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After successfully selling my property in the morning and moving everything out my mortgage company screwed up the documentation for our purchase and we did not close. I'm now officially homeless with a 6 month old.
The mortgage company have been absolutely shocking blaming everyone but themselves. It all started when they fired the guy doing our loan. The person that took it over was trying to screw us from the start. I can only assume internal politics were to blame but it seems unjust for us to suffer as a result. The final problem was that their appraisal valued the house at selling price and then could not prove it. This was because we pay the selling price at closing but all upgrades were paid for before. This means that it's value is more inline with the comparables which puts it 15% above selling. I can't understand why it's a problem though as the LTV ratio is 57% and they are complaining it is worth more than they expected!
They can't give me a date to close now and so I'm stuck 3 hours drive away from my work. The only silver lining being that I was allowed to store my belongings at the new house and the insurance have covered it even though we do not own it.
So cheer me up by letting me know you worst property buying stories.
The mortgage company have been absolutely shocking blaming everyone but themselves. It all started when they fired the guy doing our loan. The person that took it over was trying to screw us from the start. I can only assume internal politics were to blame but it seems unjust for us to suffer as a result. The final problem was that their appraisal valued the house at selling price and then could not prove it. This was because we pay the selling price at closing but all upgrades were paid for before. This means that it's value is more inline with the comparables which puts it 15% above selling. I can't understand why it's a problem though as the LTV ratio is 57% and they are complaining it is worth more than they expected!
They can't give me a date to close now and so I'm stuck 3 hours drive away from my work. The only silver lining being that I was allowed to store my belongings at the new house and the insurance have covered it even though we do not own it.
So cheer me up by letting me know you worst property buying stories.
dickymint said:
Suitable user name you have 
Yes, the irony has not escaped anyone in my family. I'm h0b0 because my last address was in Hoboken NJ where the term Hobo comes from. I'm moving to the town where Thomas Edison invented the light bulb so I may become "Bright spark" but for now h0b0 is appropriate. The whole process has been a nightmare from the beginning and we just hoped it would end. We bought the last place in 2006 and over the 6 years of owning it we lost $100k. And, that's before the 5% estate agent fee.
Foxtons came over with their 2% and bought all the MINIs on the east coast. They failed to take hold of the market and there was a glut of second hand MINIs availible. I think it is 6% in NYC. I hate it and if you negotiate less the estate agents refuse to sell your place. Where I live you list with One agent and they put it on their web site and that's it. They never show the place nothing. Then buying agents will bring their clients round but the know nothing about the property. It was so bad that I ended up printing my own marketing and putting up signs saying "look at the view" as we had feed back that people hadn't noticed the Empire state building or the Chrysler building.
Very frustrating.
Very frustrating.
And here is the update.....
Mortgage company still not happy with the appraisal. The appraiser doesn't know what to write to satisfy them. Mortgage company can not legally talk to appraiser so we are stuck. Then we have 3 different time zones to contend with and I'm still homeless with no date for closing.
Mortgage company still not happy with the appraisal. The appraiser doesn't know what to write to satisfy them. Mortgage company can not legally talk to appraiser so we are stuck. Then we have 3 different time zones to contend with and I'm still homeless with no date for closing.
And here is the house in question
h0b0 said:
I may be opening myself up to the PH taste police here but this is my house........
I have finished the basement so that there is a shower a large room that spans most of the level and a decent sized office. The office is the last 2 windows and the other windows are all one room. The only room that feels too big is the master bedroom. The rest seem reasonable.
I have finished the basement so that there is a shower a large room that spans most of the level and a decent sized office. The office is the last 2 windows and the other windows are all one room. The only room that feels too big is the master bedroom. The rest seem reasonable.
This is getting silly now. The mortgage company have decided to reject both appraisals now. The first was done during construction and the second at the end. How they can't appraise a house when their job is appraiser I don't know. And, due to time zones I have to wait 5 hours before I can even call them.
Rude-boy said:
Suggest formal complaint to the top person and an application with a different lender who isn't a cock.
I have experience with compliance from the pharmaceutical industry and so know all the right trigger words to get action. I sent a strongly worded email (see I still have a sense of humor) to the mortgage company and copied the executives on it. All but one executive bounced but the one that didn't obviously had an impact on the process as everything got escalated to the highest level and I have people working on this to stupid hours. But, for all the work in the world they can not fix stupid and because they can not tell the appraiser what is wrong he has to keep guessing. Because it is compliant it is not as easy as just getting another person in to appraise the property because anything that has been documented has to be justified.
I still think the appraisal has come in 10% below market value and this has been the source of most of our issues. The appraiser said "It is selling at this price so that is the value" and tried to make the comparables fit. The problem is that the sale price does not include upgrades which account for over 10% of the total price and so there are no comparable sales at his appraised value. Once he realised this he changed the appraised value to match the comparables but now the mortgage company want to know why he appears to be pulling numbers out of his arse.
The reason for the substantial upgrade costs is to keep the tax assessed value down. My annual taxs are 3 1/3% of assessed value.
I can't go with another lender because it takes 45 days to get to this point. I am stuck.
This is partially my fault as well. I should have learned from experience that I should not go with this lender. The last place I bought using them I was not married at the time and they dropped me off the paper work on the day of closing. This meant that I was paying 50% for a place that I did not own and was not entitled to through marriage.
OK, I'm in. Well I have been for over a week. The final stretch was straight out of some really stupid film. We tried to close one day and the mortgage company stopped that so had to close the next day. For legal reasons I can't go into full details of what happened but my attorney got his partners involved to get this sorted. It meant that a simple house purchase ended up requiring a team of lawyers.
The house is great but a little big!
