Distracted and Distressed!

I'm hoping that after this week, we're over the hump as far as the home buying process goes. Those of you who have done this before may advise me otherwise. But please, if you know things probably will get worse after this point, just keep that to yourselves. I need a day or two with no drama :).

Pete has been banking with Star One Credit Union, who is affiliated with his employer. They are a California bank but he setup his account with them right after he got his job, 5 years ago. It's where the bulk of his savings is. So, logically, he went through them for the pre-approval of our mortgage. And he was pre-approved for the full amount of the mortgage, without even adding my income! So, we thought we were in the clear.

Then, we made an offer on 'the perfect house'. We started going through the next steps of getting the appraisal, etc. and the bank started calling Pete about repairs that they wanted to be done prior to closing. Now, there are a few minor things that we were going to take care of after closing, with a credit the sellers were going to give back to us, but we are not willing to put up money to take care of these things before the house is ours. Things like a torn screen door and superficial cracks in some mortar around a window and the chimney flu being stuck open; all of these little things, Star One demanded that we get repaired by a licensed contractor or they wouldn't finance the loan. That was another issue; Pete had planned to fix these issues himself. All the while, the clock is ticking to get the appraisal done, which they hadn't even started yet.

Star One also had problems with the debt ratio, which is crap. I won't go into too many details there. But trust me, debt is definitely not a problem. We know they were figuring in the ratio after the mortgage payment, taxes and insurance. But after working with a mortgage broker, we found out that Star One was factoring in about 3 times as much for insurance than is average for a home of this size and price.

One thing we did to increase our comfort level was to add my income to the loan application. I went to the branch where our designated loan officer was, to complete the paperwork and give them all of my financial documents. They were complete shits to me! Sorry, mom, or anyone else who might be offended by that statement, but there's really no other more accurate statement. The loan officer Pete had been working with belittled me to the point where I was told I had to explain every detail of my 'situation' including why my employer was located in Illinois, why I'm living in California, how long I lived in WV, down to the fact that Pete and I are applying for a mortgage together even though we are not married. SERIOUSLY?!! Come on, people, this IS California! Same-sex couples finance homes together all the time without being legally married and I bet they didn't deal with half the scrutiny I did. They probably didn't go to this bank and deal with Alex H. either!

One thing I've learned over the years about customer service is this: if you provide excellent customer service, you're not afraid for people to know who you are and be able to contact you or your supervisor if they aren't satisfied. Well, our loan 'asshole' and his direct supervisor, Maricella, neither one would give me last names or business cards so that I could contact them directly. I asked specifically for their cards. Maricella only wrote down on a blank sheet of paper, her first name and email address and Alex would only tell me that he could be reached if I called the bank and asked for 'Alex H.' Nice, huh?!

So, when Pete got home and I told him about my experience, he was livid. I told him that we had to write the bank a letter, from him, stating that he was aware and 'willing' to apply jointly for a mortgage with me. Bullshit, right? Well, he agreed. They treated me like I was a freaking criminal, instead of a prospective customer!

The next day, (yesterday) our realtor started calling Alex, to see where we were in regards to the appraisal. Even though Pete had ordered the appraisal three days prior to this point, Alex said that he hadn't ordered our appraisal because he wasn't sure that we would be approved for the loan. With all of the other road blocks they've put in our way, this time it's credit drama with me. I've successfully recovered from a terrible situation I got myself into almost 10 years ago. But apparently Star One did not want to finance us because my credit score is less than 740. They had other reasons, but Alex was plain out shitty to our realtor and called Pete, leaving an equally disgusting message that we were not approved for the mortgage, either with my income or without. They wouldn't even approve him!! Even after the pre-approval!

Needless to say, Pete will be taking his money and our business elsewhere. After all of that drama, we were pretty strung out because the clock is ticking. We have 17 days in our contract contingency. We're almost a week in. And usually it takes several days to get a mortgage finalized. So, we went to our realtor's office and met with a mortgage broker who works with them. He was great! Tony took our information right there and was able to tell us about any possible issues he saw and found a bank he was sure would approve the mortgage. He said he worked with this particular bank all the time and would work with them to get things moving quickly. So, after almost a week of terrible treatment with Star One, we feel much better after spending 2 hours with our new mortgage broker. No, the rate isn't quite as good as what Pete was 'pre-approved' for, but Tony told us that with all the hassle Star One was putting us through, they probably never intended to finance us at the low rate they pre-approved anyway. Awesome, right?

Now that we're back on track with the mortgage, everything feels much better. But knowing Pete, I'm sure Star One, Maricella A. and Alex H. have not heard the last of us. And, after meeting with Tony, I cried for a few minutes and shook my fists dramatically in the air at Alex H. and Maricella A. Then, I made myself a drink, we watched Superbad and laughed our butts off.

Today is Friday. It's not my normal 'blog updating' day. But I thought this was an appropriate outlet for my frustrations about what we've been through this week. I had an appointment with the DMV to get my registration and driver's license switched over to California yesterday, but had to cancel to go meet with Tony. So, I'm going to try and get that taken care of today, even though I don't have an appointment. Tremendous luck with probably be needed. Either way, I have a backup appointment on July 28.

Hopefully when I update next week, things are still progressing nicely. We're supposed to go to the house over the weekend, or maybe even today, to meet with a contractor to look at some HVAC and wiring 'stuff' we're getting done after closing. At that time, I told Pete, I would be deciding where to place our furniture :). That's always a nice, happy thing to do! I may even take my tape measure!

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend :)

As Always,
Easily Distracted