I just realized that I never said anything more about buying and moving into our new house!
The whole home buying experience is not what I thought it would be. You know you hear horror stories about buying a home and you think mine won't be that bad. Something must have been wrong with that person's deal and that's why they had so much trouble. No, no, no...no. I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I now have my own horror story to add to the mix.
So, John and I get back from our July 4th vacation down to the beach and we have a package waiting for us. It's our financing paperwork for the house we are buying. We get that all signed and sent back next day delivery. This is Monday so the paperwork will get to the bank Tuesday. Ok, great! I've been in contact with Ryan, my realtor, to let him know how the process is coming along with the financing. Almost two weeks go by and I haven't heard anything from Arturo the loan officer at the bank. I've been trying to call him and can't get him on the phone and he hasn't returned my calls. Our estimated closing date is August 1st. It's the third week in July. Yeah.
I finally get in touch with Arturo and he tells me that the loan processor (apparently this is not one and the same person as the loan officer) is supposed to have called me. Uh, no, no one's called me. Arturo promises he will get the processor to call me that day. No phone call. Two days later, and a couple of irritated voicemails on Arturo's mailbox, the processor calls me. She is missing some paperwork that I had hand delivered to the bank for Arturo before going on vacation for the 4th. Oh, my gosh.
Now, I didn't deliver the papers directly to Arturo because he had decided to take that particular day off, but I did put them in the hands of a guy who looked competent enough to put the papers on Arturo's desk, which he had promised to do. I had even put the papers in a folder with Arturo's name written right on the front. Not difficult, I thought.
After getting off the phone with the processor I call Arturo and ask him what the hell happened to the papers that I had delivered to the bank for him. I told him about the guy I had given the folder to and he said he will find the papers. I about went ballistic. I swear if we hadn't already invested so much time into the bank I would have found another bank to do this. Finally, all of that paperwork gets worked out.
Because John was most likely going to be on the road working when we had to close a power of attorney had to be drawn up, notarized, and sent in to the processor. That was another two days of headaches, frustration, and I swear ulcer forming drama.
Finally, finally it's closing day. August 1st. I go into the title office at the appointed time and spend the next two and a half hours signing my name, plus John's name with a bunch of legalese attached to it until I think my arm is going to fall off. Before signing the papers I had the down payment money wired over from our account to the account the title secretary had given me, so I was ready to take the keys to our new house after signing the papers. Apparently that was not to be in the cards. I had plans to go see a baseball game with friends that Friday night and then I was staying over at my friend, Kristine's, house. It's coming upon the time I have to leave to go meet friends before the game and I still don't have my keys because Mary, the closer, couldn't release them to me until she got a call from the people who were in charge of the money account for the loan. OK, it wasn't that big of a deal because I had already signed the paperwork and we were just waiting on formalities. Ryan, my realtor, knew I had to leave and so he offered to hold the keys for me and when they were officially released we could meet up Saturday and he could hand them over. We all went with that plan and I went to enjoy my night out with friends.
Saturday morning comes bright and early with a phone call from Ryan. There's been some problem that has come up and all of the paperwork that I, and the sellers (who now lived out of town in northern Texas), had signed on Friday had been pulled back into underwriting. What??!! What the hell does that mean?? Ryan didn't have an answer other than we hadn't technically closed on the house, but he was not happy about any of this. I think he was more upset than me that we had to go through more crap. He asked if I could come back to the title company office first thing Monday morning and I said I'd be there. Ryan kept telling me not to worry and we were going to get this straightened out and I would have my house on Monday no matter what. Ryan was so great through the whole ordeal. (Even went to bat with Arturo for me when the bank was dragging its feet.) I hung up the phone with Ryan and cried on my friend's shoulder. We had come so far and still didn't have our house. I was at a point where my mantra had become It can't get any worse, it has to get better from here. Little did I know it could and would get worse.
So everyone goes about their merry way until Monday morning, August 4th. Now over the weekend Tropical Storm Eduoard had been making waves out in the Gulf and heading for land. The storm was predicted to be strong and it was being advised that people evacuate the area. My title company was going to finish business that Monday and close Tuesday until the storm passed. I'm there right when they open the office that morning ready to get the keys to my house even if I had to take someone's hand off to do it. Mary didn't even know why the paperwork was pulled back, the underwriting department wouldn't give her a reason. For the love of all that is holy...
I knew that if we didn't get the closing done that day, it wouldn't be done probably until Friday with the storm barreling onto land. I was livid. I was so fed up with the whole thing that I just wanted to give up after we'd come that far. About 10:30am, Mary still had not received an authorizing call to release the keys. She told me to go back to work and she would call as soon as I could come pick up the keys.
I went back to work at the Space Center only to find out that because of Eduoard we would be closing at noon and everyone was released to go home. No big deal except I couldn't drive the 62 miles to our old place because I still had to pick up keys to the new house.
About 45 minutes after getting back to my office, the title office secretary calls me and says I can pick up the keys. You mean I don't have to re-sign anything and I can just come get the keys?? WTF?? She said everything was fine now and the house was mine, though they still didn't know the reason for the delay. I hurried back to the title company and Mary handed me the keys. I think I ran out of that office screaming you can't have them back now!
I took my best friend over to see the new house and then went to hang out at her place for a little bit before going home to the old house.
The whole process was torture, but worth it in the end. I just hope that I never have to go through that nightmare again.
The funniest thing ended up being that Eduoard hit land August 5th in upper Texas, totally by-passing Houston and only dumping some rain and wind in our area. No businesses needed to be closed and there was absolutely no damage to our area. Irony, I love it...
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