then just let me KNOW! How freaking hard is that?
Finally, the stupid original lender emailed me this morning (my last contact with her was Friday afternoon) to tell me she doesn't have any news - she said her underwriter had given it an approval, based on the info they have, but it was now going through complete underwriting and that takes "time". Ok - so you still didn't answer my simple question from Monday's email: do you do land/lot loans? and your underwriter gave me an "approval" for what? a conventional loan or an FHA loan (she had mentioned both on Friday)? It took like 4 emails back and forth to answer my questions. She'd answer one of my questions and then not the other. She still hasn't answered my question of when it should be done with underwriting. Well, until I have a real approval an I "think" you have approval isn't working. She said the "approval" was for conventional not FHA.
So, there was another lender I had spoken with a couple of weeks ago (referred to by our realtor). Turns out they don't do construction loans, so I didn't go any farther with her. So, I emailed her back at like 5pm yesterday. Told her the construction loan is dead, we are trying to get financing (FHA) for a cheap house and a land loan. Can she help? She emails me right back she'll work on it first thing in the morning. NOTHING. What the hell is wrong with people? I guess I am the one that sucks, because I filed bankruptcy 6 years ago and apparently am no longer worthy of peoples time and effort. Never mind that I make almost $98,000 a year, have been at my job 11 years, that we'll have $110,000 to put as down payment, and we have no other debts, and my credit score is 714.
oh and the buyer for our house? the one that's been out of the country for 3 weeks and done nothing to get his financing figured out and the FHA appraisal done? He supposedly got back yesterday. I told our realtor we want an answer today as to what he is doing.It's been a month now and since they left the country and then supposedly changed lenders, we have no updates. I want confirmation of financing and the FHA appraisal scheduled.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
It's Wednesday, already
A few good things yesterday.
1) Took my mom to have her first eye done with cataract surgery. Easy peasy, all went fine.
2) We passed our sales goal at work - mid year bonus will be coming soon.
3) DH's Crestor medication finally went generic. I had asked the pharmacist assistant about it the other day when I picked up my prescriptions and she told me it had gone generic, but with only one generic mfg so far, the price had barely gone down. I was disappointed, but after I got home I went online with DH's insurance plan to see what they would cover on it, for generic. 100%. I picked up his refill yesterday and was sure nice to see those ZERO's on the receipt! I was paying $170 a month.
Other than that nothing has really changed in our selling/moving situation. We had an alternate plan kind of worked out, over the weekend, and then Monday afternoon, the last bank I had called last Tuesday (who acted like he could do the loan) finally called me back. I never heard back from him the rest of the week (even with emails and messages) so had given up on him. Well, he was all like "I really think we can do this. I know you keep hearing that from lenders, but we are small and do manual underwriting and I think we can do this. I have to go over it all with my underwriter and I'll call you in the morning". Of course I got no call yesterday morning......or at all for that matter. So, he's still leaving me hanging. The original lender said she would have an answer for me Monday, because she was having her underwriter run it through their system....it's Wednesday morning and no word from her, either.
So, here's our alternate plan, since we have to wait until our BK has been past 7 years (we are 5 1/2 years). We still want the property and to build. We found a small older house for sale in town (this is a super small town, 600 people). It's a nice home, doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it or needing any repairs. A little under 1500 sf and has a detached garage/shop almost same size as what we currently have. Hardwood floors, fenced small yard (good for dogs). They are asking $125,000, been for sale for over a year. Our realtor over there says properties in the rural areas stay for sale for a long time, there just isn't much of a buyer pool.
We could buy this home (go FHA) and also the property. We'd have a very small house payment, and a small land payment (after we put our home proceeds down on both), somewhere to live for the next year and a half to 2 years, can save a bunch more money towards the construction loan down payment, until we could get the construction loan and build. Then when our house is built, we could rent out the house in town and cover the cost of it.......and some day when we are old and don't want the upkeep of a big house and 2 acres, we can sell it and move to our little in town house, haha.
Seems like a good plan. At least the people I trust to give me good advice think it is too.
We just want to be able to make a dang decision and everyone just keeps me hanging, not doing their job. Our realtor over there can't even get the listing agent of this little house in town to answer him some questions we have! Good grief - the house has been on market over a year, you have someone asking some questions about it, jump on it. I'm so tired of feeling like I'm going to throw up (and sometimes I actually do). This is all beyond ridiculous.
1) Took my mom to have her first eye done with cataract surgery. Easy peasy, all went fine.
2) We passed our sales goal at work - mid year bonus will be coming soon.
3) DH's Crestor medication finally went generic. I had asked the pharmacist assistant about it the other day when I picked up my prescriptions and she told me it had gone generic, but with only one generic mfg so far, the price had barely gone down. I was disappointed, but after I got home I went online with DH's insurance plan to see what they would cover on it, for generic. 100%. I picked up his refill yesterday and was sure nice to see those ZERO's on the receipt! I was paying $170 a month.
Other than that nothing has really changed in our selling/moving situation. We had an alternate plan kind of worked out, over the weekend, and then Monday afternoon, the last bank I had called last Tuesday (who acted like he could do the loan) finally called me back. I never heard back from him the rest of the week (even with emails and messages) so had given up on him. Well, he was all like "I really think we can do this. I know you keep hearing that from lenders, but we are small and do manual underwriting and I think we can do this. I have to go over it all with my underwriter and I'll call you in the morning". Of course I got no call yesterday morning......or at all for that matter. So, he's still leaving me hanging. The original lender said she would have an answer for me Monday, because she was having her underwriter run it through their system....it's Wednesday morning and no word from her, either.
So, here's our alternate plan, since we have to wait until our BK has been past 7 years (we are 5 1/2 years). We still want the property and to build. We found a small older house for sale in town (this is a super small town, 600 people). It's a nice home, doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it or needing any repairs. A little under 1500 sf and has a detached garage/shop almost same size as what we currently have. Hardwood floors, fenced small yard (good for dogs). They are asking $125,000, been for sale for over a year. Our realtor over there says properties in the rural areas stay for sale for a long time, there just isn't much of a buyer pool.
We could buy this home (go FHA) and also the property. We'd have a very small house payment, and a small land payment (after we put our home proceeds down on both), somewhere to live for the next year and a half to 2 years, can save a bunch more money towards the construction loan down payment, until we could get the construction loan and build. Then when our house is built, we could rent out the house in town and cover the cost of it.......and some day when we are old and don't want the upkeep of a big house and 2 acres, we can sell it and move to our little in town house, haha.
Seems like a good plan. At least the people I trust to give me good advice think it is too.
We just want to be able to make a dang decision and everyone just keeps me hanging, not doing their job. Our realtor over there can't even get the listing agent of this little house in town to answer him some questions we have! Good grief - the house has been on market over a year, you have someone asking some questions about it, jump on it. I'm so tired of feeling like I'm going to throw up (and sometimes I actually do). This is all beyond ridiculous.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Just kidding
So, the loan documents I received last night were just a "mistake". Well, not a mistake per se. Apparently this is how this bank does stuff. They have to send out the complete loan documents package within 3 days (even though I had already been denied). Then in about a week I will receive a denial letter. Then for some reason I will receive another UPS package of docs and then another letter with a cancel notice.
Good grief! What a waste of a tree and $25 in overnight fees. Not to mention to total confusion (and hope) it caused me. Just another cruel joke the universe is dishing out to me. For some reason I must just deserve all this.
I am trying to get going this morning. I'm feeling like I got run over by a truck again :/
Good grief! What a waste of a tree and $25 in overnight fees. Not to mention to total confusion (and hope) it caused me. Just another cruel joke the universe is dishing out to me. For some reason I must just deserve all this.
I am trying to get going this morning. I'm feeling like I got run over by a truck again :/
Thursday, June 23, 2016
SO CONFUSED!!
oh my gosh, am I confused! I was sitting here this evening, watching some news on tv and UPS pulls up. A big overnight packet of some sort of documents for me. I open it up and it's a big huge packet of mortgage loan application documents all written up with our info and details. It's from the bank lender that on Tuesday morning told me that underwriting declined us. There's a cover letter from her, dated yesterday (though the address on the UPS packet shows it coming out of a Kansas office) that says "thank you for allowing Bank the opportunity to serve you with a home loan".
Why would she send this out the day after she told me we were declined? I AM SO CONFUSED! Did something change that she didn't call or email me about? Is it just a big old computer glitch and was sent by mistake? (that's what I'm guessing, at this point). I mean it's pages and pages of stuff to sign.
I sent her an email, figuring she'll see it first thing in the morning......and she now has her out of office reply on. She is on vacation now until July 11th! OMG! This is driving me crazy wondering what the heck.
Then as I'm typing this another email pops up. It's from a loan processor at the Bank, introducing herself as the loan processor for our loan.
WTH? I feel like I am in the twilight zone!
Why would she send this out the day after she told me we were declined? I AM SO CONFUSED! Did something change that she didn't call or email me about? Is it just a big old computer glitch and was sent by mistake? (that's what I'm guessing, at this point). I mean it's pages and pages of stuff to sign.
I sent her an email, figuring she'll see it first thing in the morning......and she now has her out of office reply on. She is on vacation now until July 11th! OMG! This is driving me crazy wondering what the heck.
Then as I'm typing this another email pops up. It's from a loan processor at the Bank, introducing herself as the loan processor for our loan.
WTH? I feel like I am in the twilight zone!
Still trying and still waiting
After Tuesdays emails back and forth with this original lender, where she apologized but still continued to change her story....and I continued to provide her with proof that I had told her all along I was looking for a construction loan.......I get an email from her yesterday afternoon.
She was letting me know she had done some more checking of construction loan lenders in the area and had talked with a guy with a small local bank and he sounded like he could do the loan for me. Turns out it is the same guy I had called up myself and talked to on Tuesday. She, of course, had no idea I had already contacted him, when she called him up, and I said that he did sound very promising, but that every lender I have talked with has sounded the exact same way, so I wasn't holding out much hope anymore. I said but maybe it's a sign that we both ended up with the same guy.
She said they talked in length quite a bit and she wanted to know if it was ok if she forwarded him all the info/docs she had on me. I said yes, please do so as soon as possible. I had already filled out an online application with him on Tuesday afternoon, but had not heard back anything from him yesterday. She said he said that his only real concern seemed to be that he might have a hard time getting the appraisal to come in what we need it to be. (he told me this too) Not because our builder or land costs are unreasonable, but just because in general this area/county of the state is pretty rural and it's hard to get something appraised that high. (Hmm...so I guess they all just want people to come in and build little shacks, instead of a nice home that the county can earn nice property taxes on?). I don't get it - the house costs what it costs to build - it should be worth what you have put into it, as long as it's not some multi-million dollar thing or something. It's just an average type of house - 3 bedrooms, etc.
I know there is no sense in looking ahead at that issue, we first have to get approved for the dang loan! But I wonder if when they do the appraisal (the one done prior to starting construction) they look at what is surrounding? Do they base part of the home value on the "neighborhood"? Out of the 7 lots in this little subdivision on the river, only lot 2 has a home on it and it's a doozy. The guy told us it ended up costing them $800,000, but, he also told us a majority of it was paid for with an inheritance his wife got, so if they had run into the same low appraisal issue, it likely wouldn't have been a problem since they had the cash to pay the difference, if there had been any. Would having an $800,000 home next door to us help our appraised value?
And someone explain this to me? All (but one) of these lenders say their criteria for a conventional loan is you have to be 4 years past your bankruptcy (we are 5 1/2) BUT, when they deny me the reason given is "delinquent past obligations with others".....well, yes - because of the bankruptcy, that you just told me wouldn't be an issue, if I was 4 years past it. How do they get to have it both ways?
In the meantime, I had discovered the secret to weight loss. Try and get a construction loan. I finally put my scale in the cupboard. It was stressing me out even more to see a pound drop every 2 days.
She was letting me know she had done some more checking of construction loan lenders in the area and had talked with a guy with a small local bank and he sounded like he could do the loan for me. Turns out it is the same guy I had called up myself and talked to on Tuesday. She, of course, had no idea I had already contacted him, when she called him up, and I said that he did sound very promising, but that every lender I have talked with has sounded the exact same way, so I wasn't holding out much hope anymore. I said but maybe it's a sign that we both ended up with the same guy.
She said they talked in length quite a bit and she wanted to know if it was ok if she forwarded him all the info/docs she had on me. I said yes, please do so as soon as possible. I had already filled out an online application with him on Tuesday afternoon, but had not heard back anything from him yesterday. She said he said that his only real concern seemed to be that he might have a hard time getting the appraisal to come in what we need it to be. (he told me this too) Not because our builder or land costs are unreasonable, but just because in general this area/county of the state is pretty rural and it's hard to get something appraised that high. (Hmm...so I guess they all just want people to come in and build little shacks, instead of a nice home that the county can earn nice property taxes on?). I don't get it - the house costs what it costs to build - it should be worth what you have put into it, as long as it's not some multi-million dollar thing or something. It's just an average type of house - 3 bedrooms, etc.
I know there is no sense in looking ahead at that issue, we first have to get approved for the dang loan! But I wonder if when they do the appraisal (the one done prior to starting construction) they look at what is surrounding? Do they base part of the home value on the "neighborhood"? Out of the 7 lots in this little subdivision on the river, only lot 2 has a home on it and it's a doozy. The guy told us it ended up costing them $800,000, but, he also told us a majority of it was paid for with an inheritance his wife got, so if they had run into the same low appraisal issue, it likely wouldn't have been a problem since they had the cash to pay the difference, if there had been any. Would having an $800,000 home next door to us help our appraised value?
