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.