The house is great but a little big!
Just stumbled on this thread. Many things have changed.
We sold the house in this thread to the first person to look at it in June this year. A remarkable feat considering the poll tax was $28k/yr.
Second, clearly we didn’t learn from our experience with that house as we ended up mortgaging with them again. They were spectacularly useless again. This time I was more prepared for their version of customer experience and played it to my advantage.
Third, by some weird coincidence, both my wife and I work for the parent of said useless mortgage company.
We loved the last house but the schools were terrible and getting worse. We always knew we had to leave so there was a temporary feeling. The new house has the best schools in the state. And, because it’s officially a renovation the taxes are lower.
Here’s the replacement
We sold the house in this thread to the first person to look at it in June this year. A remarkable feat considering the poll tax was $28k/yr.
Second, clearly we didn’t learn from our experience with that house as we ended up mortgaging with them again. They were spectacularly useless again. This time I was more prepared for their version of customer experience and played it to my advantage.
Third, by some weird coincidence, both my wife and I work for the parent of said useless mortgage company.
We loved the last house but the schools were terrible and getting worse. We always knew we had to leave so there was a temporary feeling. The new house has the best schools in the state. And, because it’s officially a renovation the taxes are lower.
Here’s the replacement
Sheepshanks said:
Is poll tax another name for property tax? How on earth does it get to $28K/yr on what looks like a very typical US 'executive' home? That seems an insane amount.
That’s annual property tax that pays for schools and rubbish collection. The county was one of the highest taxes in the country. I’ve changed county and dropped to $18k/yr. To give you a guide, the first house sold for $775k. The second is just under double that. The 2 houses are only 5 miles apart and both well located. The difference is all about the schools and the way they are funded by the state.
Why are houses built of wood and not brick or stone? We have lots of wood. It’s quicker and easier to build out of. It’s also a lot easier to make thermally efficient.
Why don’t you build out of wood? You don’t have many trees. There’s also a belief it isn’t permanent. That’s true to some extent.
Wood houses offer the space for better insulation. I can’t recall the R values of the insulation but both my houses have been a similar price to heat as my concrete condo that was a third of the size.
This only really applies to modern houses as old wood houses were built with no thought for heating costs as energy was so cheap.
The perception most people have about US houses is far from accurate. There’s a warmth to my house that my old stone house never had.
As for hurricanes, some flex in the house is good for staying up. Also, we build sacrificial ground floors to allow them to blow out. This makes the house less of a wind block and will help it stand. Importantly, there will be a core structure that ties the roof to the foundations. This isn’t unique to wood houses but wouldn’t be present in a UK house where it isn’t necessary.
As some one said earlier in the thread, the US is huge and houses are built to the climate and resources locally.
This only really applies to modern houses as old wood houses were built with no thought for heating costs as energy was so cheap.
The perception most people have about US houses is far from accurate. There’s a warmth to my house that my old stone house never had.
As for hurricanes, some flex in the house is good for staying up. Also, we build sacrificial ground floors to allow them to blow out. This makes the house less of a wind block and will help it stand. Importantly, there will be a core structure that ties the roof to the foundations. This isn’t unique to wood houses but wouldn’t be present in a UK house where it isn’t necessary.
As some one said earlier in the thread, the US is huge and houses are built to the climate and resources locally.
Not sure. Previously they would take maintenance. That’s not so much the case now.
I wouldn’t expect to see the average wood house outlast the average stone house. You can make them last as long as you want, but how long is that? Due to the low cost of construction you can tear down and rebuild to modern standards. Would you have half the 60’s and 70’s houses in the UK if you had the option to replace?
I wouldn’t expect to see the average wood house outlast the average stone house. You can make them last as long as you want, but how long is that? Due to the low cost of construction you can tear down and rebuild to modern standards. Would you have half the 60’s and 70’s houses in the UK if you had the option to replace?
I should say that I have a soft spot for old castles and mansions on the Realestate pron thread. If I had money to burn it would be something with character but I have to be a little more practical.
I think I should step back a little on the discussion. On both the houses I have shown on this thread there is no external wood. The first is 3/4 plastic siding and 1/4 stucco and stone. The wood is internal behind a vapor barrier and wouldn’t need touching unless something else fails. After the wood we have 4-6 inches of insulation.
The second house is hardyplank. It’s a fiber cement hybrid.
The derelict house in one of the pictures was probably wood siding. That probably represents what a house will look like with no maintenance of the wood.
I think I should step back a little on the discussion. On both the houses I have shown on this thread there is no external wood. The first is 3/4 plastic siding and 1/4 stucco and stone. The wood is internal behind a vapor barrier and wouldn’t need touching unless something else fails. After the wood we have 4-6 inches of insulation.
The second house is hardyplank. It’s a fiber cement hybrid.
The derelict house in one of the pictures was probably wood siding. That probably represents what a house will look like with no maintenance of the wood.
sgtBerbatov said:
I asked him whether he expected some sort of acknowledgement email from the search company and he said yes.
I think this is critical to understand when buying or selling a house. The people you rely on are reactive. This may be because they are doing many at the same time but still is frustrating. It means they wait until they receive a letter before progressing to the next step. If there is a break in the chain then all stops and there is no system in place to catch those that have fallen through the gaps. Now I work for the same company as the mortgage came from I can escalate the issue in a meaningful way. A typical member of the public may escalate to the next level manager but there is literally 10 more levels until you get to someone in power. I can drop a message to the top of that chain and get things moving again.
The CEO of the mortgage division also drinks in my local club. Sober me would not dream of approaching him but I can’t say that for “drunk h0b0”. Fortunately, it didn’t get to that point.
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