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I can only imagine how stupid and uninformed I am going to sound when you read this but I really need some advice.....(I know it’s really long, I condensed it as much as I could)
Back in October my husband and I had finally saved enough money to begin looking for our first home. I hesitated as I had credit problems in the past (back in 2002) and have basically avoided credit cards ever since and didn't think we would even qualify for a loan. We were advised by a real estate attorney (friend of the family that my husband did some work for free of charge who is handling our closing in exchange) that we may very well qualify for a FHA loan and put us in touch with a mortgage broker. He came highly recommended by our attorney, let’s call him Bob, so I had no reason to doubt anything Mortgage guy, let's call him Rick.
Rick told me he saw no reason he couldn't get us a loan from his company, which is an actual bank who lends money. I gave him all of our information, faxed him copies of our past 2 years W2s, told him how much money we had saved and had him run our credit. After reviewing everything, Rick called to say that while my FICO score was about 600, my husband had no credit. Since he had recently changed jobs and my employment record was more substantial (10 years), he said he would be running everything with just me on the mortgage. He in turn provided me with a pre-approval letter stating I qualified for a 350k mortgage (he told me I qualified for more, but told him I did not feel comfortable spending any more than 300-350k). With letter in hand, we happily began looking for our new home!
Right after Thanksgiving I contacted Rick regarding a house we fell in love with gave him our offer price and tax information and inquired about such things as mortgage payments and closing costs. He REAPEATLY told me that since we came as a personal referral from Bob, he was waiving his commission and we were looking at, depending on Bob's fees (Bob owns a titling company and was handling that end), approximately 8k in closing costs on a $285k purchase price. The property we offered on was a short sale and having diligently done my research I knew we may very well be in for a long wait. We met with Bob, signed the sale contract, gave a 2k earnest money deposit and waited to hear from the seller’s bank. While at Bob's office he reassured us that Rick was a very old friend and would help us through this complicated process.
2 weeks later (12/17 to be precise) Rick calls me telling me he really wanted me to "lock in" as rates are down to 5.5% with no points and he doesn't think they would get any lower. I hesitated only because I knew we could be looking at a long wait, being it was a short sale, and didn't know if/when we would get an approval from the bank. Our buyers agent called, while I was on the phone with Rick, I explained my predicament, she told me to go for it as she felt we would be hearing before Christmas from the bank. I agreed to lock in at 5.5% with no points. 2 hours later our realtor called to say the bank accepted our offer and we could officially move forward!!!! I called Bob and informed him we had approval, then called Rick to confirm all the information we had discussed earlier in the day.
Then the roller coaster began. The next 2 weeks, Rick seemed to have trouble returning phone calls. I started to worry something was wrong. When I did get him on the phone, he reassured me not to worry he was "getting this done for me" and that "Bob is a good friend and you are a personal referral". The last "good" conversation I had with him was on New Years Eve. He reassured me the hold up on a loan commitment was the holidays and that we would be ready to close no later than the 2nd week in January.
The real problems began 1/5. Rick called to say underwriting found a problem with my credit. An old student loan issue that underwriting thought was a federal loan (it wasn't, it was a private loan, part of my old bad credit problems) I explained to Rick I had told him about this in October and provided him with as many documents as I could find in reference to the loan. We went through a week of you have the loan/you don't have the loan. I was a mess! I had already begun packing and had sent a letter to our landlord informing him of our intent on moving out. When I questioned finding homeowners insurance, Rick advised me NOT to let ANYONE run my credit as he did NOT want my FICO score going anywhere until he got my loan approved as it was presently at 595 (really it was about 600 before we started). Monday I received a call from Rick telling me he would have approval from underwriting by the next day! Things were looking up! I contacted Bob, who I had developed a very good rapport with, and discussed possible closing dates and asked about closing cost.
