[We did NOT buy a house, thank the gods. We decided to rent and I thank my lucky stars EVERY DAY that we did. Fuck home ownership. It is a neverending black hole for your money. We’ll never go through this shit again. HAPPY RENTERS!! – Jan 28 2017]
I like our Realtor, I do, but in general, all the people involved in the buying and selling of real estate bug the shit out of me.
It’s partly because I grew up with a Realtor/builder father, I suppose. He would RAIL about the dumbasses he had to deal with. I never really believed him until I bought my first house and am now looking at another. The mortgage industries are run by squirrels, I tell you: SQUIRRELS. And they’ve ALL lost their nuts.
After the debacle with the agent (NOT a Realtor©) that sold us this house, I was prepared for more of the same: ignorance, bad leads, blocking the sale, etc. Luckily for me, I found the best Realtor© in Atlanta. TOOOOTALLY different experience. Beth is awesome and we couldn’t have done this deal without her. When I showed up at her house to drop off the earnest check, she took one look at my stressed out self and poured me wine. THAT is someone who gets me! LOL
The mortgage people, on the other hand, are so clueless that you spend all your time trying to figure out what, exactly, it is that they want you to do. The processor (not the originator, who is OK) we’re dealing with can’t read bank statements, apparently. It has been a frustrating and unpleasant experience with the mortgage. Not unexpected, but much worse than anticipated.
For instance, we were given several docs to fill out and sign for the mortgage company. Our mortgage officer is awesome and she feels the industry is ridiculous like I do. So one doc is called the “Consumer Explanation Letter”. This is a document listing the bankruptcy (and I guess other judgements against you if you have them) and the associated accounts affected by the bankruptcy – such as the mortgage. What they want you to do is give them a one sentence explanation of WHY you filed bankruptcy. Like it’s any of their goddam business. So for us, I totally blame Bank of America, who closed all our open credit and lowered our cards so as to completely shut us down and ruin our credit without provocation. It’s not like we missed payments, we did not. So that’s what we put. Fuck BoA and fuck the mortgage industry [we did not add that last sentence, although it is implied].
The mortgage people also cannot understand how a credit union works. With a CU, unlike a bank, the account will have only one name on it, even if it’s a joint account. The reason is that CUs have members who are shareholders, not clients, and each account is ONE SHARE. So you can’t have two names on one share. Makes sense, right? Well, not apparently to the mortgage industry. Nope, they are completely confused by this and want all this extra documentation proving that a) it’s really a joint account and b) I won’t take all the money out and run away with it. ?? I shit you not. Because if you don’t use a goddam BANK like god intended, then you are a communist criminal.
Fuck the banking system and fuck the mortgage system. Neither has changed one single iota since ruining the economy AND getting TRILLIONS in bailout money. They are still showing record profits and now they can treat borrowers EVEN WORSE than they did before in the name of “trying to make loans more secure.” Read: “trying to make sure we make as much money as possible off the poor sods who need house loans.” It’s absolutely disgusting.
Fun fact: FHA loans, which have always had big insurance payments tacked on for a few years, are now engineered with expensive mortgage insurance built in for the life of the loan. $200 x 360 months (30 yr) = $72k. That is 72 THOUSAND DOLLARS extra you’ll pay with an FHA loan. You could buy a second house with that! And this is “helping” Americans buy a home how, exactly? Oh, yes, because it allows someone who’s bankrupted to buy again in 2 years. Nevermind that people bankrupted because of BANKS in the first place… Our fucking payment on a $183k loan is over $1250/mo with the FHA insurance. !! That is too much for a $183k loan! So now we are overburdened by this extortion and we’ll have to go through ANOTHER loan process to refinance and get rid of the goddam FHA loan in a few years. Great. FUCK THE MORTGAGE INDUSTRY.
So, as we continue onward towards getting a new pad, we’ll try to not kill the mortgage people no matter how much they need killin’. Eyes on the prize!! We just want it to be over, now, please.