And someone explain this to me? All (but one) of these lenders say their criteria for a conventional loan is you have to be 4 years past your bankruptcy (we are 5 1/2) BUT, when they deny me the reason given is "delinquent past obligations with others".....well, yes - because of the bankruptcy, that you just told me wouldn't be an issue, if I was 4 years past it. How do they get to have it both ways?
In the meantime, I had discovered the secret to weight loss. Try and get a construction loan. I finally put my scale in the cupboard. It was stressing me out even more to see a pound drop every 2 days.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
and the nightmare continues
This loan process has turned out even way more stressful than having to go through bankruptcy! I'm to the point I don't even care anymore what happens or what we end up doing. Friday afternoon I get a bank mortgage lender that gives me verbal approval. Tuesday morning, as I'm on my way to work, she calls me up and says "sorry, underwriting decided to say no. I'm really surprised, you meet all the guidelines and criteria, but they just decided overall it's a risk."
So, I had to turn around and go back home (at least I was only a few miles into my commute) and spend yet another day taking off work (thank god I have the most understanding boss in the world) so that I can try to figure out what to do. I was still waiting to hear back from this lender at a very small bank, so I email him again. He's the VP and informs me he was going to meet with his loan processor yesterday afternoon to go over my file.
in the meantime I'm emailing my realtor - just so I know all my options. Apparently we do have some wiggle room to cancel this sale, if we wanted. The buyer is still out of the county, and not following up with communications, until the end of the month. I said I thought you said he finally called in and now they were going to get the FHA appraisal finally ordered (this was 10 days ago now). Well, now I'm being told he switched lenders, so it still hasn't been done. Well, if he was able to switch lenders, then why didn't he authorize or the new lender get the FHA appraisal ordered? they know it has to be done. Something is starting to smell bad in all this, too.
I'm also emailing with this lender lady who screwed me over in all this. She's trying to cover her butt, (because I talked to a lending manager yesterday morning) so her story changed again, though she's still trying to stick with that she didn't know we needed a construction loan. Bottom line is on June 6th I sent her an email with house and shop plans and builder's cost breakdowns, that came in higher than what she told we were originally approved for, to ask if we could get approved for this. June 8th she told me we got approved for the higher amount (but our property was too far away). So what the heck type of loan was she approving me for and telling me I got approved for the higher amount if it wasn't a construction loan?! ummm.....house plans and specs should have been the first clue...not to mention all our other emails and phone calls about it. And she again tried to tell me that when she first talked to me only said I wanted a regular loan on a home purchase. I forwarded her my very first email to her, where I specifically said:
We are also considering building a home, so would appreciate any info you have on the financing process for that, as well as any requirements that might differ from just buying a home already built.
right after that first email we had a phone call where she explained the whole construction loan process to me. Obviously I'm not going to get a straight answer from her.
Then someone suggested another small saving and loan type bank in the area, so I gave a call. Again, super nice person. "Oh ya, we should definitely be able to do something for you." "Our construction loans are great, they run really smoothly." Same thing they all say (I have decided that lenders are really just salespeople - wish I could just circumvent them and go straight to an underwriter!). He sent me a link to do an online app, which I promptly did. I then emailed him some additional info and a follow up email this morning. No word back.
The other small bank is following up with me first thing this am with more bk filing questions. Again, and as I told him would come up, the issue they are running into is our mortgage, and supposedly the HELOC, are not showing up on our credit report, since we filed bk. Making it look like we had a foreclosure, etc. Well, I can prove we kept the house. I can prove I have continued to make on time monthly payments the past 5 1/2 years. Good grief.
I called up the HELOC bank and said apparently you guys haven't reported any of my payments to the credit bureau in almost 6 years. Is there a way to remedy that so I can start getting some credit for all my payments? She looked up my loan account and it has the box checked off that says they will report it to the bureaus monthly. Hmm. so that needs to be looked into further. She asked me to send any credit report I have that is not showing it, so I have asked the most recent 2 lenders to get me whatever they have, no reply back.
I called up the bank that has our mortgage. Big national bank, so I wasn't expecting anything out of them. Sure enough, they said if I didn't re-affirm the mortgage with my bk filing, then they won't report.
So, it's all like a big catch 22 that no one can just use common sense on. How about I just supply them with the past 70 months of bank statements that show my mortgage payment being transferred out of my checking account on the 15th of each month to the mortgage loan with same bank?
So, I had to turn around and go back home (at least I was only a few miles into my commute) and spend yet another day taking off work (thank god I have the most understanding boss in the world) so that I can try to figure out what to do. I was still waiting to hear back from this lender at a very small bank, so I email him again. He's the VP and informs me he was going to meet with his loan processor yesterday afternoon to go over my file.
in the meantime I'm emailing my realtor - just so I know all my options. Apparently we do have some wiggle room to cancel this sale, if we wanted. The buyer is still out of the county, and not following up with communications, until the end of the month. I said I thought you said he finally called in and now they were going to get the FHA appraisal finally ordered (this was 10 days ago now). Well, now I'm being told he switched lenders, so it still hasn't been done. Well, if he was able to switch lenders, then why didn't he authorize or the new lender get the FHA appraisal ordered? they know it has to be done. Something is starting to smell bad in all this, too.
I'm also emailing with this lender lady who screwed me over in all this. She's trying to cover her butt, (because I talked to a lending manager yesterday morning) so her story changed again, though she's still trying to stick with that she didn't know we needed a construction loan. Bottom line is on June 6th I sent her an email with house and shop plans and builder's cost breakdowns, that came in higher than what she told we were originally approved for, to ask if we could get approved for this. June 8th she told me we got approved for the higher amount (but our property was too far away). So what the heck type of loan was she approving me for and telling me I got approved for the higher amount if it wasn't a construction loan?! ummm.....house plans and specs should have been the first clue...not to mention all our other emails and phone calls about it. And she again tried to tell me that when she first talked to me only said I wanted a regular loan on a home purchase. I forwarded her my very first email to her, where I specifically said:
We are also considering building a home, so would appreciate any info you have on the financing process for that, as well as any requirements that might differ from just buying a home already built.
right after that first email we had a phone call where she explained the whole construction loan process to me. Obviously I'm not going to get a straight answer from her.
Then someone suggested another small saving and loan type bank in the area, so I gave a call. Again, super nice person. "Oh ya, we should definitely be able to do something for you." "Our construction loans are great, they run really smoothly." Same thing they all say (I have decided that lenders are really just salespeople - wish I could just circumvent them and go straight to an underwriter!). He sent me a link to do an online app, which I promptly did. I then emailed him some additional info and a follow up email this morning. No word back.
The other small bank is following up with me first thing this am with more bk filing questions. Again, and as I told him would come up, the issue they are running into is our mortgage, and supposedly the HELOC, are not showing up on our credit report, since we filed bk. Making it look like we had a foreclosure, etc. Well, I can prove we kept the house. I can prove I have continued to make on time monthly payments the past 5 1/2 years. Good grief.
I called up the HELOC bank and said apparently you guys haven't reported any of my payments to the credit bureau in almost 6 years. Is there a way to remedy that so I can start getting some credit for all my payments? She looked up my loan account and it has the box checked off that says they will report it to the bureaus monthly. Hmm. so that needs to be looked into further. She asked me to send any credit report I have that is not showing it, so I have asked the most recent 2 lenders to get me whatever they have, no reply back.
I called up the bank that has our mortgage. Big national bank, so I wasn't expecting anything out of them. Sure enough, they said if I didn't re-affirm the mortgage with my bk filing, then they won't report.
So, it's all like a big catch 22 that no one can just use common sense on. How about I just supply them with the past 70 months of bank statements that show my mortgage payment being transferred out of my checking account on the 15th of each month to the mortgage loan with same bank?
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Feeling better
I am feeling much better this morning. My brain finally "unlocked" and is moving on. LOL. What a weird feeling. I've never had that happen before. I think it helped to write it all out and then talk it all out with my boss. A bit of purging, I guess. Then I got busy with work, which helped. Then DH texted me that a realtor had called and wanted to show the house at 5:30 for a possible back up offer. Eek! I was so wiped out over the weekend, I didn't do much cleaning at all. So, I left work an hour early, came home and vacuumed, dusted and tidied up. DH had kindly cleaned the bathroom. Didn't get an offer last night, so who knows. Our buyers are still out of the country and still the FHA appraisal has not been taken care of. It's been 3 weeks now. I think my realtor is getting a bit nervous it's going to fall through. Apparently these were people that looked at the house before, but I'm not quite sure.
I slept much better last night, though I still woke up and went into panic mode as I do every morning nowadays. I still barely have an appetite. I think of all the stuff still do do and mostly about all the stuff that can still go wrong. Ugh. We have 8 working days to meet our sales goal and get our mid year bonus. As of today we are at 48% of our mid year quota. So close! I really need that extra money.
Here's a weird construction loan story. My boss said one of my co-workers is also going through construction loan hell. Trying several lenders, etc. So this lender he finds wants a 20% overage cushion. I guess he negotiated it down, but they also want him to have additional liquid cash on reserve. They are telling him that even if this reserve is not needed and the house comes in at cost, that money will be used as a lump payment towards his end loan! I asked my lender if this was how theirs worked and the construction loan officer was like no way, that is strange! I have a feeling maybe my co-worker misunderstood what his lender told him.
My boss told me her construction loan horror story. Back when she was like 19, she had married a guy like 10 years older than her. They decided to build a house and did a whole bunch of sweat equity. Once they were done building the lender didn't want to appraise the house what it was really worth and were just going to keep the house......knowing that because my boss and her dh had put so much of their own money and labor into it, that the bank could resell it and would make all that money and my boss would be out. They finally "won" and got their house financed like it should have been, but she said it was so stressful and she was so young an inexperienced with it all.
I have been reading a whole bunch lately. I used to always be reading a book, but sometime around the time my eyes started changing to needing tri-focals it got so I didn't like reading as much or couldn't read very long. So, I really haven't read much the past several years. I bumped up the font on my ipad mini and have gone to town reading the past couple of weeks. I just started reading the Walt Longmire series that the Netflix tv show is based on. The characters personalities in the book are just like the show, so I am enjoying this read already and lots more books in the series to keep me entertained.
I slept much better last night, though I still woke up and went into panic mode as I do every morning nowadays. I still barely have an appetite. I think of all the stuff still do do and mostly about all the stuff that can still go wrong. Ugh. We have 8 working days to meet our sales goal and get our mid year bonus. As of today we are at 48% of our mid year quota. So close! I really need that extra money.
Here's a weird construction loan story. My boss said one of my co-workers is also going through construction loan hell. Trying several lenders, etc. So this lender he finds wants a 20% overage cushion. I guess he negotiated it down, but they also want him to have additional liquid cash on reserve. They are telling him that even if this reserve is not needed and the house comes in at cost, that money will be used as a lump payment towards his end loan! I asked my lender if this was how theirs worked and the construction loan officer was like no way, that is strange! I have a feeling maybe my co-worker misunderstood what his lender told him.
My boss told me her construction loan horror story. Back when she was like 19, she had married a guy like 10 years older than her. They decided to build a house and did a whole bunch of sweat equity. Once they were done building the lender didn't want to appraise the house what it was really worth and were just going to keep the house......knowing that because my boss and her dh had put so much of their own money and labor into it, that the bank could resell it and would make all that money and my boss would be out. They finally "won" and got their house financed like it should have been, but she said it was so stressful and she was so young an inexperienced with it all.
I have been reading a whole bunch lately. I used to always be reading a book, but sometime around the time my eyes started changing to needing tri-focals it got so I didn't like reading as much or couldn't read very long. So, I really haven't read much the past several years. I bumped up the font on my ipad mini and have gone to town reading the past couple of weeks. I just started reading the Walt Longmire series that the Netflix tv show is based on. The characters personalities in the book are just like the show, so I am enjoying this read already and lots more books in the series to keep me entertained.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Help
I have always been an optimistic type of personality. When something negative or bad happens I do not dwell on it at all. I do my best to accept it and move on. Sometimes moving on just means trying not to think very much about what happened (usually what I do) and I can do that. I can tell myself there is nothing I can do and I did all I could do, etc and move on.
But, for some reason, since this episode Friday with that bank mortgage lady, I cannot stop thinking about it! It's like my brain has gotten stuck in this continuous loop and won't get off this track. I replay the whole past 4 months of conversations and communications with her over and over, trying to see where I might have dropped the ball on all this or didn't communicate properly. It's pretty much all I have thought about since I hung up the phone with her. I can't seem to not think about it. I don't know what to do - it's such a weird feeling to me. Like I said, I have never been like this with anything before. I guess I now have a peek into what it's like to live in my husband's brain and I've always said it must be exhausting to live in his head.
Since the end of the day Friday I have felt like I got run over by a truck. Completely wiped out. I have tried to get lots of sleep this weekend, hoping that would "break" this loop going on inside my head. I read a book. DD spent the day with us yesterday. Even that didn't help. I can't seem to get past it and move on. I am hoping a long talk with my boss about it when I get to work this morning will help jar me out of it. Maybe she can give me some insight as to where I supposedly went wrong, because it's certainly not going to do me any good trying to get that answer out of the mortgage lady - as soon as I tried to question her her story started changing and you can't argue or get truthful information from someone who is changing the facts of a story.