Tuesday morning I received an estimate from Bob saying costs would be aprox. 7400 give or take, he was waiting on some numbers from Rick. An hour later Rick calls telling me the wonderful news, he had my file on his desk and it was approved! He told me he was sending me a bunch of paperwork I needed to sign and send back to him. He said “don’t worry about the numbers on there, I am still working with Bob to get them correct, just sign it where I indicated and send it back” Not knowing much, I said sure and hung up. About a half hour later I received 1st and email from Bob with the revised numbers and then and email from Rick with an attached 41 page .pdf file. The revised numbers from Bob where now over 30k!!!!!! I called him to ask WTF had happened. He told me Rick had provided updated info and I went over it with him. Seems I was now paying all kinds of money that I was told I wouldn’t have to pay, including 1 point for loan origination, 3 loan discount points, and over 1k for underwriting. I called Rick to ask him WTF happened, he started throwing around a bunch of terms I didn’t understand and told me I should call Bob and find out why his numbers where so high, since he had kept his numbers under what I told him I had available in funds to close. At this point I explained that after all these closing costs, I no longer had any money for the rest of my down payment and just didn’t know how I could afford this. Rick got agitated, told me he couldn’t start writing the loan if I wasn’t going to sign the papers and he would be putting everything on hold and hung up. I called Bob back and told him I couldn’t afford this and was told since I technically had a mortgage commitment, if I backed out now I would lose my earnest money deposit.
Being upset and confused I called the only person I felt I could still trust, my realtor. I forwarded all of the paperwork to her and begged for help. (here’s where I come off as a real dumb person) My angel of a realtor looked over all the paperwork and told me she would get back to me. She put me in touch with another mortgage broker and assured me that, while she couldn’t guarantee this woman could get me a mortgage, at least she would be honest. I forwarded all the paperwork to her and began doing some (very late in the game) research. The new mortgage lady took all my info, but hesitated to run my credit since it could make my scores go down. I told her it no longer mattered as I couldn’t afford Rick’s loan and if she couldn’t help me I was out 2k, plus appraisal and inspection costs. Turns out Rick has run my credit about 12 times in the past month, my FICO score is now at exactly 580. She pointed out multiple banking violations on Rick’s part just based on his own paperwork. See, Rick never gave me any paperwork until this past Tuesday. My loan application was taken and processed on 12/19. I never received my “rate lock” in writing.
After looking into this, I now realize how stupid I was to trust this moron. Bob keeps telling me just to wait and see and has gone ahead (without consulting me) and gotten permission for a 3% seller’s concession to cover some of the closing costs, effectively increasing my mortgage and my monthly payments. I have told him about Rick’s multiple violations, numbers that don’t add up on the paperwork he sent me, the fact that I was sent all at once as a 41 page document the following papers in this order, first, loan application, then, good faith estimate, then mortgage commitment letter, truth in lending statement, a bunch of HUD paperwork I don’t really understand, and last but not least the companies “NY pre-application disclosure for mortgage lenders” Had I received any of this prior I would have run screaming for the hills as it states that they can charge me as much as 5% in fees for a loan! I also asked how ethical it was for Rick to tell me to disregard the numbers on this paperwork and just sign it anyway. Bob, my attorney, still feels I have a mortgage commitment and if I can’t get another I have 2 choices, close the loan with Rick (really, I don’t know how, his freakin paperwork states I am short funds to close) or forfeit my deposit on the house.
Am I losing my mind? Can a mortgage broker really put you in this position, agree to a loan I am livid over or lose my deposit? Do I have any recourse? Besides the lack of ethics involved (and my own stupidity) can I report this and to who? Any advice would be appreciated. I have been in touch with my realtor, who has been wonderful through all of this, but I feel she is hesitating to be 100% honest about my lawyer’s possible negligence in all of this since she knows he is a friend of the family.
Last edited by kkss1419; 01-16-2009 at 10:07 PM..
