There was an old lady who tried to sell her house
Let’s see – where to begin? Once upon a time, there was an old lady who wanted to sell her house… well, actually that would be me. (Okay, it was really my family and I that wanted to sell the house, but that didn't FLOW poetically, you see?)
There was an offer put on the house, tendered with earnest money and a letter of commitment from a lending institution (one that our realtor had heard of, but not heard good things). We accepted the offer, since we were told that a letter of commitment was a guarantee of secured funds for a loan. We began to pack up the house, and we began to call the utility company, and the home security company, and the phone company, and the cable company, and the insurance company, and the moving company, and the babysitters for the kids, and so on.
The night before we were going to close, we got a call from our realtor that the other realtor had just called her because the lender had just called *her* to say that there were not, in fact, secured funds for a loan for the buyer. Now, this was especially frustrating news since this particular lender had been in possession of the loan application for this buyer for three weeks, but had not bothered to make sure that he could secure a loan until four business days before we were set to close. And when he found out three days before we were set to close that the buyer did not have a loan forthcoming, he decided to wait until the day before the closing to tell the buyer’s realtor. So here we were with a completely packed house, and we had to re-call the utility company, and the home security company, and the phone company, and the cable company, and the insurance company, and the moving company, and the babysitters for the kids, and so on.
This lender told the buyer the next day that, instead of the 30-year conventional loan that he had promised her, he could instead get her a 40-year interest only loan… Mark and I thought that sounded pretty scary for the buyer, but if she wanted to pursue it – well, it was her decision. In the meantime, the buyer’s realtor told us that they were going to try another lender (this one our realtor had never heard of). Lender #2 told the buyer that they could get her a 90% loan, which we were told would mean that the buyer would want to re-negotiate the price of the house to fit the 90% cost. We said that wasn’t a good deal for us, and to try another lender. (Apparently, this "90% loan" was really supposed to be a 90% loan paid to the lender, and another 10% paid to the seller. The buyer was trying to get out of paying us the additional 10% by having us lower the price of the house instead. But we didn’t find out about that part until later.)
So off they went to Lender #3: this time they went to someone who both our realtor and our lawyer recommended. The third lender was having trouble getting the loan application data, credit report, and appraisal information from the first lender. She would call Lender #1, and he would *say* that it had been sent, but the day would come to a close and no information would arrive. She was finally able to get the credit report information after a week of run-around, but it was so garbled as to be practically incoherent. She had been told that the credit report had been “repaired” by a subsidiary company of the first lender, and tried to contact the person who had done the repair to make sense of what she was trying to read. One point that she made was surprise that the buyer had been told that she could qualify for a loan at all, considering that she had filed for bankruptcy.
In the meantime, a little investigating was going on to determine what had happened with this first lender. It turns out that the company that he *said* he worked for does not, in fact, employ him. He was working under someone else’s name for that company, and is now apparently being sued by them for using their name without their consent. Oh, and the letter of commitment? It turns out that it is illegal to give one of those unless you have truly secured funds for them. That was why our realtor thought it was a firm offer, because it never occurred to her that someone was perpetrating fraud.
Our realtor actually called Lender #1 to see why he did that, and he said that he never would have done it except that the other realtor begged him to since the buyer was her sister. Apparently, that’s another law that was circumvented: a realtor is required to disclose if he or she has a special tie or relationship to the buyer, which this realtor did not do. And I would think that Crye-Lieke – who was the realtor’s company – had probably told her about that disclosure notice, and that she just ignored it.
Getting back to the main plot, at this point our realtor ran into an old friend who had recently been promoted to vice-president of the bank where she worked. Kathy (our realtor) told her friend about the situation, and her friend suggested letting one of her loan officers have a look at it. After all, there are supposed to be loans out there these days for just about anybody. Kathy told the other realtor to check out this avenue, as well, and so entered Lender #4 into the fray. They also thought that this woman should never have been counseled to buy a house at this time, and was getting iffy about being able to find an underwriter for a loan.
We found this out while we were at our attorney’s office, signing a power of attorney statement because we were going out of town. Just in case some miracle occurred and we were able to close on the house while we were gone, we gave power of attorney to Mark’s parents to sign for us and close the deal.
While we were on our way to our lawyer’s office, Kathy called and said that the other realtor had asked if her buyer could go with Lender #2’s offer for the 90% loan. We were seriously considering it, if only to get away from this mess and be done with it.
Kathy called again and said that Lender #1 had called her and asked if he could have another chance at securing a loan. He told her that he wanted to try for an FHA loan. Kathy said that we had had a previous offer, and those buyers had wanted to use an FHA loan, but the appraisal had specified repairs to the house that we were unable to take on the cost of repair for, so the deal had fallen through. Lender #1 told Kathy that he could get an FHA appraisal that would show no repairs needed…. Now, Kathy happens to know that once an FHA appraisal has been made on a house for sale, it is binding for any FHA offer on that house until it sells. So here he was again, offering to commit fraud for the benefit of a sale.