Maybe if I type it all out, I will see the answer or someone else will see it. Sorry to dwell on this. Like I said - this is so NOT me! Here is the timeline and info:
February - my boss refers me to her. Turns out she's with the same bank we have our HELOC with (lots of branches around the area). I call her up and we have a long conversation that first call. The first thing I tell her is about our bankruptcy in 2010, because I wasn't sure if that would be a problem in obtaining financing for a new mortgage. She assures me enough time has passed. I give her a quick summary of my income, no other debts, keeping job, etc. Then I tell her we have been looking at homes online, just to get an idea of what is over there and how they are priced. I said we aren't seeing a lot that fits our needs of also wanting a shop and we are also considering building a home and shop. She then tells me all about how the construction loans and end loan process works. (I took lots of notes). I then said we were going to make a trip over there in March sometime to look around. So, lets see what we are pre-approved for, so that we'll know what price range to look in. I send her all my financial docs and the week before we head over there she tells me we are pre-approved and how much. If our realtor over there (referred to by her) needs a letter from her, let her know. I said, we're just looking this weekend, won't be making an offer on anything.
March - we make the trip and spend 4 days over there looking all around. Look at a few homes and some properties. Find this property on the river we really liked. Talked with a builder about building on it. Came home and the next day I emailed the lender to let her know we decided to build and that we were going to talk with some builders to see if with the price of the land and cost to build a home would fit into what our budget/pre-approval is. At some point in the next week or two I had a phone call with her. I had more specific questions about the construction loan process and did she need anything from us or could we just make an offer on the land. At this call was when she told me once they had the builders plans and cost reports (and she warned me builders are slow about it) it would then take them 45 days to process the loan.
Three weeks later we make another trip over there to meet in person with the builder our friends used last year to build their home. We came home and that Monday I told our realtor we were ready make an offer on the land. I emailed the lender that this is what we were doing, where it was, etc., and let her know we were having the plans done up and the builder was working on his cost breakdowns for the house and shop. I also told her we'd be listing our house in 2 weeks.
End of April we listed our house. Ten minutes after the listing went live, I emailed her that we listed it and included a link to our listing and told her our realtor was going to try to first see if she could price it at getting any developers interested. Three weeks later we re-priced it to sell as a residential home and I emailed her that info.
12 days later we accepted an offer on our home (Memorial Day weekend). Tuesday I emailed her that we accepted an offer on selling our house and that we should have the builder's costs reports any day now. The following Monday I emailed her the cost breakdown reports as well as the plans for the house and shop. They were higher than we were originally approved for, so I needed to know if we could go any higher or needed to make some adjustments. I spent 2 days trying to get a hold of her. Wednesday (week before last) she calls me up and says "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" I say give me the bad and she says "we realize your building spot is 80 miles outside our construction area and we can't do the loan for you" I said what's the good news? "The good news is you were approved for the higher amount" I said how is that good news if we don't have a loan? She said "well, that just means you shouldn't have any problems finding a lender. We approved you and we all use the same guidelines and ratios, etc".
So, I spent the last 10 days talking to a bunch of local lenders in the area. I also called this original lady up and kind of told her I wasn't very happy with her. That if I had known we didn't have financing I wouldn't have even listed my house for sale, let alone accepted an offer! She offers to call some lenders over there and see what she can help figure out.
Wednesday night I was looking at her bank online and see "locations": Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Idaho". Hmmm...the Idaho branch is closer than the one she told me they were using to calculate the distance. So, I called her up again. I said this branch is 33 miles closer, so it's really 50 miles we are outside of the area. She says, no - it's 150 miles away. Turns out they were using a city 50 miles farther from our property in her calculating. I said no, we are 50 miles from there and she got a bit snippy and said "well, I don't know where you will be living! We just used that city because you said that's the area you were living". I said, so then really, we are like 30 miles outside the area - is there any way we can get an exception? She's says she'll check into it.
Two hours later emails me she might have a different "Fannie Mae construction loan product" that might work for us, but it doesn't start until July 1 and she doesn't really know much about it and has some calls in about it.
Friday I email her and ask if she has any update for me. Three hours later she calls me to let me know she's referred me to yet another lender, because that new Fannie Mae Construction loan product won't work with our time crunch we are now in. I say, well, what about the 30 miles, you can't get an exception for the loan we were already approved for? and she says "Oh, the 30 miles isn't the problem, I can get exceptions for that, the problem is we can't do a construction loan with a bankruptcy".
At that point I was flabbergasted. I said "what do you mean? you just told me last week were were approved for the even higher amount1?" She was silent for a second and then says "well, when you first came to me you were going to buy a house, not build, so that's what I pre-approved you on and I wasn't sure what you were doing, so I never updated my system"
Umm....let's see.....first conversation was we had a BK. We were considering both buying and building. Third conversation - we are buying land building. Fourth conversation - more info on construction/end loan process, timeline, etc. Fifth conversation - here's our house and shop plans and cost breakdowns, that she said we were approved for!
What the heck am I missing in all this? because honestly, I think I'm about to go nuts :/
But, for some reason, since this episode Friday with that bank mortgage lady, I cannot stop thinking about it! It's like my brain has gotten stuck in this continuous loop and won't get off this track. I replay the whole past 4 months of conversations and communications with her over and over, trying to see where I might have dropped the ball on all this or didn't communicate properly. It's pretty much all I have thought about since I hung up the phone with her. I can't seem to not think about it. I don't know what to do - it's such a weird feeling to me. Like I said, I have never been like this with anything before. I guess I now have a peek into what it's like to live in my husband's brain and I've always said it must be exhausting to live in his head.
Since the end of the day Friday I have felt like I got run over by a truck. Completely wiped out. I have tried to get lots of sleep this weekend, hoping that would "break" this loop going on inside my head. I read a book. DD spent the day with us yesterday. Even that didn't help. I can't seem to get past it and move on. I am hoping a long talk with my boss about it when I get to work this morning will help jar me out of it. Maybe she can give me some insight as to where I supposedly went wrong, because it's certainly not going to do me any good trying to get that answer out of the mortgage lady - as soon as I tried to question her her story started changing and you can't argue or get truthful information from someone who is changing the facts of a story.
Maybe if I type it all out, I will see the answer or someone else will see it. Sorry to dwell on this. Like I said - this is so NOT me! Here is the timeline and info:
February - my boss refers me to her. Turns out she's with the same bank we have our HELOC with (lots of branches around the area). I call her up and we have a long conversation that first call. The first thing I tell her is about our bankruptcy in 2010, because I wasn't sure if that would be a problem in obtaining financing for a new mortgage. She assures me enough time has passed. I give her a quick summary of my income, no other debts, keeping job, etc. Then I tell her we have been looking at homes online, just to get an idea of what is over there and how they are priced. I said we aren't seeing a lot that fits our needs of also wanting a shop and we are also considering building a home and shop. She then tells me all about how the construction loans and end loan process works. (I took lots of notes). I then said we were going to make a trip over there in March sometime to look around. So, lets see what we are pre-approved for, so that we'll know what price range to look in. I send her all my financial docs and the week before we head over there she tells me we are pre-approved and how much. If our realtor over there (referred to by her) needs a letter from her, let her know. I said, we're just looking this weekend, won't be making an offer on anything.
March - we make the trip and spend 4 days over there looking all around. Look at a few homes and some properties. Find this property on the river we really liked. Talked with a builder about building on it. Came home and the next day I emailed the lender to let her know we decided to build and that we were going to talk with some builders to see if with the price of the land and cost to build a home would fit into what our budget/pre-approval is. At some point in the next week or two I had a phone call with her. I had more specific questions about the construction loan process and did she need anything from us or could we just make an offer on the land. At this call was when she told me once they had the builders plans and cost reports (and she warned me builders are slow about it) it would then take them 45 days to process the loan.
Three weeks later we make another trip over there to meet in person with the builder our friends used last year to build their home. We came home and that Monday I told our realtor we were ready make an offer on the land. I emailed the lender that this is what we were doing, where it was, etc., and let her know we were having the plans done up and the builder was working on his cost breakdowns for the house and shop. I also told her we'd be listing our house in 2 weeks.
End of April we listed our house. Ten minutes after the listing went live, I emailed her that we listed it and included a link to our listing and told her our realtor was going to try to first see if she could price it at getting any developers interested. Three weeks later we re-priced it to sell as a residential home and I emailed her that info.
12 days later we accepted an offer on our home (Memorial Day weekend). Tuesday I emailed her that we accepted an offer on selling our house and that we should have the builder's costs reports any day now. The following Monday I emailed her the cost breakdown reports as well as the plans for the house and shop. They were higher than we were originally approved for, so I needed to know if we could go any higher or needed to make some adjustments. I spent 2 days trying to get a hold of her. Wednesday (week before last) she calls me up and says "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" I say give me the bad and she says "we realize your building spot is 80 miles outside our construction area and we can't do the loan for you" I said what's the good news? "The good news is you were approved for the higher amount" I said how is that good news if we don't have a loan? She said "well, that just means you shouldn't have any problems finding a lender. We approved you and we all use the same guidelines and ratios, etc".
So, I spent the last 10 days talking to a bunch of local lenders in the area. I also called this original lady up and kind of told her I wasn't very happy with her. That if I had known we didn't have financing I wouldn't have even listed my house for sale, let alone accepted an offer! She offers to call some lenders over there and see what she can help figure out.
Wednesday night I was looking at her bank online and see "locations": Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Idaho". Hmmm...the Idaho branch is closer than the one she told me they were using to calculate the distance. So, I called her up again. I said this branch is 33 miles closer, so it's really 50 miles we are outside of the area. She says, no - it's 150 miles away. Turns out they were using a city 50 miles farther from our property in her calculating. I said no, we are 50 miles from there and she got a bit snippy and said "well, I don't know where you will be living! We just used that city because you said that's the area you were living". I said, so then really, we are like 30 miles outside the area - is there any way we can get an exception? She's says she'll check into it.
Two hours later emails me she might have a different "Fannie Mae construction loan product" that might work for us, but it doesn't start until July 1 and she doesn't really know much about it and has some calls in about it.
Friday I email her and ask if she has any update for me. Three hours later she calls me to let me know she's referred me to yet another lender, because that new Fannie Mae Construction loan product won't work with our time crunch we are now in. I say, well, what about the 30 miles, you can't get an exception for the loan we were already approved for? and she says "Oh, the 30 miles isn't the problem, I can get exceptions for that, the problem is we can't do a construction loan with a bankruptcy".
At that point I was flabbergasted. I said "what do you mean? you just told me last week were were approved for the even higher amount1?" She was silent for a second and then says "well, when you first came to me you were going to buy a house, not build, so that's what I pre-approved you on and I wasn't sure what you were doing, so I never updated my system"
Umm....let's see.....first conversation was we had a BK. We were considering both buying and building. Third conversation - we are buying land building. Fourth conversation - more info on construction/end loan process, timeline, etc. Fifth conversation - here's our house and shop plans and cost breakdowns, that she said we were approved for!
What the heck am I missing in all this? because honestly, I think I'm about to go nuts :/
Friday, June 17, 2016
Beyond furious
I am so furious right now! This original lender is changing her story completely on me now.
Wednesday I kind of let into her that, based on what she had told me, I thought we had construction and end loan financing set up, so we put our house for sale and accepted an offer. Then a few days after that I sent her our builder's final cost breakdown with floor plans. The builder's estimate came in higher than what she told us previously we had been approved for, so we needed to know if we were approved for that higher amount or needed to come up with Plan B and go with what we were originally approved for.
This was our exact phone conversation last Wednesday when she called: "I've got good news and bad news for you Which do you want first?" I said give me the bad first. She said "we realized that your lot is 80 miles outside of our construction radius, so we can't do the loan for you". I said what's the good news? "the good news is that you were approved for the higher amount". I said how is that good news if we don't have a loan? and she said "well, it just means that you probably won't have any problem getting approved by a different lender". That was the conversation. NOTHING else mentioned.
So, every day since then I have been trying to get financing from somewhere else with road block after roadblock. Wednesday I kind of told her off, as I've mentioned already. She calls a couple lenders in the area we are moving and tries to help. Yesterday I keep emailing her that they are all denying me because they are saying we have to be 7 years past bankruptcy because we listed our house in our bankruptcy filing. She tells me they are full of crap, which I say maybe, but that's not getting me any financing. One of the lenders (who needed like 30% down for a construction loan) said to me "to be completely honest with you I really doubt the 80 miles is the issue. My guess is it has to do with not getting approved and she doesn't want to tell you that". Turns out he was spot on
So, yesterday morning I had looked up and found they had a branch 33 miles closer to our place than she said and asked her why they couldn't use that branch, would it be in the radius then? That is when I found out they were using a city 50 miles farther from our lot, to calculate the 80 miles. Then she tells me she'll check into it some more. Then a couple hours later she tells me they have this new Fannie Mae construction loan product coming out July 1st, it might work for us, but she doesn't really know anything about it yet and has some calls in about it. So today, I email her, asking for an update. She calls me up to tell me she is referring me to a different lender, that she just talked with that might be able to help. She says this new loan program they are getting in July isn't fitting in with our time crunch issue. I said, so you can't get an exception on the construction loan with you guys for the extra 30 miles outside of your area on the loan we were already approved on?