Reason: Advised to break up in to paragraphs to make it more readable
You should probably break that up into about four or five paragraphs to make it more readable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kkss1419
I can only imagine how stupid and uninformed I am going to sound when you read this but I really need some advice.....(I know it’s really long, I condensed it as much as I could)
Back in October my husband and I had finally saved enough money to begin looking for our first home. I hesitated as I had credit problems in the past (back in 2002) and have basically avoided credit cards ever since and didn't think we would even qualify for a loan. We were advised by a real estate attorney (friend of the family that my husband did some work for free of charge who is handling our closing in exchange) that we may very well qualify for a FHA loan and put us in touch with a mortgage broker. He came highly recommended by our attorney, let’s call him Bob, so I had no reason to doubt anything Mortgage guy, let's call him Rick, said. Rick told me he saw no reason he couldn't get us a loan from his company, which is an actual bank who lends money. I gave him all of our information, faxed him copies of our past 2 years W2s, told him how much money we had saved and had him run our credit. After reviewing everything, Rick called to say that while my FICO score was about 600, my husband had no credit. Since he had recently changed jobs and my employment record was more substantial (10 years), he said he would be running everything with just me on the mortgage. He in turn provided me with a pre-approval letter stating I qualified for a 350k mortgage (he told me I qualified for more, but told him I did not feel comfortable spending any more than 300-350k). With letter in hand, we happily began looking for our new home! Right after Thanksgiving I contacted Rick regarding a house we fell in love with gave him our offer price and tax information and inquired about such things as mortgage payments and closing costs. He REAPEATLY told me that since we came as a personal referral from Bob, he was waiving his commission and we were looking at, depending on Bob's fees (Bob owns a titling company and was handling that end), approximately 8k in closing costs on a $285k purchase price. With fingers crossed we submitted our offer. The property we offered on was a short sale and having diligently done my research I knew we may very well be in for a long wait. We met with Bob, signed the sale contract, gave a 2k earnest money deposit and waited to hear from the seller’s bank. While at Bob's office he reassured us that Rick was a very old friend and would help us through this complicated process. 2 weeks later (12/17 to be precise) Rick calls me telling me he really wanted me to "lock in" as rates are down to 5.5% with no points and he doesn't think they would get any lower. I hesitated only because I knew we could be looking at a long wait, being it was a short sale, and didn't know if/when we would get an approval from the bank. Our buyers agent called, while I was on the phone with Rick, I explained my predicament, she told me to go for it as she felt we would be hearing before Christmas from the bank. I agreed to lock in at 5.5% with no points. 2 hours later our realtor called to say the bank accepted our offer and we could officially move forward!!!! I called Bob and informed him we had approval, then called Rick to confirm all the information we had discussed earlier in the day. Then the roller coaster began. The next 2 weeks, Rick seemed to have trouble returning phone calls. I started to worry something was wrong. When I did get him on the phone, he reassured me not to worry he was "getting this done for me" and that "Bob is a good friend and you are a personal referral". The last "good" conversation I had with him was on New Years Eve. He reassured me the hold up on a loan commitment was the holidays and that we would be ready to close no later than the 2nd week in January. The real problems began 1/5. Rick called to say underwriting found a problem with my credit. An old student loan issue that underwriting thought was a federal loan (it wasn't, it was a private loan, part of my old bad credit problems) I explained to Rick I had told him about this in October and provided him with as many documents as I could find in reference to the loan. We went through a week of you have the loan/you don't have the loan. I was a mess! I had already begun packing and had sent a letter to our landlord informing him of our intent on moving out. When I questioned finding homeowners insurance, Rick advised me NOT to let ANYONE run my credit as he did NOT want my FICO score going anywhere until he got my loan approved as it was presently at 595 (really it was about 600 before we started). Monday I received a call from Rick telling me he would have approval from underwriting by the next day! Things were looking up! I contacted Bob, who I had developed a very good rapport with, and discussed possible closing dates and asked about closing cost. Tuesday morning I received an estimate from Bob saying costs would be aprox. 