A Tale of Sweat and Tears

"Thank you for choosing Bank of America. It is our goal that you be highly satisfied."

Yeah, try again. But not with me. Cuz you aren't getting my business ever again.

It's cliche to say I never thought the day would come to close on the house in Lubbock, but it certainly felt that way for since the beginning of July.

I did my homework by calling on a few financial institutions for preapproval and eventually settled on the one with the lowest interest rates and up to $2000 in closing costs covered by them. That would be Bank of America.

When the ordeal begins I don't rightly recall. It's definitely in the first week of July. But I do remember the process very well.

First, the rookie refused to give me anything in writing, not even a Good Faith Estimate, to show that my rate has been locked. I had asked him for 2 earlier for other houses we were interested in. We got those. But the final one, he said he wouldn't give because the "confirmation number" we got would be null and void and we would have to go to the back of the line, and that would slow the process down. But he assured me he will relock it in a few days' time at the same rate.

Well, in a few days' time, he called me and said we got the same rate but we also were hit with discount points. That's the money (roughly $500) we have to pay in our closing for relocking at a later time. I told him that I shouldn't be hit with those points due to his relunctance to lock the rates when I told him to, and that I am really furious with him for misleading him. I took the issue to his boss, who later reimbursed me with a credit to my savings account.

Second problem: the loan is now carried to the corporate BOA lenders who are checking for every detail in my past credit history. One of them called me and asked if I own any property. I told her I still own a house in Augusta, Ga., which I am currently renting. She indicated that is going to slow the process down as it wasn't "disclosed." I told her it wasn't "disclosed" because I wasn't asked about it, and wouldn't it be the local loan officer to ask me for every document (which he didn't ask for a single one) before sending my file up to corporate? They tried to pin it on me that I was "hiding" information. She said I told Bill the rookie I'm renting. I said, of course, I'm renting. I'm renting right now in Lubbock. But that doesn't mean I don't own a house somewhere, too. Bill the village idiot didn't ask the right question. And I can't think of providing every detail of my life as there's too much of it. The loan officer needs to ask the right questions. That's what they are paid to do.

Third problem: Another call from corporate. And they said this is the last one and we can close in a day or two. They need proof of my savings. That I have enough money in my bank account for the last 3 months, my paycheck, and my W2s from the last 2 years. I printed my bank statements from the computer as the paper version has not arrived. And I marched into Bill's office to have him copy and fax them to corporate. I got a call later that day saying they cannot accept the most recent statement as it doesn't have my account number on it. I told them the last "statement" is not a real statement as the month is not over yet. But if they use common sense and see that my name on it matches that from the 2 before it, it should work, right? But, no, they won't accept it. I called my bank and had a manager there fax me their copy with my SSN, name, account number.

Fourth problem: They called me that night (around 7 p.m.), and told me that they ran into another problem. The W2 shows a different name from the place of employment. I tried to explain to them that Mr. Morris, the man who owns the Augusta Chronicle, does not own only newspapers, but ranches, pecan farms, horses, tourist publications, radio stations, magazines, and they fall under the umbrella name that's on the W2s. They can google it and find out. But that took about 15 minutes of explanation and they said they'll do it tomorrow morning.

Oh, you'd have gathered the closing is not happening by now. But they said that should be last problem and we can close by week's end.

Fifth problem: They called and said the whole company name thing checked out OK, but do we know we are buying a leased land property? Now, this property works differently from most houses y'all would come to own, if you haven't already. We are on a state park. The house you buy belongs to you once it's paid for, but the land is yours for only 50 years. We don't care what happens after 50 years, personally, cuz we don't plan to be in Lubbock forever. But the bank is fretting over that. I told them I'm aware of it and am surprised they are not, since I asked every lender (3 if you recall) if they will lend for this particular venture. They all said yes. Bill the rookie said yes. Apparently, Bill the rookie didn't inform them that. Now, corporate is freaking out cuz this is something new to them.

Sixth problem: They need an appraisal. I told them they can get it from the seller who already has them. No, they need a new appraisal since they found out it is a leased land. We said fine, let us know when the appraiser is showing up.

Seventh problem: "Ling, why aren't you employed for 6 months?"
"Err, because I had to move and I can't find a job that fast. And I wanted to take a break."
" Can you write a letter explaining that?"
"Sure."

Eighth problem: "Ling, we can close tomorrow. But you have to pay PMI because you were unemployed for 6 months." Basically, the bank doesn't think I have the money to pay my mortgage.
"But I'm working now, and I'm not making any less from before."
It didn't matter with them. And they said the PMI is no big deal and I can pay it off fast.
I told them, I am still paying my PMI and it is not easy to shake off. Besides, the most important thing is, I told Bill the village idiot, when I decided to go with BOA, that I want an 80-10-10 loan so I won't have PMI, and that I also didn't want discount points.
Now, they try to hit me with both, one of which I managed to get out of.
They still insisted my 6 months of unemployment put me in an unfavorable light (that in spite of my near-perfect 750 credit score, and stable employment now), hence they can't give me an 80-10-10 but a 90-10.
I told them I need to talk to my husband about it but we are very likely not going to go with them if they insist on the PMI and 90-10.

