I need your advice, BP!

[Nick Trimmer]

Hi BP!

I have a story and need some advice please...

My wife and I thought we had a perfect opportunity for our family spotted, and soon under contract.  This is a triplex in the best school district in GA, with all recently renovated units.  The main unit (we planned on occupying) is a 3/2 and is the perfect size for our little family.  The rental units are a 2/1 and a 1/1.  We got the property under contract 4/14 (the day after it was listed), and were set to close 5/14.

We were really excited that our mortgage company told me the asking price is under the FHA limit for a triplex. We would only have to put 3.5% down, get into the best school district in the state and lower our fixed monthly housing expense by $2k per month, with the 2 rental units occupied! Sweet deal, right? Here's where it start to get off track...

4/27 I started a new job.  I'll admit it was not ideal timing, but there are many reasons why it was unavoidable.  I work in Sales, and my new position has a much lower base than my previous position, so I made sure my LO knew as soon as the switch had been made.  His response was "No problem.  We'll just verify employment and it shouldn't be an issue."  I provided my new HR Contact and that was the last I heard about it.  4/13 at 3 PM (the day before closing and 19 days after I told my LO of the job change) I received a frantic call from my LO, his branch manager and the company's SVP.  They told me, "because you changed jobs, this loan can't close, unless you add your wife to the loan".  Our Financing Contingency ended 5/6, so now we are out a $5k Earnest Money deposit (plus the appraisal, survey and inspection, $7500 total) and don't get this great deal unless we act fast.

In short, we provided to income docs for my wife, but our current primary residence is in her name, so that didn't help the DTI much, and we ended up losing the deal. My question is, do I have any recourse against the mortgage company? They knew 9 days before the financing contingency ended, and 19 days before closing of the job change and waited until the day before closing to provide us with options. We still live in a great house, and our oldest is 3 years away from school age, but we lost out on a great deal and $5k in earnest money due to their slow response. Thanks in advance!