Things have been really tight for over a year. Maybe
it was inevitable that at some point there would be a break. It just seems
ironic in my case that it was something that was supposed to help.
The mortgage payment is the biggest payment of
course. They say if you can save 2% interest it is worth refinancing anyway,
and I was there. Plus there were always a lot of ads and offers coming in.
Refinancing seemed like a reasonable thing to do.
I went with Quicken loans. I would say that was my
first mistake, only I really don't know that any of the other companies would
have been better.
In retrospect, my first clue to the size of this
business is the number of employees available at any time to help you unless it
requires actual knowledge. You have a direct extension for your representative,
but if they are not there press 0 for another rep; it does not matter. That
might indicate a low level of specialization, but not nearly as much as how
many times I needed to have the specialists call me.
For example, I currently have my homeowner's
insurance going through my mortgage, which the mortgage companies seem to
prefer, and it's convenient so I don't have a problem with it. They wanted a
slightly higher level of coverage, which I didn't mind, but it led to me
getting new quotes and changing companies. They swore this would not be a
problem.
The insurance was going to switch over September
1st. The appraiser was coming August 31st. Getting the appraisal entered and
finalizing the loan takes at least a couple of business days, so the original
request for a quote on extending the coverage with the old company would have
had no value whatsoever. I thought that made sense, but then I was requested to
call someone, and this was the specialist who deals with difficulties, because
I had refused to get a new quote. To his credit, he did understand exactly what
was going on when I explained it to him, but it seems simple enough that my
specialist not understanding it gave me grave concerns.
There were other things, like insisting on
requesting forms from the IRS first, even though I had them, and then when
their request is refused I need to call the IRS, get it sent to me, and forward
it to the loan company. Ultimately a lot of their policies that are designed to
make things "easier" for the customer fail. Something that I started
in June and was supposed to take two weeks was going into September. I still
might have stuck with it, except for the appraisal process.
The loan Quicken was offering me was an FHA loan. I had
no idea how significant that was.
The Federal Housing Administration has much stricter
requirements for a mortgage. I had one appraiser come out, and we talked about
possible issues. One thing that he was concerned about is we have a converted
garage.
The house was built in 1971, and we moved here in
1978. The garage was converted into a family room some time in between those
two dates. I don't know if there was a permit obtained for that work - I doubt
it - but whether you count that area as a garage or a room counts, and without
the permit there is the potential that you either need to provide the permits
or turn it back into a garage (which apparently would be easy to do, but I
don't want to do that).
He said he would ask his company how she should
report it, and we talked about three other things. There were a few spots where
paint was showing, which is easily covered. There was one area where the dirt
at the side of the house was too close to the wood line. That was easily raked
away. Finally, there was a spot of dry rot on one fascial board on the gable.
I spray painted over the bare spots - which doesn't look
great but technically meets the requirements. I raked back the dirt. I called
for an estimate on replacing the barge rafter, and while it is a simple fix it
is also time consuming. The contractor also told me it was unnecessary because
it's not going to spread and in a few years when the roof is redone it will be
replaced anyway.
Meanwhile, the first appraisal was never completed
because they were being really difficult about the garage, and the appraiser
withdrew his appraisal and told the loan company he couldn't do it lest I get
stuck having to turn the family room back into a garage.
The loan company called a different appraisal
company to set up an appointment with me, but didn't tell me. I got a call to
schedule an appraisal and told them I had just had one done. That led to
another call about why I wasn't cooperating. Once I knew that I needed a second
appraisal I called that company back, but they couldn't schedule me until August
31st. (This is another example of how poor understanding and communication on
the part of the loan company drew things out.)
The second appraiser didn't even notice the barge
rafter, but he didn't like the way the dryer vented, and we needed to change
it. We also needed to scrape, repaint, and clean the area of a board underneath
the sliding door because there was some paint missing.
I was tempted to just spray paint that, but the
explicit instructions made me think that wouldn't work. The dryer vent would
require hiring someone, which I could not afford. (Also, it has literally never
been a problem. We had it checked years ago and it's fine.)
The specific instructions also bother me coming from
this guy who only knew about the half bath because I looked over his notes. He
was so careless in his exploration of the house that he missed it. If we didn't
need to hire someone for the vent, I probably would have dealt with the board,
but with the two completely different outcomes it really made the FHA appraisal
process seem like a joke.
Unfortunately, it's a joke that took three months of
my time, and strung me along in stress and frustration. I believe the stricter
guidelines are a response to the mortgage crisis, but that was caused by people
taking loans for amounts they couldn't cover, not because when a house is 44
years old the paint might have worn off in a few spots.
The mental and emotional toll was bad, but I said it
hurt me financially. That's not because I didn't get the new mortgage, but
because I had to pay $125 for the appraisal. I gave them money that I couldn't
afford to drag me through their idiotic appraisal process, and I have been
financially behind ever since.
Again, that's not saying that there weren't any bad
decisions on my part, but I'd like to refer back to this post:
Let's just remember that Paul Allen defaulted on a
loan because he didn't like the interest rate, which he did not like because he
refused to secure the loan, and somehow mysteriously ended up owning the
property anyway through undisclosed terms.
I wonder how stressful that was for him.
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