Friday, November 23, 2007

More news about the mortgage fiasco.

Update: First - I'm super giddy that both the Captain Capitalism, and Infectious Greed guys linked me. I love reading their blogs. Thanks guys!

Second - In the mail today I got a loan confirmation from my lender under the original terms. So, I'm somewhat sure I now have a loan. I also got loan docs from Wells Fargo. Even though I'm positive my agent told me Bank of America took my loan. So maybe I have two loans?

My lender claimed they couldn't sell my loan to anyone for less than 15%, and the only reason Bank of America bought the loan was because my lender called in some favors. If Wells Fargo has also decided to take my loan - it would mean that whole favor thing was bullshit. Surely they wouldn't lie to me. (rolling eyes)


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Today would have been the day I closed on our house.

On Monday things blew out of control to epic proportions. To recap:

Two days before we were to sign papers (last week) my lender called me to say our county had been declared a declining market. I would need to put down 15%, and not the 10% we had both agreed to.

They did everything in their power to try and make me agree to the new terms. I did everything in my power to say no, and get them agree to the terms initially agreed upon.

By Monday it looked like the deal was falling apart. I just wasn't going to pay the extra 5%. Especially when they changed the rules 2 days before I was suppose to sign papers. That seemed like a bait an switch to me. And I told them so.

The other thing that was pissing me off was the amount of time my credit had been run for this house. Seven times!

  • Once by Countrywide to pre-approve me to even start the process;(because this was a Countrywide owned property)
  • Twice by my lender;
  • and four more times by the companies my lender tried to shop my loan to.

I was pissed.

Since they were running my credit steadily for more than a month, rather than over a short amount of time - I told them I thought they were trying to damage my ability to gain credit from other sources. So, if they didn't agree to the terms set out in the good faith agreement they had sent me one day before they changed the rules - I was backing out of the deal.

On Wednesday my real estate agent called to tell me Bank of America agreed to the terms. So, my lender was able to sell my loan to them. I don't know if I believe them. My loan docs are suppose to be in on Monday. But if they do agree to the terms - I managed to get a pretty good deal. A 90/10 loan. 30 year fixed at 6.625 interest on a non owner occupied property. From what I read.. this is not something easy to get. Things could still completely fall apart.

Just to put that in perspective. Countrywide offered me 12% interest. I told them to pound sand.

I still don't know exactly what caused the loan company to move so much. If anyone has any insight, I'd love to hear it.

Honestly - I wish one of these guys who talk about the mortgage market all the time would read this post and weigh in. So I'm gratuitously linking them. A girl can hope... right? Paul Kedrosky and Captain Capitalism.

(More real estate related posts here, here, and here.

12 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of banking where middle aged idiotic men high on themselves and desperate to make money jerk you around.

    I think mortgage brokers are quickly sinking below lawyers and rolling-stop-issuing cops in terms of respect.

    What you did was the right thing in telling them you were pulling out of the deal and letting the market forces of capitalism force the schmutzes to start honoring their commitments. I question whether they can all of the sudden declare your county as a declining market. Matter of fact, they would have to admit that to pretty much every county in the United States.

    Country Wide, 12% what a freaking joke. The largest mortgage broker in the US and they didn't have the talented labor to foresee a housing crash.

    If you have any difficulty finding financing, let me know, I know a couple guys that won't jerk you around. If you know your credit score they can tell you within the ballpark what's the interest rate going to be and not be too far off with the bait and switch.

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  2. Google my name. I'm sure I can answer any questions you have.

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  3. Thanks for your help guys! I think I will wait till Monday to see what happens. I may have questions then.

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  4. Hope things are much less stressy for you soon!

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  5. If you got this deal to go through, you deserve congratulations. In many areas of the country, financing on non-owner occupied property now requires 20% down and carries a rate at least 1% above owner-occupied property.

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  6. Brian Brady said...
    Google my name. I'm sure I can answer any questions you have."

    Google links to: Brian Brady - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...

    Brian Brady (died 10th September 1949) was an Irish politician, born to a prominent pro-republic family in Killybegs, County Donegal

    Uhh...gee thanks.

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  7. Try:

    Brian+Brady+Home+Mortgage

    You'll get several links to contact him. I've followed his work on the net and he seems like a stand up guy.

    But, if you are such a dumbass you can't figure it out....such is life on the net.

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  8. Sounds familiar to me...I renovated my house and am trying to refinance my orignal mortgage ($200,000 in a 30 year fixed at 5.75%) plus $80,000 in renovation costs into a new mortgate ($280,000 in 30 year fixed at 6.125%). Given what the house was appriased for and what the neighbors house sold for (8 days ago), I would have a 25% down payment and my credit score is in the 700's. At this point, Wachovia just won't talk to me and they own my current mortgage, too. Won't tell me why. I think there are some serious, serious problems at Wachovia.

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  9. NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE

    Umm, maybe if you can't obtain funding, it's a blessing in disguise because it means the property is overpriced, since maybe you arent paying a fire sale price with your own cash?

    But maybe not? Who knows... Not enough info in your post to discern anything meaningful other than you whining about some brokers doing their job (i.e.: trying to make as much money as possible off of you).

    It's not shocking that they try to do that...

    One thing is certain, i can't even begin to understand what rabbits robots and sarcasm means!

    NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE

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  10. Just one short comment: how do you call a person that is going to buy a real estate in the fallen market that suppose to be falling for at least the next two years ? ;)
    I'll let you guys find the proper term! :)

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  11. NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE

    Do you call them a knife catcher?

    NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE

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  12. Not sure how I got picked up by a bearish blog. Not only do the fanatical kooks come out - they feel the need to post the same thing several times.

    My only response is - people who claim to be able to time the markets are basically bullshitters.

    Calling the tops and bottoms of markets is a suckers game. You can only get the best deal with all the available information you have at the time.

    BTW - if their job was to make as much money off of me as possible. They lost. I didn't budge, and I got the original terms.

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