I can assure you that they knew exactly what they were doing.

For starters, yoU ought to work with a pre-printed intake form that helps you with the process along with assuring that certain aspects have been covered. 

What assurances are there that they actually presented your offer to the seller or just sat on it?

I can assure you purchasing a home at 2007 did not make sense in most markets. 

Tom assured me that he's pretty much around the house all the time (since he's been laid off over a year) and he's never had a theft problem in the house and nobody steals mail.Turned out that one of the other unemployed guys in the house (not laid off, just living off his father's money) was in his usual spot (watching tv in the living room) when the mail arrived, and he set down my package and proceeded to pile the Sunday paper (which he was reading) on top of it...and then forgot about it thus not telling me.

Nothing is assured.

There have been properties where I wanted to make an offer that he did not think would be money makers and he would talk me off the ledge and assure me that there is a better deal out there.

So call the bank back twice, and they assure me that I am not a co-signor or in any way associated with that account, but instead of just saying, Sorry, we'll fix it right away, they say I must formally dispute it, mail in credit report with full account number (Thankfully, my lender gave it to me as the annual one only lists partial numbers.) and documentation?

While our economy is most assuredly majorly screwed up, I don't think you can blame the existence of postage stamps for that.

This re-assures me in the fact that I am doing the right things.