Get this......she then says "well, that isn't the issue - we can get an exception for that - the problem is I can't do a construction loan if you've had a bankruptcy." WHAT?! I'm like what are you talking about? You told me last Wed that the issue was the distance, but that we were approved. Then she starts in with all this bluffing crap. "Well, when you first asked me to approve you, you were going to buy a home and that approval is different.....I wasn't for sure what you were doing, so I wasn't going to update you in my system until it was decided. " When I first asked her to approve me the first thing I told her about was our bankruptcy. I said we were looking at homes to buy but also considering building. Our very first phone call she told me all about how their construction loan/end loan works. I still have the notes in my notebook I took as we talked. This was February. In March we went to look at homes and property. I came back and emailed her that we decided to build. Three weeks later we made the offer on the land and I gave her all that info. Two weeks later we put our house up for sale (which I emailed her our listing) and I told her our house plans were being drawn up and that the builder was then going to get us his cost estimates. He was slow at getting us those, and we actually got them a few days after we accepted the offer on our house. Then she calls me last Wed and we have this conversation about it being 80 miles too far, but that we were approved. That was the exact conversation. How about all those times she was told we were building to say "hey, I can't do a construction loan for you, because of your bankruptcy"?
My boss is the one who referred me to her. I don't blame her one bit, but I just emailed her with this whole new development on what the real story apparently is now. I said am I that bad at communicating? because I don't think I am. I'm extremely thorough and my boss said, no you are amazing at communicating.
I'm about to blow a cork right now.
Wednesday I kind of let into her that, based on what she had told me, I thought we had construction and end loan financing set up, so we put our house for sale and accepted an offer. Then a few days after that I sent her our builder's final cost breakdown with floor plans. The builder's estimate came in higher than what she told us previously we had been approved for, so we needed to know if we were approved for that higher amount or needed to come up with Plan B and go with what we were originally approved for.
This was our exact phone conversation last Wednesday when she called: "I've got good news and bad news for you Which do you want first?" I said give me the bad first. She said "we realized that your lot is 80 miles outside of our construction radius, so we can't do the loan for you". I said what's the good news? "the good news is that you were approved for the higher amount". I said how is that good news if we don't have a loan? and she said "well, it just means that you probably won't have any problem getting approved by a different lender". That was the conversation. NOTHING else mentioned.
So, every day since then I have been trying to get financing from somewhere else with road block after roadblock. Wednesday I kind of told her off, as I've mentioned already. She calls a couple lenders in the area we are moving and tries to help. Yesterday I keep emailing her that they are all denying me because they are saying we have to be 7 years past bankruptcy because we listed our house in our bankruptcy filing. She tells me they are full of crap, which I say maybe, but that's not getting me any financing. One of the lenders (who needed like 30% down for a construction loan) said to me "to be completely honest with you I really doubt the 80 miles is the issue. My guess is it has to do with not getting approved and she doesn't want to tell you that". Turns out he was spot on
So, yesterday morning I had looked up and found they had a branch 33 miles closer to our place than she said and asked her why they couldn't use that branch, would it be in the radius then? That is when I found out they were using a city 50 miles farther from our lot, to calculate the 80 miles. Then she tells me she'll check into it some more. Then a couple hours later she tells me they have this new Fannie Mae construction loan product coming out July 1st, it might work for us, but she doesn't really know anything about it yet and has some calls in about it. So today, I email her, asking for an update. She calls me up to tell me she is referring me to a different lender, that she just talked with that might be able to help. She says this new loan program they are getting in July isn't fitting in with our time crunch issue. I said, so you can't get an exception on the construction loan with you guys for the extra 30 miles outside of your area on the loan we were already approved on?
Get this......she then says "well, that isn't the issue - we can get an exception for that - the problem is I can't do a construction loan if you've had a bankruptcy." WHAT?! I'm like what are you talking about? You told me last Wed that the issue was the distance, but that we were approved. Then she starts in with all this bluffing crap. "Well, when you first asked me to approve you, you were going to buy a home and that approval is different.....I wasn't for sure what you were doing, so I wasn't going to update you in my system until it was decided. " When I first asked her to approve me the first thing I told her about was our bankruptcy. I said we were looking at homes to buy but also considering building. Our very first phone call she told me all about how their construction loan/end loan works. I still have the notes in my notebook I took as we talked. This was February. In March we went to look at homes and property. I came back and emailed her that we decided to build. Three weeks later we made the offer on the land and I gave her all that info. Two weeks later we put our house up for sale (which I emailed her our listing) and I told her our house plans were being drawn up and that the builder was then going to get us his cost estimates. He was slow at getting us those, and we actually got them a few days after we accepted the offer on our house. Then she calls me last Wed and we have this conversation about it being 80 miles too far, but that we were approved. That was the exact conversation. How about all those times she was told we were building to say "hey, I can't do a construction loan for you, because of your bankruptcy"?
My boss is the one who referred me to her. I don't blame her one bit, but I just emailed her with this whole new development on what the real story apparently is now. I said am I that bad at communicating? because I don't think I am. I'm extremely thorough and my boss said, no you are amazing at communicating.
I'm about to blow a cork right now.
It's Friday and I'm still going to be homeless, so far
I'm still working on financing, but I think (hope/pray) I am getting close. It's not going to be our original plan (but what is, at this point?!) but I am hoping it works out. The lender I had been working with from this area, is still trying to "help" and she says the lenders that are telling me it's a 7 year wait because we had to list our house in the bankruptcy are full of crap. Maybe, but that's not getting me any financing, now is it?
I kind of let her have it the other day. I said that I got this financing lined up with you FIRST, before I did anything else. If I had any idea it was going to get pulled (over 80 miles) I wouldn't have even listed my house for sale yet, let alone accepted an offer. Then I asked her why they couldn't do the loan out of their office that is 100 miles from our property and she did some calculating and said "well, it's still 150 miles". Turns out they were using the nearest "big city" that is 50 miles farther. I said no, we are in X town, 50 miles closer and she was like "well, I don't know where you will be living! we just used X city". Seriously? when it's that close to whether you can do the loan or not, plus I had given her the exact address. Pissed me off again. So, in reality we are 30 miles outside their construction zone. C'mon......she said she is checking into it again, but it's been another 2 days with no answer. She also said they have a new Fannie Mae construction loan package that they can start using July 1st that might work, she doesn't have the info on it, and is checking.
Anyhow - it appears we might be approved by this bank over there, that also says the bankruptcy criteria is 4 years, not 7 on a conventional loan. I was actually googling Fannie Mae loans and see this very recent article where it says they have now changed to 2 years, to match with FHA guidelines. http://themortgagereports.com/16750/fannie-mae-waiting-period-bankruptcy-short-sale-foreclosure. How accurate this article website is, I don't know, but interesting info. If it's true, apparently no lenders seem aware of this yet. With their area's lower conventional lending limits (compared the the large metro area I live in now) we just don't qualify for our "Plan A". So we are looking at a revised "plan A" and a "plan B". Revised Plan A is building the house we designed/had drawn up and holding off on the shop. Honestly, I think that once the house is done and we are converted to a conventional mortgage I probably wouldn't have that much trouble finding a loan for the shop. So, we might have to wait until next year to build shop.
Plan B is a different, much smaller one-story house plan and the shop. Neither of us are over excited about house plan B. While DH really really wants/needs the shop space, I think it would be worth the wait of probably a year at the most on the shop, to build the exact house we want and then the shop. We'd just have to find some offsite storage for awhile. He's thinking on it while I'm waiting to see if we can get official approval from this bank (she says today), but I know he much prefers the house he designed, so I have a feeling he's going to say "revised Plan A".
I did have a good thought come to me last night, that makes me feel better, overall. In all my planning and future budgeting on making sure we could have this paid off in 16 or so years - or at least by the time I'm 70 and ready to retire, I completely forgot that DH can start drawing his social security at age 62 (in 10 years). Current online check says if he draws his own at 62 it will be $745 a month (of course I know there would be medicare out of that). Whether we will actually need to start drawing it then (or wait until I start taking it and then he can get half of mine) will all have to be decided what is smartest at the time, but certainly could be done and that extra money each month put toward the mortgage balance. That made me feel a lot better to remember about the social security option.
I am really hoping I can get an answer from the bank today, so I can go into the weekend feeling a little less stressed. I have lost 7 pounds from all this stress, but hey, at least my size 6 jeans fit again.
I kind of let her have it the other day. I said that I got this financing lined up with you FIRST, before I did anything else. If I had any idea it was going to get pulled (over 80 miles) I wouldn't have even listed my house for sale yet, let alone accepted an offer. Then I asked her why they couldn't do the loan out of their office that is 100 miles from our property and she did some calculating and said "well, it's still 150 miles". Turns out they were using the nearest "big city" that is 50 miles farther. I said no, we are in X town, 50 miles closer and she was like "well, I don't know where you will be living! we just used X city". Seriously? when it's that close to whether you can do the loan or not, plus I had given her the exact address. Pissed me off again. So, in reality we are 30 miles outside their construction zone. C'mon......she said she is checking into it again, but it's been another 2 days with no answer. She also said they have a new Fannie Mae construction loan package that they can start using July 1st that might work, she doesn't have the info on it, and is checking.
Anyhow - it appears we might be approved by this bank over there, that also says the bankruptcy criteria is 4 years, not 7 on a conventional loan. I was actually googling Fannie Mae loans and see this very recent article where it says they have now changed to 2 years, to match with FHA guidelines. http://themortgagereports.com/16750/fannie-mae-waiting-period-bankruptcy-short-sale-foreclosure. How accurate this article website is, I don't know, but interesting info. If it's true, apparently no lenders seem aware of this yet. With their area's lower conventional lending limits (compared the the large metro area I live in now) we just don't qualify for our "Plan A". So we are looking at a revised "plan A" and a "plan B". Revised Plan A is building the house we designed/had drawn up and holding off on the shop. Honestly, I think that once the house is done and we are converted to a conventional mortgage I probably wouldn't have that much trouble finding a loan for the shop. So, we might have to wait until next year to build shop.
Plan B is a different, much smaller one-story house plan and the shop. Neither of us are over excited about house plan B. While DH really really wants/needs the shop space, I think it would be worth the wait of probably a year at the most on the shop, to build the exact house we want and then the shop. We'd just have to find some offsite storage for awhile. He's thinking on it while I'm waiting to see if we can get official approval from this bank (she says today), but I know he much prefers the house he designed, so I have a feeling he's going to say "revised Plan A".
I did have a good thought come to me last night, that makes me feel better, overall. In all my planning and future budgeting on making sure we could have this paid off in 16 or so years - or at least by the time I'm 70 and ready to retire, I completely forgot that DH can start drawing his social security at age 62 (in 10 years). Current online check says if he draws his own at 62 it will be $745 a month (of course I know there would be medicare out of that). Whether we will actually need to start drawing it then (or wait until I start taking it and then he can get half of mine) will all have to be decided what is smartest at the time, but certainly could be done and that extra money each month put toward the mortgage balance. That made me feel a lot better to remember about the social security option.
I am really hoping I can get an answer from the bank today, so I can go into the weekend feeling a little less stressed. I have lost 7 pounds from all this stress, but hey, at least my size 6 jeans fit again.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
This is just too much to deal with
I am just beyond exhausted and just about in tears. Another week wasted with still no financing resolved!Now I'm being told that we don't qualify for the end loan (the regular conventional loan that the construction loan gets converted to) because since we had to include out home in our bankruptcy filing we have to be 7 years past, not 4 years. But my original lender is telling me it's 4 years per the "rules". The 7 years is only if we had been foreclosed on with our bankruptcy. We were not. We have never been late or behind on payments. We kept our house and we've continued to make timely payment the past 6 years post bankruptcy. Another lender said she thought it was 4 years too, but now she is double checking, but still couldn't get back to me on it today. We had to include our mortgage in our bankruptcy, even though we were keeping the house, we didn't have a choice.
I am honestly just pissed off and furious at my original lender. There was a reason I spent the time to get pre-approved months ago. If I had any inkling it wasn't going to go through, I wouldn't have even listed my house yet, LET ALONE accepted on offer on it! Now I'm supposed to be out in 40-some days and have no financing and no where to move to. She tells me it's because that she found out our lot is 80 miles outside their construction zone. Well, if that is the case then they don't even DO construction loans in that state, period. Our property is 58 miles from the state border. Plus the whole time I had told her the "area" we were looking, which was really about 100 miles from the state border. She should have known they didn't do construction loans in the state or at least checked on it from the very beginning.
and her "I have good news and bad news" a week ago....well I asked why being approved by her bank was good news when they wouldn't do our construction loan now and her reply was "well, you were approved for the extra amount, so that means you'll get approved by another bank". Really? cuz it sure ain't happening yet! DH is beyond stressed and you all know he can't handle stress at all. He's ready to just back out of everything at this point and just stay here. But, of course now that we've accepted an offer to sell, that would just create a whole new set of problems for us.
I am honestly just pissed off and furious at my original lender. There was a reason I spent the time to get pre-approved months ago. If I had any inkling it wasn't going to go through, I wouldn't have even listed my house yet, LET ALONE accepted on offer on it! Now I'm supposed to be out in 40-some days and have no financing and no where to move to. She tells me it's because that she found out our lot is 80 miles outside their construction zone. Well, if that is the case then they don't even DO construction loans in that state, period. Our property is 58 miles from the state border. Plus the whole time I had told her the "area" we were looking, which was really about 100 miles from the state border. She should have known they didn't do construction loans in the state or at least checked on it from the very beginning.
and her "I have good news and bad news" a week ago....well I asked why being approved by her bank was good news when they wouldn't do our construction loan now and her reply was "well, you were approved for the extra amount, so that means you'll get approved by another bank". Really? cuz it sure ain't happening yet! DH is beyond stressed and you all know he can't handle stress at all. He's ready to just back out of everything at this point and just stay here. But, of course now that we've accepted an offer to sell, that would just create a whole new set of problems for us.
Revmoving the crap :)
Monday we had our septic pumped for the sale. Tuesday the county health inspector came to inspect. First off $900 total cost for it! What a rip off! $440 for the septic pumping, the rest was county fees. So, DH is showing her where it is and she's telling him what a beautiful place we have and that the septic looks perfect. Then DH says to her "yes, it is, but what's the point?" and she's like what?