Now, this is 3 weeks of ordeal, and 2 days before this final straw, we met with a local lender recommended by the Realtor. He went through all my papers, drew up a Good Faith Estimate, and basically told us all he needed was a letter explaining my 6 months of unemployment, a new appraisal and we should be able to close in 2 days' time. Oh, he had no trouble with Mr. Morris vs. Shiver Trading Co. vs Morris Communications. He googled it on the spot, and said it's no biggie.

And we closed on Friday, the last day of our vacation, with this local lender. BOA has cost me a vacation out of town when we were trying to close the week before.

So, BOA, you have a bunch of people not knowing the process, not communicating with one another. You basically have lost my business for life.
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Melissa: Ohhhh, Ling!!! Bless your heart!!! If it makes you feel any better, I understand how you feel! I went through almost the exact same thing when I recently refinanced my house. What should have taken a few weeks took several months. It was an absolute mess. And just like with you, the mortgage company wouldn't accept an online bank statement b/c the printout didn't have my bank account number on it (even though my name and address were!); they asked for pay stubs but then dragged their feet so long that they made me resubmit pay stubs again - not once, not twice, but THREE times; the loan officer quoted me a wrong estimate *and* told me if I accepted the estimate that he would pay off my credit card, but in the end when he couldn't do so, he waited to reveal that piece of information *after* I'd signed the papers, so now I'm locked into a piggy-back mortgage with exorbitant payments as well as the credit card debt... And on and on and on. They even screwed up the closing paper work so that in the middle of closing, we had to stop, have the company fax in the correct paperwork and then it was a week after *that* before I was able to close. Then it was 2 weeks after that -- and took a call from my lawyer -- before they deposited the money they owed me from the "cash back" into my bank account. It was unreal. I honestly considered going to the Better Business Bureau over this company. Their name is Eastern Residential Mortgage, by the way! Everyone, steer clear of them!! ... Anyway!! I'm so sorry about your fiasco!!! There's a special place in hell for those people! Bah!

Christina: Oh mY GOD Ling. I am so sorry you had to go through this with BOA, but from what friends of mine have gone through with them plus what I have read about them on various financial and credit-related forums, I can see you too have been a victim of the BIG CORPORATE MONSTER that is BOA. STAY AWAY PEOPLE.

Let me warn everybody about something else that can happen even IF you go with a local bank. I got my mortgage for the condo I own in North Myrtle Beach through a Columbia-based bank. Great experience. THEN three months later they made the "business decision" to sell their condo mortgage accounts to a huge corporate conglomerate, GMC Mortgage. This made me very unhappy but I didn't bother to complain. This is something smaller banks often do. And I have nothing really bad to say about GMAC except God help any of you if you deal with them and God forbid a check in the mail goes one day astray because of a holiday. GMAC's collections folks could summon the dead. They ought to call them to find Jimmy Hoffa.

But really, yes, Ling, it was the best thing to go with a local lender. Trust me I am only dealing with local banks and credit unions for the rest of my life. And I"M SORRY you had to go through this!!!!

Things nobody ever told you about house-buying Part 1

If you're ever going to buy a house, you'll find there are plenty of sites out there soliciting your money (Lendingtree brokers, etc) but very few that offer real-life advice. Here are a few of my humble tips if you are so inclined to pay heed to:

1. Do not bank with the big dogs
Especially Bank of America. It has consolidated so many banks that now it cannot even keep track of what it's doing. Saving that $2000 in closing costs is not worth the angst and ill preparation they put you through. Suck up the closing costs and negotiate on them if at all possible.

2. Do not have a rookie loan officer service you
In Texas, instead of having an attorney to handle the closing, we have what they call a Title Company. The title officer told us he asked the rookie for a most fundamental request and the rookie had no idea what he's talking about.

3. Save. Save. Save.
At least up to 20% of the house you're going to buy. For instance, if you think you can afford up to a $140,000 house, you need at least $28,000 for a 30-year conventional loan. If you cannot afford 20%, then go with an 80-10-10 loan. That means you pay 10% in closing cost of THE HOUSE (not all the closing costs that include fees, tax, insurance etc), and you are left with 2 loans at 80% and 10%. The 80% loan is lower in interest for 30 years, and the 10% loan is higher in interest for 15 years. You will now have 2 mortgages - 80% and 10%. But this will save you money in terms of not paying PMI.

4. PMI
It's the obscene interest you pay the bank for lending you money since you don't have 20% of the house price towards closing costs. The bank will try to tell you it is easy to get out of but it is NOT. Especially after they sell your loan to a different company, they do not have to deal with you anymore. That different company will require you to jump through lots of hoops to clear that PMI

5. Discount Points
What a misnomer. It's no discount. It's a fee the bank charges you to relock a rate. Be sure when you apply for a pre-approval that you specify you don't want discount points and PMI.

These are the lessons we've learned so far in our home acquisitions. I'm sure there'll be more growing pains to come. If you have any advice for me, I'm all ears.