Well, the long story and roller coaster ride ended Monday. After 2 1/2 months and 2 postponements by the Credit Union and multiple requests for 'more documents' (that they already had) they denied the loan after doing an audit of the appraisal. I feel like our loan officer was 'learning' at our expense. First it was postponed because the appraiser was so busy it could not be done in time (understandable, I heard they'd been really busy and backed up). Then the day before we were supposed to close they said or realized I had filed a schedule C last year and they needed to get transcripts from the IRS which could take up to 10 days They'd had my tax returns for at least 2 more like 3 weeks, then asked me to send them again, made me wonder if or when they actually looked at the return.
A week before the latest closing date they came up with two items that needed correcting before they would give us the loan, put a railing in a spot on the deck that was missing, about 6 - 8 feet or railing and some electrical wires that were exposed when the previous owner took light fixtures. Easy fixes right? Well the lender wouldn't allow us to close and the seller 'prohibited' me from dong the repairs and they wouldn't, remember it was a bank and sold it 'as is'. We finally talked the lender into escrowing some money for those repairs, that's when the underwriter did the audit of the appraisal.
They would have to have a mold test done because the basement was damp and also a structural engineer to certify the foundation was ok, so they turned the loan down because of 'not enough collateral'. It was tight money wise so I didn't have much room in reserves. Then we had to fight to get our earnest money back but the bank(seller) finally signed off. That wasn't a given because they were selling it 'as is' and the only financing contingency was if the lender turned us down. Our Realtor did a spectacular job even though her commission due to it being an auction property would have been small. As it turned out, she will get nothing and even after the lender turned the loan down she went to bat for us with the seller writing a great email that I am sure got us the earnest money back.
With that I'd still like to give her something, even though I will be using her in the future, there's no guarantee. Any thoughts on that? are they prohibited from accepting gifts like over $25?
After a short break on to looking for another property! THIS WILL HAPPEN!