He points over to slumlandlords place. See that big shop? 3-4 people live in there and no one is supposed to be living inside it. See that tank at the corner of his shop? That's his "make shift" septic system. He turns on a switch and pumps it up into his septic tank on the upper part of his property. "oh, he can't have that". See that area with the 4 foot brush and weeds growing? that's his drain field. "oh, he can't do that". See that single wide trailer that is about to fall over? someone lives in it. Then DH said, but you're (county) is not going to do anything about it, are you? The rules and laws only apply to those willing to comply with them. Then he told her that's one of the reasons we are moving.
When the septic company came to pump on Monday they went to the street behind us (ie drug dealers house). I guess the mom came out, all suspicious, because it was an unmarked van, haha. Then they drove back to the last house to still look and turn around (they were then on slumlandlords 3rd lot). Then the dispatcher called DH to verify address and he says our street #, not the one behind us, and she said "oh, right, that is the street we have written down". DH tells her, tell those guys not to buy anything there, LOL - the sheriff has camera's. Her next comment was "oh...no wonder you are moving".
The 2 septic guys were like "that is scary/sketchy back there!" Yep.
He points over to slumlandlords place. See that big shop? 3-4 people live in there and no one is supposed to be living inside it. See that tank at the corner of his shop? That's his "make shift" septic system. He turns on a switch and pumps it up into his septic tank on the upper part of his property. "oh, he can't have that". See that area with the 4 foot brush and weeds growing? that's his drain field. "oh, he can't do that". See that single wide trailer that is about to fall over? someone lives in it. Then DH said, but you're (county) is not going to do anything about it, are you? The rules and laws only apply to those willing to comply with them. Then he told her that's one of the reasons we are moving.
When the septic company came to pump on Monday they went to the street behind us (ie drug dealers house). I guess the mom came out, all suspicious, because it was an unmarked van, haha. Then they drove back to the last house to still look and turn around (they were then on slumlandlords 3rd lot). Then the dispatcher called DH to verify address and he says our street #, not the one behind us, and she said "oh, right, that is the street we have written down". DH tells her, tell those guys not to buy anything there, LOL - the sheriff has camera's. Her next comment was "oh...no wonder you are moving".
The 2 septic guys were like "that is scary/sketchy back there!" Yep.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Monday done
Yesterday was at least starting to move in the right direction - no bad news, at least. First thing in the morning my realtor selling my house emailed me that she was going to keep pushing on the buyers realtor and lender to get this appraisal/inspection ordered. She said her guess was that the buyers just figured they had 2 months to get all this done, so would just take care of it after their 3 week trip out of the country. I said I can understand that, but from our end, if something goes wrong, we have just lost a month out of our timeline, that we can't get back. They had almost a week before they left to take care of it. Plus, who is this day and age leaves the country for 3 weeks and doesn't check email or voice mail? About an hour later she emailed me that the buyers finally checked in, so now the appraisal can be ordered.
We had our septic pumped yesterday. Now I guess we have to leave the tank lid uncovered and wait for the county inspection to be done. We've always had our septic pumped regularly over the years and have never had any problems with it, so not worried about that at all. I just need to call them this morning and make sure I am understanding the process of everything being submitted to the county and if there is anything I still need to do.
DD had her first day on the job. Mostly just orientation type stuff and a partial day for her. Today she starts training. She pretty much got to pick her hours, so she is doing 6am-3pm, so that she can carpool with her BF, who works right next door. She was also told that in a couple of months she will be able to start working from home on Fridays. She's really excited about that news. I know she will be super tired for a few weeks, adjusting to working every day and those early hours. I'm sure that first paycheck will make it all worth it. Ahhh, to be young again :)
I had a super long drive home from work yesterday. I leave at 3pm and right when I was leaving DH texted me that this tray he ordered (from a metal fabrication shop) was finished and ready to be picked up. They close at 4 and it would be close if I could get there in time, with traffic. My traffic app showed me arriving at 3:55, but of course it was wrong and the closer I got the longer it was taking me. About 3:45 I called there and said I'm going to be 5-10 min after 4pm, would anyone still be there and she said she'd wait for me. I got there at 4:08. Thank God for gps or I would have most likely gotten totally lost trying to find it on my own. Plus DH was pleasantly surprised to find out it only cost him $67. He's notorious for not finding out how much something will cost before. He needed a tray for the generator to sit on that slides in the box on the front of his car trailer. From there I had to drive home, at least another half hour, so I just decided to stop at Wendy's and get us dinner. Two + hour trips home wear me out.
I'm really hoping to hear yay or nay today on whether we are approved with this new lender. Hopefully by tomorrow at the latest. She told me it usually only takes 2-3 days to see what someone gets approved for. If we are, then we can move forward with them processing the construction loan, which takes like 45 days. I felt a lot better when I found out our realtor over there works with this particular loan processor a lot and is working to make sure it's done quickly. So far, he's always done everything needed very promptly. I really like him a lot.
We had our septic pumped yesterday. Now I guess we have to leave the tank lid uncovered and wait for the county inspection to be done. We've always had our septic pumped regularly over the years and have never had any problems with it, so not worried about that at all. I just need to call them this morning and make sure I am understanding the process of everything being submitted to the county and if there is anything I still need to do.
DD had her first day on the job. Mostly just orientation type stuff and a partial day for her. Today she starts training. She pretty much got to pick her hours, so she is doing 6am-3pm, so that she can carpool with her BF, who works right next door. She was also told that in a couple of months she will be able to start working from home on Fridays. She's really excited about that news. I know she will be super tired for a few weeks, adjusting to working every day and those early hours. I'm sure that first paycheck will make it all worth it. Ahhh, to be young again :)
I had a super long drive home from work yesterday. I leave at 3pm and right when I was leaving DH texted me that this tray he ordered (from a metal fabrication shop) was finished and ready to be picked up. They close at 4 and it would be close if I could get there in time, with traffic. My traffic app showed me arriving at 3:55, but of course it was wrong and the closer I got the longer it was taking me. About 3:45 I called there and said I'm going to be 5-10 min after 4pm, would anyone still be there and she said she'd wait for me. I got there at 4:08. Thank God for gps or I would have most likely gotten totally lost trying to find it on my own. Plus DH was pleasantly surprised to find out it only cost him $67. He's notorious for not finding out how much something will cost before. He needed a tray for the generator to sit on that slides in the box on the front of his car trailer. From there I had to drive home, at least another half hour, so I just decided to stop at Wendy's and get us dinner. Two + hour trips home wear me out.
I'm really hoping to hear yay or nay today on whether we are approved with this new lender. Hopefully by tomorrow at the latest. She told me it usually only takes 2-3 days to see what someone gets approved for. If we are, then we can move forward with them processing the construction loan, which takes like 45 days. I felt a lot better when I found out our realtor over there works with this particular loan processor a lot and is working to make sure it's done quickly. So far, he's always done everything needed very promptly. I really like him a lot.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Graduated and our new neighbor
DD is graduated! Can I just say that I hate graduation ceremonies? I'm sure that makes me a terrible person and even worse parent, but dang - sitting there listening to over 1000 names (and that was just half the graduates, the rest had an afternoon ceremony), one after the other, is so boring. Even being so proud of her.....it is so darn boring. LOL. Gradations top the list of events I hate to go to....then it's funerals and weddings. Anyhow it's a done deal and we couldn't be more proud of our daughter. She is amazing.
We had to get up at 5am and leave before 6am to make it in time for a 9am ceremony, which took until almost noon to complete. Then we took her and her BF out to lunch to celebrate. The waiter was so cute - obviously a college student himself. He asked if she just graduated and gave congrats. Then when he took her order and she just ordered water, he said "no celebratory drink?" and she said no, I'm only 20. His jaw dropped, LOL. He was like that is amazing.....I'm still like a 8th year freshman. Then later he was asking her if she had any other celebration plans for the weekend and she said not really and I piped up "she has to start her new job on Monday" and then his jaw even dropped more. He was so funny.
We got home around 4:30. Poor dogs! had to stay in the house all that time. I was really expecting an accident or two. We never leave them for any length of time like that. I had planned on having our good neighbor come over and let them out, but he had plans to be gone all day too.
We (or rather DH) got to meet the new renter at slumlandords place on Friday night, well after midnight. A charming old gentleman, who proceeded to compliment DH on his manhood. The brother in law of the previous renter is still living there, and the traffic of customers that come for minutes and leave continues (they call them "visitors"). And then apparently two days ago the old guy that slumlandord has been saying is the one going to live there by himself, moved in and BIL is still there. Obviously the brother in law of the old renter is a big part of the drug dealing, as nothing has changed. Still cars in and out all night, still turn down our road and turn off their lights. So DH had been calling slumlandord almost every night, complaining. Figures if we have to deal with it, so will he. He has been going down there and finding out who is hanging out and getting rid of them (so he says) and keeps saying the brother in law of old renter is leaving in a day or two (been saying that for 2 weeks now). So after numerous traffic Friday night, in comes yet another car (though I think this one had made more than one trip in and out Friday evening). DH calls slumlandord neighbor and he and another guy start to walk down to renters, just then the car that had arrived 5 minutes earlier is pulling out. Slumlandord stops it to talk and see who it is. It's the resident neighborhood 40 years old drug addict lady, who stays wherever she can, because her parents down the road kicked her out. DH had gone out there and was standing on our side of fence, along road - basically just as back up to slumlandord (and to see who it was). DH had said nothing this whole time and as the car is pulling away here comes walking down the street from the renters house the new tenant. Obviously high or drunk and says to slumlandord "what's this dick's problem?" meaning DH. He then went on a rant at DH. DH had more than enough and said well, lets just all stay here and the sheriff can figure it out. I called sheriff and of course they all took off. Sheriff came about 15 minutes later - 4 or 5 of them. Right then our good neighbor happened to be coming home from a date, so that was kind of timely. He was able to also tell the deputies and sergeant that this is all every day/every night goings on around here continue.
While we were waiting for the sheriff I went back into the house and called slumlandord on his cell phone. I was about in tears and said "this has been going on for 3 years. 3 years of cars, people walking and people on bikes going in and out all night long, Every. Single. Night. Can we just get ONE night of peace and quiet? Is that too much to ask?" He made all his usual excuses..well, they are allowed to have visitors. I said those aren't visitors. Visitors come and stay for awhile. These all come for 2 minutes and leave and every single one of them are drug addicts and have police records. I don't think I should have to have these kind of people up and down my street, especially when I am trying to sleep.
So, as we are all talking to the deputies slumlandord comes walking down the street from his renters place and two deputies go over to talk to him and they all walk back down to rental house. Of course slumlandord is acting like Mr. Innocent. A bit later the deputy and the sergeant come back and said the old guy was being belligerent and not listening to them. They said they had to get in his face and they think they finally got through to him and there won't be a problem any more tonight. Woo hoo - the rest of the night will be quiet and we have to get up in 4 hours. As good neighbor commented to the sheriff's - there is a reason slumlandord is still letting the brother in law stay there (after he kicked out the rest of the family). Because he's making money off the drug deals, too.
The sheriff's said they would up their patrols again. Big deal.
47 more days until we are supposed to be able to get out of here, assuming the sale of our place goes through with no problems (haha - that is not our luck at all).
We had to get up at 5am and leave before 6am to make it in time for a 9am ceremony, which took until almost noon to complete. Then we took her and her BF out to lunch to celebrate. The waiter was so cute - obviously a college student himself. He asked if she just graduated and gave congrats. Then when he took her order and she just ordered water, he said "no celebratory drink?" and she said no, I'm only 20. His jaw dropped, LOL. He was like that is amazing.....I'm still like a 8th year freshman. Then later he was asking her if she had any other celebration plans for the weekend and she said not really and I piped up "she has to start her new job on Monday" and then his jaw even dropped more. He was so funny.
We got home around 4:30. Poor dogs! had to stay in the house all that time. I was really expecting an accident or two. We never leave them for any length of time like that. I had planned on having our good neighbor come over and let them out, but he had plans to be gone all day too.
We (or rather DH) got to meet the new renter at slumlandords place on Friday night, well after midnight. A charming old gentleman, who proceeded to compliment DH on his manhood. The brother in law of the previous renter is still living there, and the traffic of customers that come for minutes and leave continues (they call them "visitors"). And then apparently two days ago the old guy that slumlandord has been saying is the one going to live there by himself, moved in and BIL is still there. Obviously the brother in law of the old renter is a big part of the drug dealing, as nothing has changed. Still cars in and out all night, still turn down our road and turn off their lights. So DH had been calling slumlandord almost every night, complaining. Figures if we have to deal with it, so will he. He has been going down there and finding out who is hanging out and getting rid of them (so he says) and keeps saying the brother in law of old renter is leaving in a day or two (been saying that for 2 weeks now). So after numerous traffic Friday night, in comes yet another car (though I think this one had made more than one trip in and out Friday evening). DH calls slumlandord neighbor and he and another guy start to walk down to renters, just then the car that had arrived 5 minutes earlier is pulling out. Slumlandord stops it to talk and see who it is. It's the resident neighborhood 40 years old drug addict lady, who stays wherever she can, because her parents down the road kicked her out. DH had gone out there and was standing on our side of fence, along road - basically just as back up to slumlandord (and to see who it was). DH had said nothing this whole time and as the car is pulling away here comes walking down the street from the renters house the new tenant. Obviously high or drunk and says to slumlandord "what's this dick's problem?" meaning DH. He then went on a rant at DH. DH had more than enough and said well, lets just all stay here and the sheriff can figure it out. I called sheriff and of course they all took off. Sheriff came about 15 minutes later - 4 or 5 of them. Right then our good neighbor happened to be coming home from a date, so that was kind of timely. He was able to also tell the deputies and sergeant that this is all every day/every night goings on around here continue.
