Did you wonder what happened to us? Did you all get so engaged with our blog that once you noticed the absence of posts, you couldn’t handle it anymore? Well have no fear, we are here and hopefully not going anywhere for a while.
OK..seriously, I know at some point I’m going to buy another home, but if I could go my entire life and NEVER go through this process again I’d die a happy lady. This SUCKED. We got all excited, and posted and blogged and shared stuff about our house…all to almost lose it. How awful that would have been to basically unpack the half a house we had in boxes, and to know that we would continue to live in our crappy apartment. Note before reading on…we didn’t lose it, and are currently the proud owners of a 3 bed/2 bath in North Oakland. But oy…the process getting there. Eff that noise.
I’m going to speed through this, as I want to remember and also share the nightmare, but the emotional state Mick and I were in for most of the holiday season left little to be desired. Happy holidays to us. Bah. It started on November 18. Three days before we were supposed to close, BofA decided they didn’t want to fund our loan. We had gone through ALL the necessary steps, and something came up in their process, three DAYS before closing…stating that someone attached to the loan was someone they didn’t want to work with. No real explanation. Not anything I did…but a person attached to the loan, not on my side. Needless to say November 18 was a dark day. The race was on to find someone to fund the loan so we wouldn’t lose this house. It’s a short sale…and as everyone knows, they are anything but short, but come with a bunch of contingencies and crap attached.
The same day we get denied…we find another lender…this time staying away from the banks. The first thing that they did was run that person that BofA flagged through multiple databases…and no problem came up. WTF Bank of America? Why you gotta make my life tough for no reason? The past month has been a bunch of anxiety ridden days. Will we make it through THIS underwriter? Will we be able to gather all the documents necessary to move forward (there are A LOT of documents needed)? For every 2 steps we took forward, there was another one back. “Oh, we need the financials from your mother’s brother’s dog’s funeral and need to know where the money came from to fund it.” So much red tape to get through.
Many government agencies called and reasoned with. A lot of scrambling to get through this. Our agent Jessica Behrman was a champ and helped us with this whole process, and we were actually complimented by our mortgage broker though for our due diligence and speed at which we provided this shit. Thanks to me being in front of a computer all day for work I guess, and actually having a sense of urgency. But, I guess the gist of it is…we got the house. We picked up the keys tonight, and stepped foot into our home. OUR home.
Mick actually carried me over the threshold. Second time too, first was after we got married.
Be prepared for many posts, many projects (and there are MANY, trust that), and much excitement.
Stay tuned to Chez What for all the latest updates! PLEASE!!!
Can Haz House?
–Lauren