7400 give or take, he was waiting on some numbers from Rick. An hour later Rick calls telling me the wonderful news, he had my file on his desk and it was approved! He told me he was sending me a bunch of paperwork I needed to sign and send back to him. He said “don’t worry about the numbers on there, I am still working with Bob to get them correct, just sign it where I indicated and send it back” Not knowing much, I said sure and hung up. About a half hour later I received 1st and email from Bob with the revised numbers and then and email from Rick with an attached 41 page .pdf file. The revised numbers from Bob where now over 30k!!!!!! I called him to ask WTF had happened. He told me Rick had provided updated info and I went over it with him. Seems I was now paying all kinds of money that I was told I wouldn’t have to pay, including 1 point for loan origination, 3 loan discount points, and over 1k for underwriting. I called Rick to ask him WTF happened, he started throwing around a bunch of terms I didn’t understand and told me I should call Bob and find out why his numbers where so high, since he had kept his numbers under what I told him I had available in funds to close. At this point I explained that after all these closing costs, I no longer had any money for the rest of my down payment and just didn’t know how I could afford this. Rick got agitated, told me he couldn’t start writing the loan if I wasn’t going to sign the papers and he would be putting everything on hold and hung up. I called Bob back and told him I couldn’t afford this and was told since I technically had a mortgage commitment, if I backed out now I would lose my earnest money deposit. Being upset and confused I called the only person I felt I could still trust, my realtor. I forwarded all of the paperwork to her and begged for help. (here’s where I come off as a real dumb person) My angel of a realtor looked over all the paperwork and told me she would get back to me. She put me in touch with another mortgage broker and assured me that, while she couldn’t guarantee this woman could get me a mortgage, at least she would be honest. I forwarded all the paperwork to her and began doing some (very late in the game) research. The new mortgage lady took all my info, but hesitated to run my credit since it could make my scores go down. I told her it no longer mattered as I couldn’t afford Rick’s loan and if she couldn’t help me I was out 2k, plus appraisal and inspection costs. Turns out Rick has run my credit about 12 times in the past month, my FICO score is now at exactly 580. She pointed out multiple banking violations on Rick’s part just based on his own paperwork. See, Rick never gave me any paperwork until this past Tuesday. My loan application was taken and processed on 12/19. I never received my “rate lock” in writing. After looking into this, I now realize how stupid I was to trust this moron. Bob keeps telling me just to wait and see and has gone ahead (without consulting me) and gotten permission for a 3% seller’s concession to cover some of the closing costs, effectively increasing my mortgage and my monthly payments. I have told him about Rick’s multiple violations, numbers that don’t add up on the paperwork he sent me, the fact that I was sent all at once as a 41 page document the following papers in this order, first, loan application, then, good faith estimate, then mortgage commitment letter, truth in lending statement, a bunch of HUD paperwork I don’t really understand, and last but not least the companies “NY pre-application disclosure for mortgage lenders” Had I received any of this prior I would have run screaming for the hills as it states that they can charge me as much as 5% in fees for a loan! I also asked how ethical it was for Rick to tell me to disregard the numbers on this paperwork and just sign it anyway. Bob, my attorney, still feels I have a mortgage commitment and if I can’t get another I have 2 choices, close the loan with Rick (really, I don’t know how, his freakin paperwork states I am short funds to close) or forfeit my deposit on the house. Am I losing my mind? Can a mortgage broker really put you in this position, agree to a loan I am livid over or lose my deposit? Do I have any recourse? Besides the lack of ethics involved (and my own stupidity) can I report this and to who? Any advice would be appreciated. I have been in touch with my realtor, who has been wonderful through all of this, but I feel she is hesitating to be 100% honest about my lawyer’s possible negligence in all of this since she knows he is a friend of the family.
Story is unnecessarily long. The short version is "loan guy was not honest". This is probably something that happens too often. You can report them to the state office his firm has license with, that won't change the fact that you may not be able to get the loan you need to close on the property that you put a deposit on. You should get a new lawyer if your current lawyer things that a loan that leaves you with more fees, closing costs, and rate than you can afford -- basically this is situation where you have been "unable to secure financing" and you should get your deposit back.
You might make a last ditch effort to secure financing, but that depends on where you are both in terms of physically (if RE in your area is dropping you might get a better deal by waiting...) AND financially (what is our debt-to-income ration? why is your FICO so low? does renting make more sense for you?) AND emotionally (you are going to have a hard time but your faith and fate in yet ANOTHER loan originator...)
Really bad situation. What kind of goof ball tries to rake somebody who has bad credit and is buying a place to live in? Makes me sick.
You will likely want to find out the brokers license, since they are supposed to have (or be associated with a firm) that has a state license. Also, $8k in closing costs seems very high (though it depends on how many days interest that is including). They should only run your credit once. You FICO score is really not high enough to get the best loan, but if you don't want to lose the purchase, then get an extension for closing and get the other mortgage.