While we were waiting for the sheriff I went back into the house and called slumlandord on his cell phone. I was about in tears and said "this has been going on for 3 years. 3 years of cars, people walking and people on bikes going in and out all night long, Every. Single. Night. Can we just get ONE night of peace and quiet? Is that too much to ask?" He made all his usual excuses..well, they are allowed to have visitors. I said those aren't visitors. Visitors come and stay for awhile. These all come for 2 minutes and leave and every single one of them are drug addicts and have police records. I don't think I should have to have these kind of people up and down my street, especially when I am trying to sleep.
So, as we are all talking to the deputies slumlandord comes walking down the street from his renters place and two deputies go over to talk to him and they all walk back down to rental house. Of course slumlandord is acting like Mr. Innocent. A bit later the deputy and the sergeant come back and said the old guy was being belligerent and not listening to them. They said they had to get in his face and they think they finally got through to him and there won't be a problem any more tonight. Woo hoo - the rest of the night will be quiet and we have to get up in 4 hours. As good neighbor commented to the sheriff's - there is a reason slumlandord is still letting the brother in law stay there (after he kicked out the rest of the family). Because he's making money off the drug deals, too.
The sheriff's said they would up their patrols again. Big deal.
47 more days until we are supposed to be able to get out of here, assuming the sale of our place goes through with no problems (haha - that is not our luck at all).
Friday, June 10, 2016
Friday is here
Things are starting to head in the right direction again, at least for today, LOL. DH sold the hitch he had advertised on Craigslist for $150. Between that and the wood chipper we've got an extra $1250.....wish he'd try and sell a few more things ;)
Our realtor we used to do the offer on the land emailed me first thing this morning (he is ALWAYS right on top of everything) that he called the loan processor and let her know he's involved with this construction loan too, so he's pushing on them too. He said not to worry, it will all work. I'm still worrying, of course, but just a little less. It does always help to have people who know people.
I have another lender I have talked to this morning, got a lot of info from, and will be my backup plan, if this one doesn't work. Her
Here's something strange I'm still trying to figure out. I had called this other lender from my cell phone yesterday as I was leaving work. Got her voice mail so left her a message with my cell ph#. Was expecting a call all the way home and never got it. She called our home#. I never ever gave her that number. When she called this morning (on my cell phone) I said sorry I missed your return call yesterday, but you called my home# and I had no idea how that happened. She said she just clicked on her phone to call me back and that's apparently where it dialed. Weird! Oh wait! I think I just realized how it happened. I had her email open on my phone via our Comcast email. I clicked on the link in the email with her phone number and it dialed, so apparently made it look like the call was coming from our home ph# (which is Comcast) instead of really using my cell # call. So that's the return # she saw on her phone. Ok, at least that mystery is solved. It was bugging me LOL
It's my half day and I'm going to get my grocery shopping done, as tomorrow we will be gone for DD's graduation. It starts at 9am, so we will have to leave the house before 6am (ugh). Afterwards we will go to lunch with her and BF and then head back home and should be back before dinner time. Long day for the doggies to be shut up in the house. We had hoped to have our good neighbor keep an eye on the house and maybe let the dogs out to pee, for us, because we are always watching his place for him, but no, he'll be gone tomorrow too.
We are still (barely) on track with our sales for this month to earn our mid year bonus. Plus, if we meet the goal they keep hinting at other good news. Which I think will be what they mentioned 6 months ago. If we met our goal they will be implementing more "remote from home" days for people. Which really doesn't affect me, since I already do that, haha. But great for the rest of the crew. I don't usually plan ahead at all for this money, but I sure could really really use it this time.
So, I follow our county sheriff's facebook page where often, it seems, they post surveillance photos or videos of someone their property crimes task force is looking for. The one today is of a woman pushing a cart through Walmart with a baby in the seat...she used a stolen credit card in the self checkout machine. Which got me to thinking....why can't credit cards require a pin number to use them, just like debit cards? Wouldn't this cut down on the illegal use of them? I mean, if someone stole a credit card, but had to use a pin # to buy something at the store, well most likely they aren't going to know the pin and the card would be pretty useless, right? I have a Target store credit card and they sent me a new one with a chip and I have to use a pin number with it now.
If I can get through the day with no more speed bumps, I'll be content.
Our realtor we used to do the offer on the land emailed me first thing this morning (he is ALWAYS right on top of everything) that he called the loan processor and let her know he's involved with this construction loan too, so he's pushing on them too. He said not to worry, it will all work. I'm still worrying, of course, but just a little less. It does always help to have people who know people.
I have another lender I have talked to this morning, got a lot of info from, and will be my backup plan, if this one doesn't work. Her
Here's something strange I'm still trying to figure out. I had called this other lender from my cell phone yesterday as I was leaving work. Got her voice mail so left her a message with my cell ph#. Was expecting a call all the way home and never got it. She called our home#. I never ever gave her that number. When she called this morning (on my cell phone) I said sorry I missed your return call yesterday, but you called my home# and I had no idea how that happened. She said she just clicked on her phone to call me back and that's apparently where it dialed. Weird! Oh wait! I think I just realized how it happened. I had her email open on my phone via our Comcast email. I clicked on the link in the email with her phone number and it dialed, so apparently made it look like the call was coming from our home ph# (which is Comcast) instead of really using my cell # call. So that's the return # she saw on her phone. Ok, at least that mystery is solved. It was bugging me LOL
It's my half day and I'm going to get my grocery shopping done, as tomorrow we will be gone for DD's graduation. It starts at 9am, so we will have to leave the house before 6am (ugh). Afterwards we will go to lunch with her and BF and then head back home and should be back before dinner time. Long day for the doggies to be shut up in the house. We had hoped to have our good neighbor keep an eye on the house and maybe let the dogs out to pee, for us, because we are always watching his place for him, but no, he'll be gone tomorrow too.
We are still (barely) on track with our sales for this month to earn our mid year bonus. Plus, if we meet the goal they keep hinting at other good news. Which I think will be what they mentioned 6 months ago. If we met our goal they will be implementing more "remote from home" days for people. Which really doesn't affect me, since I already do that, haha. But great for the rest of the crew. I don't usually plan ahead at all for this money, but I sure could really really use it this time.
So, I follow our county sheriff's facebook page where often, it seems, they post surveillance photos or videos of someone their property crimes task force is looking for. The one today is of a woman pushing a cart through Walmart with a baby in the seat...she used a stolen credit card in the self checkout machine. Which got me to thinking....why can't credit cards require a pin number to use them, just like debit cards? Wouldn't this cut down on the illegal use of them? I mean, if someone stole a credit card, but had to use a pin # to buy something at the store, well most likely they aren't going to know the pin and the card would be pretty useless, right? I have a Target store credit card and they sent me a new one with a chip and I have to use a pin number with it now.
If I can get through the day with no more speed bumps, I'll be content.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Another rough day
Another frustrating day, that ended a lot better than it started, at least. When I started work at my desk here at home at 7am this morning, I had hoped to shortly see the email from the new lender with instructions on what they needed from me and where to upload docs, etc. Or at least hoped to see it before I left for the office at 8:30, especially since it's an hour later at lenders. But nope. I was smart enough to figure the email would come while I'm on my way to work, so I copied all the docs to a thumb drive, so I could send them to her from work. Sure enough, I walk out the door and she sends the email.
When I get to work I emailed all the documents and then get an email back that her loan processor is out until Tuesday. Well, she couldn't have told me that when I talked to her yesterday? that I was now going to have to wait almost another week to find out if we are even approved. This first lender really screwed with our timeline, that's for sure, and now we are really pushing to get this construction loan done by the end of July, when our sale is supposed to close and we are supposed to close on land.
I then emailed our realtor that did the land offer for us, because he needs to know this info too, regarding our financing and told him I'm trying the lender the builder uses most of the time and he asked if it was X Bank and I said it was. He said he works a lot with the loan processor in the branch near his office.
So I emailed lender again before I left work today and again explained our situation and asked her if there was any way to at least expedite the approval process, so I don't waste another week. She called me on my way home and said because of her relationship with our builder, she was going to get this processed asap and they might have a good chance of getting it done by end of July, or at least pretty close. I tell her thank you, I appreciate if very much.
Then about 15 minutes later she emails me that she is forwarding our application to the same processor in the other branch, that our realtor uses. Hmm...I think....our realtor probably has some pull to put in a word too, now. I emailed him as soon as I got home and he said - definitely! she is his go to gal for mortgages and he will call her first thing tomorrow morning. He said he feels confident this will all get gone and within our time crunch.
As I'm dealing with that we are now 10 days into sale of our home and no FHA inspection or appraisal has even been ordered yet (they apparently decided to forego a formal inspection, but our realtor said she would have preferred their realtor put that formally in writing, rather than just ignore it and let the deadline come and go.) And we are supposed to pay $900 for the septic pumping, inspection and county fees, before we even know if FHA will approve this for them. Last Saturday the buyers took off for Mexico for 3 weeks.......their lender has emailed them, this week, to sign the doc for the inspection to be ordered but no one knows if they will see it before they get back or not. Kinda pissing us off. We had a terrible experience trying to sell our home to someone that wanted to finance FHA and even though it was 23 years ago, it's still a nightmare fresh in our minds. Once the inspection and appraisal are done, we'd feel A LOT more confident with this sale. Anyhow, my realtor said she wanted to change our sale status from "pending" to "pending backup" which apparently means someone else could now come and look and make an offer. So now I gotta have the place spotless again, just in case.
When I got home, DH finally had received some good news. An old friend of his, that he grew up with in the area we are moving to, told him he has a nice 38ft camper trailer not being used and we are welcome to borrow it while our house is being built. OMG! that is a very amazing and generous offer. That really helps us out so much and with the extra we now have to put on the down payment (that we were going to use to buy a used camper and then re-sell) we don't have to figure out how to come up with more money for the camper. We were very happy to accept his offer and in true DH fashion - anything he ever borrows, even a tool, will be given back in better shape than he got it.
When I get to work I emailed all the documents and then get an email back that her loan processor is out until Tuesday. Well, she couldn't have told me that when I talked to her yesterday? that I was now going to have to wait almost another week to find out if we are even approved. This first lender really screwed with our timeline, that's for sure, and now we are really pushing to get this construction loan done by the end of July, when our sale is supposed to close and we are supposed to close on land.
I then emailed our realtor that did the land offer for us, because he needs to know this info too, regarding our financing and told him I'm trying the lender the builder uses most of the time and he asked if it was X Bank and I said it was. He said he works a lot with the loan processor in the branch near his office.
So I emailed lender again before I left work today and again explained our situation and asked her if there was any way to at least expedite the approval process, so I don't waste another week. She called me on my way home and said because of her relationship with our builder, she was going to get this processed asap and they might have a good chance of getting it done by end of July, or at least pretty close. I tell her thank you, I appreciate if very much.
Then about 15 minutes later she emails me that she is forwarding our application to the same processor in the other branch, that our realtor uses. Hmm...I think....our realtor probably has some pull to put in a word too, now. I emailed him as soon as I got home and he said - definitely! she is his go to gal for mortgages and he will call her first thing tomorrow morning. He said he feels confident this will all get gone and within our time crunch.
As I'm dealing with that we are now 10 days into sale of our home and no FHA inspection or appraisal has even been ordered yet (they apparently decided to forego a formal inspection, but our realtor said she would have preferred their realtor put that formally in writing, rather than just ignore it and let the deadline come and go.) And we are supposed to pay $900 for the septic pumping, inspection and county fees, before we even know if FHA will approve this for them. Last Saturday the buyers took off for Mexico for 3 weeks.......their lender has emailed them, this week, to sign the doc for the inspection to be ordered but no one knows if they will see it before they get back or not. Kinda pissing us off. We had a terrible experience trying to sell our home to someone that wanted to finance FHA and even though it was 23 years ago, it's still a nightmare fresh in our minds. Once the inspection and appraisal are done, we'd feel A LOT more confident with this sale. Anyhow, my realtor said she wanted to change our sale status from "pending" to "pending backup" which apparently means someone else could now come and look and make an offer. So now I gotta have the place spotless again, just in case.
When I got home, DH finally had received some good news. An old friend of his, that he grew up with in the area we are moving to, told him he has a nice 38ft camper trailer not being used and we are welcome to borrow it while our house is being built. OMG! that is a very amazing and generous offer. That really helps us out so much and with the extra we now have to put on the down payment (that we were going to use to buy a used camper and then re-sell) we don't have to figure out how to come up with more money for the camper. We were very happy to accept his offer and in true DH fashion - anything he ever borrows, even a tool, will be given back in better shape than he got it.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
More frustrations
So, the mortgage lender lady finally calls me back......and says I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we qualify for the higher amount the house ended up being estimated at. The bad news? Well, they figured out the address of our property and realized it is 80 miles outside of their lending area radius! are you kidding me? When I told her 6 weeks ago or whenever it was, that we put an offer on the land, where it was (the town name), she didn't think to check that? So, now we have to start all over getting approved for a loan. Doesn't do me a lot of good, with her "good news" does it? But she says that just means if they approved it, so will another bank. ok. we'll see....
So, not exactly sure what we are doing....the builder keeps totally confusing us, as he keeps saying he wants to give the bank a higher estimate of costs (than it will actually cost) so it will appraise higher. Well, the bank wants 20% cash as a down payment. Where we are at with numbers right now is about exactly that we will have the 20% to give them. If we give the bank an even higher number, then we need to have even more cash to give the bank for the down payment. He's making no sense to me. He keeps making it sound like if we get a higher appraisal, that usually helps people out with more equity towards their down payment.
If we can swing this, it will probably just be better in the long run, since this bank and the builder work a lot together. Things will probably go much smoother. I just don't need the additional delay of going through the approval process again.
And on top of that I'm dealing with a hubby who is on a rant. He bought a used car trailer last summer. Has spent the past year fixing it up. Even bought some nice brand new high quality straps (that we'll need to use to move an old t-bird car we have). A friend of his just called and asked to borrow the trailer. DH hasn't even gotten to use it yet! Then the guy says "oh, and you have straps too, right?" So, DH's brand new straps are going to get all dirty and greasy before he even gets to use them. I told him just to say NO. But he can't and then bitches that he gets used and taken advantage of.......
So, not exactly sure what we are doing....the builder keeps totally confusing us, as he keeps saying he wants to give the bank a higher estimate of costs (than it will actually cost) so it will appraise higher. Well, the bank wants 20% cash as a down payment. Where we are at with numbers right now is about exactly that we will have the 20% to give them. If we give the bank an even higher number, then we need to have even more cash to give the bank for the down payment. He's making no sense to me. He keeps making it sound like if we get a higher appraisal, that usually helps people out with more equity towards their down payment.
If we can swing this, it will probably just be better in the long run, since this bank and the builder work a lot together. Things will probably go much smoother. I just don't need the additional delay of going through the approval process again.
And on top of that I'm dealing with a hubby who is on a rant. He bought a used car trailer last summer. Has spent the past year fixing it up. Even bought some nice brand new high quality straps (that we'll need to use to move an old t-bird car we have). A friend of his just called and asked to borrow the trailer. DH hasn't even gotten to use it yet! Then the guy says "oh, and you have straps too, right?" So, DH's brand new straps are going to get all dirty and greasy before he even gets to use them. I told him just to say NO. But he can't and then bitches that he gets used and taken advantage of.......
Frustration is building
I'm frustrated and starting to get very ticked off (which takes a lot for me to get to that point). Our mortgage lady has gone MIA. Well, not completely, but apparently for me, she has. My boss also uses her (and was the one who recommended her) for her rental house mortgages. In fact, my boss apparently emailed her later Monday morning, hours after I emailed her, and she got a call or email back yesterday from her. Turns out she was busy all day Monday moving to a new office. Ok, I totally get that, but I now have 3 emails and 1 phone call into her, with no reply.
With our builder taking so long to get us the building cost numbers, time is short for us now. It apparently takes the construction loan at minimum 45 days to get processed. So at like 6:45am Monday morning I emailed her with all the info I had. Final building cost breakdown, copies of the architect drawn plans, title info on the land, along with a detailed email, that I know these numbers are higher than we anticipated, but we are also coming in with about $35,000 more of a down payment than we originally estimated, so will this work?
Tuesday morning, I realized that our last email conversation from last week, she had cc'd her assistant. So, I forwarded him my Monday morning email, saying sorry, I meant to cc him, too. No response. After my boss told me yesterday she heard back from her regarding her email from Monday, I called and got her voice mail and left a message asking her to please call me. No return call.
It's now mid day Wednesday and nothing. I sent her another email about 10:15 this morning saying this:
Seriously, how long does it take to shoot back an email that says "hey, I'm really tied up right now and will get back to you at X time/date". Or....."hey, there's no way you'll be approved for this much, let's talk when I'm free at x time". Plus she has an assistant - actually she has 2 assistants - so no excuse that I can't at least get some sort of reply.
For fricks sake.
With our builder taking so long to get us the building cost numbers, time is short for us now. It apparently takes the construction loan at minimum 45 days to get processed. So at like 6:45am Monday morning I emailed her with all the info I had. Final building cost breakdown, copies of the architect drawn plans, title info on the land, along with a detailed email, that I know these numbers are higher than we anticipated, but we are also coming in with about $35,000 more of a down payment than we originally estimated, so will this work?
Tuesday morning, I realized that our last email conversation from last week, she had cc'd her assistant. So, I forwarded him my Monday morning email, saying sorry, I meant to cc him, too. No response. After my boss told me yesterday she heard back from her regarding her email from Monday, I called and got her voice mail and left a message asking her to please call me. No return call.
It's now mid day Wednesday and nothing. I sent her another email about 10:15 this morning saying this:
just checking back in with you on this -
If we can't get approved for this much and have to go to a "Plan B"
for a different/less expensive house plan, I really need to get going
on that asap. After seeing the numbers this weekend, we did find an
alternate house plan online and had the builder work up costs for us on
that plan, as a back up plan just in case, but I would still need time
to actually get the actual engineered set of plans ordered or drawn up.
Seriously, how long does it take to shoot back an email that says "hey, I'm really tied up right now and will get back to you at X time/date". Or....."hey, there's no way you'll be approved for this much, let's talk when I'm free at x time". Plus she has an assistant - actually she has 2 assistants - so no excuse that I can't at least get some sort of reply.
For fricks sake.
Budgeting, planning and dreaming
I'm sure trying to count some chickens before they are hatched is a waste of time, but I did come up with a tentative budget for July (which I needed to do anyway, as I always make a budget at least a month out) and August, with the assumption we close on Jul 28th, as scheduled. I will have to make my main mortgage payment on July 15th, but will not have to make the HELOC payment that would be due 8/1.
My 7/15 (paid twice a month) budget is even looking better already. No $100 to DD and car insurance reducing by $43, as DD will pay her part. I also just canceled Netflix, which was just going up $2 a month anyway starting with my next billing. Almost $900 left over to go towards moving expenses or paying off some things I charged (lots of getting house ready to sell/seller expenses).
My 7/31 paycheck is where it really starts to look good. No HELOC payment of $830. I'm not sure on our Comcast billing. It looks like, from my most recent billing it's about a half a month in advance. This bill due at end of June was for June 13-July 12, so by canceling the end of July, I'll probably owe a prorated half a month. I'll still have electricity to pay for July, due later in August, but they should be small bills since it will be middle of summer. DD will pay that months health insurance premium for herself, saving me another $120. Almost $2200 leftover and that's with budgeting giving our friends $250 to park a camper trailer at their house for August. I'm sure they won't want to take it, but we'll make them.
The 8/15 check leaves me will $2100 leftover. Again, I'm sure we will have lots of out of pocket expenses related to the new place. Getting electricity hooked up and phone service (which the internet will also be through). There is electricity to the property, I just know it costs to get it hooked up and going. The other site work (well and septic) on the property will be covered in our construction loan. We might have to put some of our stuff in a storage unit, so maybe another $100 or so a month temporarily.
My 8/31 paycheck leaves me will $2800 leftover. Not sure if I will have payments started yet on the construction loan. I think you usually get 30-45 days before first payments starts on a new loan. So, I'm budgeting for a mid-September payment, but not a huge one, as by then the only funds that would have been distributed out of the construction loan would be for the land, the site work and shop. Maybe a $400 payment that first month.
This will go on for several months, obviously as it will take that long for the house to be built. We only plan to stay at our friends place until our shop is built and we can move our stuff in there and move our camper trailer onto the property and start living there. We'll have washer dryer hook up in the shop and can put our set in there, so we have a way to do laundry. Should not be any more than 2 months at friends place. We plan to use some of this extra money to pay cash for our new appliances, rather than include them in the mortgage loan. Whatever we can manage to save will either go towards adding to the down payment, or paying out of pocket for some of the construction costs. Probably not as much towards that, though, as I will have some furniture I'd like to get, too. We'll need beds for the guest rooms and at minimum a new chair for the living room. Our current recliner just recently decided to start busting springs up inside the seat. We probably won't even take it with us now. The guest beds aren't a must at move in, but if I can save the money for them while our expenses are lower, I might as well do it then, while I have the extra money. I plan to try and find used bed frames and buy the mattresses new. Nothing too expensive, they will just be for occasional guests. Pretty much all my furnishings and decorations I am going to shop thrift stores and craigslist. I also have a few things I'd like DH to make for me, that should really save money. I would like him to make me a farmhouse table, something like this one. I could probably sell my current table for the $110 it costs to build this one!
and a big square coffee table, like this one. I must like it because I see I pinned it twice! and again, I can sell my current coffee and end table for probably the cost to build a new one.
I also saved the old big rectangle piece of mirror from our bath remodel a couple of years ago. I want him to make a frame for it, something like this. Shouldn't be too hard, I wouldn't think. I can use it over an entry way table or in one of the bathrooms.
I'm sure he could make all 3 of these for less than one item would cost to buy finished.
As you can see, my home will definitely have a rustic, farmhouse feel to it.
Now, if I could just hear back from my mortgage lady........seems like we are always waiting on someone. First it was the builder, who FINALLY got us the cost breakdown over the weekend, which I sent that and the house plans first thing Monday morning to our mortgage lady. Of course, now she is out of office and not available to get anything started, of course. But apparently she was back in the office yesterday, because my boss, who also uses her for her real estate rental mortgages, said she heard back from her yesterday, so you'd think she could at least shoot me an email, letting me know when she'll be able to start on my stuff. It's all so frustrating.
My 7/15 (paid twice a month) budget is even looking better already. No $100 to DD and car insurance reducing by $43, as DD will pay her part. I also just canceled Netflix, which was just going up $2 a month anyway starting with my next billing. Almost $900 left over to go towards moving expenses or paying off some things I charged (lots of getting house ready to sell/seller expenses).
My 7/31 paycheck is where it really starts to look good. No HELOC payment of $830. I'm not sure on our Comcast billing. It looks like, from my most recent billing it's about a half a month in advance. This bill due at end of June was for June 13-July 12, so by canceling the end of July, I'll probably owe a prorated half a month. I'll still have electricity to pay for July, due later in August, but they should be small bills since it will be middle of summer. DD will pay that months health insurance premium for herself, saving me another $120. Almost $2200 leftover and that's with budgeting giving our friends $250 to park a camper trailer at their house for August. I'm sure they won't want to take it, but we'll make them.
The 8/15 check leaves me will $2100 leftover. Again, I'm sure we will have lots of out of pocket expenses related to the new place. Getting electricity hooked up and phone service (which the internet will also be through). There is electricity to the property, I just know it costs to get it hooked up and going. The other site work (well and septic) on the property will be covered in our construction loan. We might have to put some of our stuff in a storage unit, so maybe another $100 or so a month temporarily.
My 8/31 paycheck leaves me will $2800 leftover. Not sure if I will have payments started yet on the construction loan. I think you usually get 30-45 days before first payments starts on a new loan. So, I'm budgeting for a mid-September payment, but not a huge one, as by then the only funds that would have been distributed out of the construction loan would be for the land, the site work and shop. Maybe a $400 payment that first month.
This will go on for several months, obviously as it will take that long for the house to be built. We only plan to stay at our friends place until our shop is built and we can move our stuff in there and move our camper trailer onto the property and start living there. We'll have washer dryer hook up in the shop and can put our set in there, so we have a way to do laundry. Should not be any more than 2 months at friends place. We plan to use some of this extra money to pay cash for our new appliances, rather than include them in the mortgage loan. Whatever we can manage to save will either go towards adding to the down payment, or paying out of pocket for some of the construction costs. Probably not as much towards that, though, as I will have some furniture I'd like to get, too. We'll need beds for the guest rooms and at minimum a new chair for the living room. Our current recliner just recently decided to start busting springs up inside the seat. We probably won't even take it with us now. The guest beds aren't a must at move in, but if I can save the money for them while our expenses are lower, I might as well do it then, while I have the extra money. I plan to try and find used bed frames and buy the mattresses new. Nothing too expensive, they will just be for occasional guests. Pretty much all my furnishings and decorations I am going to shop thrift stores and craigslist. I also have a few things I'd like DH to make for me, that should really save money. I would like him to make me a farmhouse table, something like this one. I could probably sell my current table for the $110 it costs to build this one!
As you can see, my home will definitely have a rustic, farmhouse feel to it.
Now, if I could just hear back from my mortgage lady........seems like we are always waiting on someone. First it was the builder, who FINALLY got us the cost breakdown over the weekend, which I sent that and the house plans first thing Monday morning to our mortgage lady. Of course, now she is out of office and not available to get anything started, of course. But apparently she was back in the office yesterday, because my boss, who also uses her for her real estate rental mortgages, said she heard back from her yesterday, so you'd think she could at least shoot me an email, letting me know when she'll be able to start on my stuff. It's all so frustrating.