This is probably why many people say, don't do business with family and friends.
Story is unnecessarily long. The short version is "loan guy was not honest". This is probably something that happens too often. You can report them to the state office his firm has license with, that won't change the fact that you may not be able to get the loan you need to close on the property that you put a deposit on. You should get a new lawyer if your current lawyer things that a loan that leaves you with more fees, closing costs, and rate than you can afford -- basically this is situation where you have been "unable to secure financing" and you should get your deposit back.
You might make a last ditch effort to secure financing, but that depends on where you are both in terms of physically (if RE in your area is dropping you might get a better deal by waiting...) AND financially (what is our debt-to-income ration? why is your FICO so low? does renting make more sense for you?) AND emotionally (you are going to have a hard time but your faith and fate in yet ANOTHER loan originator...)
Really bad situation. What kind of goof ball tries to rake somebody who has bad credit and is buying a place to live in? Makes me sick.
Sorry, I really did try to keep it short, I am just so beyond confused, I didn't even know what was relevant. Honestly we are getting a very good deal on the house, it appraised at close to 50k higher than purchase price. My FICO score is low due to previous bad credit and current lack of credit. Debt-to-income ratio is excellent as per sleazy mortgage guy and current mortgage person I have been talking to (seems that is the one thing we have going for us) Renting is becoming more of a financial liability, we are renting a full house (only $200 less than we thought we were looking at for mortgage payments), paying all utilities and maintenance (some reimbursed) but do not have any of the tax breaks associated with owning. With our increasing income we are starting to get hit hard in taxes. Honestly we thought we were doing everything right. I found and hired a wonderful buyers agent, spent alot of time deciding what the most we would be comfortable paying monthly and developed a rapport with our attorney. Sleazy mortgage guy’s paperwork states the Mortgage payment-to-income is 36.1% and total fixed payment-to income is also 36.1% (no credit cards, no car loans) and that was only on my income. My husband’s was excluded from the mortgage. We have done the "hail mary" in one last attempt to get financing, but emotionally, I just want it all over, but don't want to lose our deposit. It would be a very expensive lesson in naivety
You will likely want to find out the brokers license, since they are supposed to have (or be associated with a firm) that has a state license. Also, $8k in closing costs seems very high (though it depends on how many days interest that is including). They should only run your credit once. You FICO score is really not high enough to get the best loan, but if you don't want to lose the purchase, then get an extension for closing and get the other mortgage.
This is probably why many people say, don't do business with family and friends.
I should probably have mentioned I am in NY, Long Island to be precise, and 8k was a great deal. Closing cost generally run 10-15k around here, but I KNOW over 30k was beyond compression based on purchase price. How would I go about getting his brokers license? He works for a (in the words of the company) "BLANK Mortgage is a national mortgage bank that funds over $2.5 billion in residential, commercial and construction mortgages annually." Should I be looking for another attorney to help me with this?
My situation is much different than yours, but here's what I have to say:
1. It's time to break ties with everyone involved, except perhaps your agent, with whom you have likely signed a contract such that trying to purchase a home without her would cause a breach of contract. The attorney fees should cost you $500. I wouldn't trust any attorney, regardless of how friendly they were, if they sent you to a guy like that.
Reading your message gives me the sense that you're uncomfortable with numbers, and therefore, you feel like you can't "ask the right questions," or you have your questions easily brushed aside with some intentionally intimidating "mumbo-jumbo" that you can't understand. If that's the case, you need to either find a friend that can review it with you honestly (not the lawyer), or find a broker or bank that will speak to you in honest terms.
2. I agree that your inability to get financing is covered in your "offer to purchase" contract. Regardless of "how good the deal is" on the purchase of the home, if you can't get financing, it's a non-starter, and the earnest money is returned. What does your contract specifically say about this?
3. No one pays 3 discount points, regardless of credit. Folks that have enough cash to pay an additional 3% to buy down the rate are likely to have extra cash to simply lessen the amount borrowed to begin with (which is generally the better thing to do).
4. Your closing costs are too high, unless you are forced to escrow a large property tax bill, insurance, and fork over a large amount of prepaid interest. What does your GFE say in detail?