Monday, June 6, 2016
Hitting the week at a run
Starting the week off with lots to do. We finally received the cost breakdown on building our home from the builder, so all that info was emailed to our mortgage lady first thing this morning. We are cutting it close, because she said it takes 45 days to process and we need it processed by same time we close sale of our house, so we can purchase land/start construction. We finally had to tell the builder we need this info NOW! Usually she emails me back right away - figures that with the most important stuff I finally get to her and I don't hear boo back from her. Sigh....Then I had to schedule our septic to be pumped and inspected. Would have been really nice to know that is going to be so damn expensive. I was estimating about $400 (based on what the first realtor we had talked to said and what we have paid to have it pumped before). No...it's going to be like $900. $400 to pump (plus sales tax), $129 for the inspection, $65 for some report, $250 for a county fee and if I had wanted them to set up the county "account application" it would have been another $40. Thankfully, the septic lady said I could do it myself and it only took me a matter of minutes. Then I called our water well lady.....some of you long time readers might remember her. LOL....quite an older lady (like 83 now) who drives me insane. I needed to get a copy of whatever report she would have gotten when she had to have her annual testing last done. Amazingly, she had the capability to scan and email to me (better than my mom could do!), but what she scanned me is just a receipt from the water testing lab, showing she paid for the testing to be done. I need something that shows that the testing was ok/passed. If I have to go through the county, they apparently want $150 to pull up this document for me! Seriously? So, I emailed her back and hopefully she will have what I am looking for. They must have had to give her some kind of report to submit to the county health department that all was ok. If she can't figure it out, I will try calling the testing lab, to see if I can get a copy directly from them. Then I had to call the attorney handling our lien, to update him we have accepted an offer on the sale of the house and that (thankfully) the closing date is about a week or so after the court date he told me. He left me a message back that all is good - we are on the docket, he is taking care of it.
On a good note, DH did finally decided to sell our DR Chipper. We bought it probably 4 years ago (like new) for $1000 (it's like $2400 new). Not that we needed to use it a a lot, but we had several big wind storms over those years and sure made clean up very easy, since we can't burn the stuff. He won't need one, where we are going. He'll be able to burn brush and branches. So he advertised it late Friday night and sold it by Saturday night, for $1100.....but earlier that day, when he pulled it out and went to start it the battery had died, so $84 had to go toward a new battery. Still made $16 on it, when all is said and done. LOL. And one less thing to move to new home. He also has a truck hitch advertised for like $150, but not counting on that selling. He tried to sell it before and no luck.
I had a great weekend spending time with DD. Saturday we went shopping for some new work wardrobe clothes for her. I had told her I planned to give her $200 cash as a graduation gift, so I could either give her that to do with what she wanted or I'd just pay for her clothes that day. She did really well picking stuff out. Got 2 dress slacks, a blazer, a dress, 5 tops, and 2 pair of shoes for $185. For the remaining $15 she bought a hand mixer for baking cookies, etc. She's tired of stirring by hand. It was a fun shopping day. She starts her new job a week from today. Very exciting to be sure.
She got a starting salary of $40,500, so with the $67,000 a year her boyfriend makes, they will be in great shape financially. Her benefits/health insurance won't start until Sept 1st, so I told her I'd pay for her July (still keeping her on ours until Sept 1st, of course) premium and she could reimburse me for August, since she'll have a month and a half of paychecks by then. That's $120. She also has to start reimbursing me for her car insurance, if she wants to stay on our plan, and I just checked on that and it's $43 a month to have her on. That puts my monthly auto insurance down to $73 a month. In my "future" budget, I had budgeted $100, so extra $$. I'm also hoping our auto insurance might even be a bit cheaper where we will be living. Like 4000 people in the whole county compared to 4000 people in a square mile here.....would think that would make rates cheaper, less chance of accident. In addition, I am done having to give her $100 towards her college living expenses, not paying her annual car tabs anymore and various other misc....like the $80 I just spent for her to go for a doctor visit. I'm also cancelling Netflix later this month, when the next month is due. That will be like $10 a month. We still have Amazon Prime to use. The only Netflix original I will really miss having is the show "Longmire".
I haven't quite taken the time to try to estimate our monthly expenses while we are building the home. We'll have monthly interest payments on the construction loan and if we go with our plan to buy a used camper trailer, we won't have any monthly rent payments. We'll have to have the phone service hooked up, so I can get the internet too. We'll see if we can live without satellite tv while "camping" during the building process and just wait and get it when we move into the house. I do have my "after house is done" budget all done up/estimated. I have my net income shown to not include a bonus. Our regular monthly expenses, plus averaging in some annual expenses, total $2323, including budgeting for state income tax. That leaves almost $4000 leftover and I am budgeting making a $2750 a month house payment (to stay on track for paying off by retirement age). That leaves me a $1250 a month "cushion", as well as any bonus I get from work (most likely). I think we'll be ok. Plus, I have a feeling I will be able to make an extra couple hundred a month from my side job, since I'll have a good 7-8 hours a week freed up, not commuting to work, like I do now. I'm pretty sure they'd jump at the chance to get some more work done.
On a good note, DH did finally decided to sell our DR Chipper. We bought it probably 4 years ago (like new) for $1000 (it's like $2400 new). Not that we needed to use it a a lot, but we had several big wind storms over those years and sure made clean up very easy, since we can't burn the stuff. He won't need one, where we are going. He'll be able to burn brush and branches. So he advertised it late Friday night and sold it by Saturday night, for $1100.....but earlier that day, when he pulled it out and went to start it the battery had died, so $84 had to go toward a new battery. Still made $16 on it, when all is said and done. LOL. And one less thing to move to new home. He also has a truck hitch advertised for like $150, but not counting on that selling. He tried to sell it before and no luck.
I had a great weekend spending time with DD. Saturday we went shopping for some new work wardrobe clothes for her. I had told her I planned to give her $200 cash as a graduation gift, so I could either give her that to do with what she wanted or I'd just pay for her clothes that day. She did really well picking stuff out. Got 2 dress slacks, a blazer, a dress, 5 tops, and 2 pair of shoes for $185. For the remaining $15 she bought a hand mixer for baking cookies, etc. She's tired of stirring by hand. It was a fun shopping day. She starts her new job a week from today. Very exciting to be sure.
She got a starting salary of $40,500, so with the $67,000 a year her boyfriend makes, they will be in great shape financially. Her benefits/health insurance won't start until Sept 1st, so I told her I'd pay for her July (still keeping her on ours until Sept 1st, of course) premium and she could reimburse me for August, since she'll have a month and a half of paychecks by then. That's $120. She also has to start reimbursing me for her car insurance, if she wants to stay on our plan, and I just checked on that and it's $43 a month to have her on. That puts my monthly auto insurance down to $73 a month. In my "future" budget, I had budgeted $100, so extra $$. I'm also hoping our auto insurance might even be a bit cheaper where we will be living. Like 4000 people in the whole county compared to 4000 people in a square mile here.....would think that would make rates cheaper, less chance of accident. In addition, I am done having to give her $100 towards her college living expenses, not paying her annual car tabs anymore and various other misc....like the $80 I just spent for her to go for a doctor visit. I'm also cancelling Netflix later this month, when the next month is due. That will be like $10 a month. We still have Amazon Prime to use. The only Netflix original I will really miss having is the show "Longmire".
I haven't quite taken the time to try to estimate our monthly expenses while we are building the home. We'll have monthly interest payments on the construction loan and if we go with our plan to buy a used camper trailer, we won't have any monthly rent payments. We'll have to have the phone service hooked up, so I can get the internet too. We'll see if we can live without satellite tv while "camping" during the building process and just wait and get it when we move into the house. I do have my "after house is done" budget all done up/estimated. I have my net income shown to not include a bonus. Our regular monthly expenses, plus averaging in some annual expenses, total $2323, including budgeting for state income tax. That leaves almost $4000 leftover and I am budgeting making a $2750 a month house payment (to stay on track for paying off by retirement age). That leaves me a $1250 a month "cushion", as well as any bonus I get from work (most likely). I think we'll be ok. Plus, I have a feeling I will be able to make an extra couple hundred a month from my side job, since I'll have a good 7-8 hours a week freed up, not commuting to work, like I do now. I'm pretty sure they'd jump at the chance to get some more work done.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Reverse mortgages
My uncle is considering this option and I'm kind of researching it a bit, as he wanted my and my mom's opinion. It seems like it might be a good plan for him and his situation.
He's 72 and retired and owns a home (not sure of it's value but my guess is around $250-300k). He is not married, nor does he have any children. In essence, no one he feels he needs to leave an inheritance to when he dies. He worked until about 2 years ago and is currently living on social security and a small retirement nestegg.
What are your opinions and do any of you (or your parents) have any experience with this type of loan? It seems like he might as well tap into the equity he has built up the last 20 years or so (when he bought the house) while he is alive and can use and enjoy the money. My mom is his next closest relative and she certainly doesn't need the inheritance when he dies. I really don't see any pitfalls that I can find to him doing this kind of loan. He can live there until he dies or needs to go into assisted living. At which point, the house would be sold and the reverse mortgage loan paid off. If there was any equity left over, that would go to his estate. If for some reason his home value is less than owed, his estate is not liable for it.
Just wondering if there are any cons to this, that I haven't thought of or realized in my researching.
He's 72 and retired and owns a home (not sure of it's value but my guess is around $250-300k). He is not married, nor does he have any children. In essence, no one he feels he needs to leave an inheritance to when he dies. He worked until about 2 years ago and is currently living on social security and a small retirement nestegg.
What are your opinions and do any of you (or your parents) have any experience with this type of loan? It seems like he might as well tap into the equity he has built up the last 20 years or so (when he bought the house) while he is alive and can use and enjoy the money. My mom is his next closest relative and she certainly doesn't need the inheritance when he dies. I really don't see any pitfalls that I can find to him doing this kind of loan. He can live there until he dies or needs to go into assisted living. At which point, the house would be sold and the reverse mortgage loan paid off. If there was any equity left over, that would go to his estate. If for some reason his home value is less than owed, his estate is not liable for it.
Just wondering if there are any cons to this, that I haven't thought of or realized in my researching.
TGIF
I'm so glad it's Friday. For a short work week, it sure didn't feel like it at all. Yesterday at the office was not exactly what I had planned to get done. We had the banker coming in to set up the little remote deposit machine/scanner. Apparently this was her first one to install, so a learning curve for her there. She had to install some software on my computer and of course that didn't quite go as planned, with her written out instructions her IT guy gave her. Then once finally installed, we tried a scan test and it wouldn't connect to the 3rd party program they use. Finally 2 hours later, I grabbed our superman IT guy and he, of course, had it working in like 5 minutes. She was a super nice lady and I felt bad for her frustrations. Plus, I thought she was also going to give me info on how the online banking will link with our accounting software, but she didn't have that info yet, so I'm still waiting on that.
Our buyers, for our house, have decided to forego having a formal inspection done. Works for me! We already gave them a $6,000 allowance and our realtor had told them we weren't giving any more, if they wanted to make more demands after the inspection. It's being sold (and was priced accordingly) as is. Though not much is wrong, it does need a couple windows replaced and the roof is heading near the end of it's life (though DH regularly maintains it with moss control, etc). We did also just spend $1400 to have the crawl space underneath all fixed up and new plastic put down on the ground underneath, as it does still have to have an FHA inspection.
DD will be home this evening and spending the weekend. I'm so excited to have her the whole weekend. Her BF is busy doing some activities this weekend, in the area, so she's just going to stay here and hang out with us and DH can use her help on a few things in the shop. She's getting her neighbor to stop in her apartment a couple times a day and take care of the cat. She has a busy day today though. She has to do her drug test for her new job and the place they are sending her to is like 45 minutes from their office - the other direction from where DD lives. So, she dropped her BF off at work (he works right next door to where she will be working) to save gas, and drove on down to the lab she has to go to. Then I think she will drive all the way back home, take care of some school business and then drive the hour south again to pick up her BF at work this afternoon and then they are going to an after work group early dinner get together with BF's co-workers. Eventually she will make it down here this evening. LOL. She was also told by the HR guy that she talked to that when she gets the offer letter emailed to her (will be emailed by a different HR person) she should be happy to see that the salary is more than they told her. She doesn't have it yet, so not sure how much more, but good news, to be sure. Her new manager also emailed her yesterday, welcoming her to the team.
Black dog is doing better and only puked up that one day (like 4 times). Glad it was nothing serious and no trip to vet needed. Yellow dog finally ate his breakfast this morning. He's been leaving it this week and not eating until dinner time. He's so strange. Such a sensitive neurotic dog! I know he is sensing all our stress. Poor old pooch.
Our buyers, for our house, have decided to forego having a formal inspection done. Works for me! We already gave them a $6,000 allowance and our realtor had told them we weren't giving any more, if they wanted to make more demands after the inspection. It's being sold (and was priced accordingly) as is. Though not much is wrong, it does need a couple windows replaced and the roof is heading near the end of it's life (though DH regularly maintains it with moss control, etc). We did also just spend $1400 to have the crawl space underneath all fixed up and new plastic put down on the ground underneath, as it does still have to have an FHA inspection.
DD will be home this evening and spending the weekend. I'm so excited to have her the whole weekend. Her BF is busy doing some activities this weekend, in the area, so she's just going to stay here and hang out with us and DH can use her help on a few things in the shop. She's getting her neighbor to stop in her apartment a couple times a day and take care of the cat. She has a busy day today though. She has to do her drug test for her new job and the place they are sending her to is like 45 minutes from their office - the other direction from where DD lives. So, she dropped her BF off at work (he works right next door to where she will be working) to save gas, and drove on down to the lab she has to go to. Then I think she will drive all the way back home, take care of some school business and then drive the hour south again to pick up her BF at work this afternoon and then they are going to an after work group early dinner get together with BF's co-workers. Eventually she will make it down here this evening. LOL. She was also told by the HR guy that she talked to that when she gets the offer letter emailed to her (will be emailed by a different HR person) she should be happy to see that the salary is more than they told her. She doesn't have it yet, so not sure how much more, but good news, to be sure. Her new manager also emailed her yesterday, welcoming her to the team.
Black dog is doing better and only puked up that one day (like 4 times). Glad it was nothing serious and no trip to vet needed. Yellow dog finally ate his breakfast this morning. He's been leaving it this week and not eating until dinner time. He's so strange. Such a sensitive neurotic dog! I know he is sensing all our stress. Poor old pooch.
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