5. What exactly is your credit problem? Have you checked your FICO score yourself? It will cost you about $9 to do so if you do it as an extension of the free annual credit report you can obtain from Equifax. Start at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp, which is the government backed website (not a corporate site). You can choose from one of the major three bureaus or use all three separately. You can get each report once every twelve months for free. If you specifically choose Equifax, they will give you the option of purchasing your FICO score ("Score Power") for about $9. It costs $15.95 on their website if you go there directly (thus the government link is better). The score will detail the primary negative and positive factors. Of note, the credit bureaus should not penalize you if multiple mortgage brokerages or banks make inquiries into your credit within a small time period. The bureaus understand that this is "loan shopping." If a single lender has been checking your credit in an unauthorized way such that it has negatively affected your credit, then you can appeal directly to the credit agencies themselves. You will need to see your credit reports to determine if this is true.
6. What are your financial specifics? i.e. your income, husband's reliable annual income, existing debts, existing assets, proposed purchase price, proposed down payment and loan amount?
7. Renting isn't nearly the bad deal that most people think and home ownership isn't as great a deal as most people suggest. The housing market isn't going up anytime soon, and when it stabilizes, it won't have nearly the upward slope of the early part of this decade. Thus, there's really no financial rush, just an emotional one. You ought to step back, and re-evaluate what you can truly afford. It sounds as though you're trying to push yourself into something before your credit and financial situation would otherwise comfortably allow it. Regarding your rental, you should not be forced to pay for home repairs to the house in which you're living. That sounds unusual. You may be best served by spending a few months working on improving your credit (but you need to know where the major holes are). If you had a delinquent account in 2002, but nothing since, that account should expire in 2009 (exactly seven years from date of delinquency). That would boost your credit tremendously. While such "collection" debts have less affect on your credit score as they age (meaning one debt will have a greater effect if it is only 1 year old as opposed to 6 years old), ANY debt will have a relatively larger effect when your credit score is low (like yours).
Closing costs jumping from $7400 to $30000 just doesn't make sense. You mention you had past credit problems including an "old student loan issue" and a husband with a zero credit score. How much of the increase in closing costs relates to those "past credit problems"? Every once in a while I've run across folks who "forgot" or "overlooked" old judgments and other liabilities which have to be paid prior to closing. Did any of that come into play here? It doesn't forgive your mortgage broker - he should have caught those items in a credit search - but it could be a major part of the problem.
1. It's time to break ties with everyone involved, except perhaps your agent, with whom you have likely signed a contract such that trying to purchase a home without her would cause a breach of contract. The attorney fees should cost you $500. I wouldn't trust any attorney, regardless of how friendly they were, if they sent you to a guy like that.
I was wondering if I should get rid of the attorney, as far as paying them, my husband did work for them (set up a server and network) and the agreement was they were not getting any money.
Reading your message gives me the sense that you're uncomfortable with numbers, and therefore, you feel like you can't "ask the right questions," or you have your questions easily brushed aside with some intentionally intimidating "mumbo-jumbo" that you can't understand. If that's the case, you need to either find a friend that can review it with you honestly (not the lawyer), or find a broker or bank that will speak to you in honest terms.
Not so much uncomfortable with numbers, just too trusting I guess. I believed the almost 3 months worth of bull spewed at me by sleezy mortgage guy and was more in shock than anything elses. I did have my realtor and ultimately the new mortgage borker I am working with review everything
2. I agree that your inability to get financing is covered in your "offer to purchase" contract. Regardless of "how good the deal is" on the purchase of the home, if you can't get financing, it's a non-starter, and the earnest money is returned. What does your contract specifically say about this?
So the fact that sleazy mortgage guy gave me a "mortgage commitment" doesn't negate the finance clause?
3. No one pays 3 discount points, regardless of credit. Folks that have enough cash to pay an additional 3% to buy down the rate are likely to have extra cash to simply lessen the amount borrowed to begin with (which is generally the better thing to do).
Why should I have to buy down the rate when I was "locked in" at 5.5 with no points.....
4. Your closing costs are too high, unless you are forced to escrow a large property tax bill, insurance, and fork over a large amount of prepaid interest. What does your GFE say in detail?
Property taxes are not huge for LI, escrow was 3900, plus 300 for homeowners. The 2 biggest items on my GFE were 4800 for upfront PMI, which was being added to the loan and the over 5 points I was being charged by the mortgage guy.
5. What exactly is your credit problem? Have you checked your FICO score yourself? It will cost you about $9 to do so if you do it as an extension of the free annual credit report you can obtain from Equifax. Start at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp, which is the government backed website (not a corporate site). You can choose from one of the major three bureaus or use all three separately. You can get each report once every twelve months for free. If you specifically choose Equifax, they will give you the option of purchasing your FICO score ("Score Power") for about $9. It costs $15.95 on their website if you go there directly (thus the government link is better). The score will detail the primary negative and positive factors. Of note, the credit bureaus should not penalize you if multiple mortgage brokerages or banks make inquiries into your credit within a small time period. The bureaus understand that this is "loan shopping." If a single lender has been checking your credit in an unauthorized way such that it has negatively affected your credit, then you can appeal directly to the credit agencies themselves. You will need to see your credit reports to determine if this is true.
I have been afraid to run my credit because I was told running it would make my FICO score go down. If the other mortgage person I am working with does not come through, this will be the first thing I do.
6. What are your financial specifics? i.e. your income, husband's reliable annual income, existing debts, existing assets, proposed purchase price, proposed down payment and loan amount?
As for numbers, our combined income (not including my husband's commissions and side work or my overtime) is just over 150k. We have no existing debt (no car loans, no credit cards). Existing assets would I guess be the money we have saved which is aprox. 30k. Proposed purchase price was 285k. Down payment was to be at least 10k loan amount (with added up front PMI) aprox. 279k.
7. Renting isn't nearly the bad deal that most people think and home ownership isn't as great a deal as most people suggest. The housing market isn't going up anytime soon, and when it stabilizes, it won't have nearly the upward slope of the early part of this decade. Thus, there's really no financial rush, just an emotional one. You ought to step back, and re-evaluate what you can truly afford. It sounds as though you're trying to push yourself into something before your credit and financial situation would otherwise comfortably allow it. Regarding your rental, you should not be forced to pay for home repairs to the house in which you're living. That sounds unusual. You may be best served by spending a few months working on improving your credit (but you need to know where the major holes are). If you had a delinquent account in 2002, but nothing since, that account should expire in 2009 (exactly seven years from date of delinquency). That would boost your credit tremendously. While such "collection" debts have less affect on your credit score as they age (meaning one debt will have a greater effect if it is only 1 year old as opposed to 6 years old), ANY debt will have a relatively larger effect when your credit score is low (like yours).
Maintenance on the home we are required to pay is maintaining a contract on the oil burner and caring for the lawn/garden. We have on more than one occasion had to lay out money for such things as electricians and plumbers. We received the money back, but my point was it was never a financial burden to lay the cash it in the first place.
My credit, I had multiple delinquent accounts in 2002 including a loan to SLM financial (aka Sallie Mae). I was young and a single mother who thought my new credit cards were really cool. Then the real world hit, my parents divorced and I had to move out and pay rent. Credit card debt and student load took a back seat. Took me until 2004 to pay the credit cards off (a little under 8k in debt) and until this year to pay SLM off but it is ALL PAID. The only recent item on my report was a flaky thing, I took my cat to the vet and in the confusion of leaving (I was told he was dying) I forgot to pay when I left. Three weeks later I moved in with my now husband and the vet couldn’t get a hold of me. They put a collection on my credit report. I paid it about a year ago as soon as I found out I owed the money, I knew nothing about it being on my report until sleazy mortgage guy pointed it out.
We are going to take some time and regroup if this last ditch effort to get financing doesn't come through. The whole thing has been such a nightmare, I just want my life back to normal. I have informed our landlord we are most likely not moving (much to his delight) I just want to get our 2k deposit back and move on. Spend the next few months combing over our credit reports, fixing everything possibly, getting hubby a secured credit card so he can at least have a FICO score and then maybe in the summer start looking again.
Last edited by kkss1419; 01-17-2009 at 09:12 AM..
Reason: typo
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Overly harsh criticism, but need more info