Meanwhile, Lender #4’s loan officer, too, was having trouble getting the needed information from Lender #1, and decided to pull his own credit report – an “unrepaired” credit report. That was when we found out that the “repaired” credit report had somehow erased not one but TWO court-ordered collection judgments against her for failure to pay a loan in a timely fashion. This meant that – from a legal standpoint – she *could not* apply for another loan until she had paid off these other two loans.
And then our attorney did a little checking of his own and found out that Lender #2 was an assumed name for Lender #1 – as in, it was the same company running under two different names!! That’s when we said that enough was enough, thanks but no thanks, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, the deal is off.
So, while I would like to say we are back to “square one” on the house, we are really minus several squares. As I mentioned earlier, we were completely packed and ready to go. So now we were being told to go back on “active” status with a house full of boxes! We have decided to be optimistic that another buyer will be coming soon, and have put almost everything into storage, to try to make the house more presentable.
No one has come by to see the house since it went back on the market – which is probably just as well since it is still quite a mess. I am hopeful that God is just giving us a little time to “tidy up” before sending our real and true buyer.
On a happier note, I mentioned that we went out of town; we went to visit my brother’s family in California for a week. It was so beautiful and peaceful there; it was the perfect antidote for all the insanity happening here. But would you believe that while we were visiting, my brother had to work for several of the days we were there because – can you guess? – their company was moving!!!! :^)
Have a great day!
There was an offer put on the house, tendered with earnest money and a letter of commitment from a lending institution (one that our realtor had heard of, but not heard good things). We accepted the offer, since we were told that a letter of commitment was a guarantee of secured funds for a loan. We began to pack up the house, and we began to call the utility company, and the home security company, and the phone company, and the cable company, and the insurance company, and the moving company, and the babysitters for the kids, and so on.
The night before we were going to close, we got a call from our realtor that the other realtor had just called her because the lender had just called *her* to say that there were not, in fact, secured funds for a loan for the buyer. Now, this was especially frustrating news since this particular lender had been in possession of the loan application for this buyer for three weeks, but had not bothered to make sure that he could secure a loan until four business days before we were set to close. And when he found out three days before we were set to close that the buyer did not have a loan forthcoming, he decided to wait until the day before the closing to tell the buyer’s realtor. So here we were with a completely packed house, and we had to re-call the utility company, and the home security company, and the phone company, and the cable company, and the insurance company, and the moving company, and the babysitters for the kids, and so on.
This lender told the buyer the next day that, instead of the 30-year conventional loan that he had promised her, he could instead get her a 40-year interest only loan… Mark and I thought that sounded pretty scary for the buyer, but if she wanted to pursue it – well, it was her decision. In the meantime, the buyer’s realtor told us that they were going to try another lender (this one our realtor had never heard of). Lender #2 told the buyer that they could get her a 90% loan, which we were told would mean that the buyer would want to re-negotiate the price of the house to fit the 90% cost. We said that wasn’t a good deal for us, and to try another lender. (Apparently, this "90% loan" was really supposed to be a 90% loan paid to the lender, and another 10% paid to the seller. The buyer was trying to get out of paying us the additional 10% by having us lower the price of the house instead. But we didn’t find out about that part until later.)
So off they went to Lender #3: this time they went to someone who both our realtor and our lawyer recommended. The third lender was having trouble getting the loan application data, credit report, and appraisal information from the first lender. She would call Lender #1, and he would *say* that it had been sent, but the day would come to a close and no information would arrive. She was finally able to get the credit report information after a week of run-around, but it was so garbled as to be practically incoherent. She had been told that the credit report had been “repaired” by a subsidiary company of the first lender, and tried to contact the person who had done the repair to make sense of what she was trying to read. One point that she made was surprise that the buyer had been told that she could qualify for a loan at all, considering that she had filed for bankruptcy.
In the meantime, a little investigating was going on to determine what had happened with this first lender. It turns out that the company that he *said* he worked for does not, in fact, employ him. He was working under someone else’s name for that company, and is now apparently being sued by them for using their name without their consent. Oh, and the letter of commitment? It turns out that it is illegal to give one of those unless you have truly secured funds for them. That was why our realtor thought it was a firm offer, because it never occurred to her that someone was perpetrating fraud.
Our realtor actually called Lender #1 to see why he did that, and he said that he never would have done it except that the other realtor begged him to since the buyer was her sister. Apparently, that’s another law that was circumvented: a realtor is required to disclose if he or she has a special tie or relationship to the buyer, which this realtor did not do. And I would think that Crye-Lieke – who was the realtor’s company – had probably told her about that disclosure notice, and that she just ignored it.
Getting back to the main plot, at this point our realtor ran into an old friend who had recently been promoted to vice-president of the bank where she worked. Kathy (our realtor) told her friend about the situation, and her friend suggested letting one of her loan officers have a look at it. After all, there are supposed to be loans out there these days for just about anybody. Kathy told the other realtor to check out this avenue, as well, and so entered Lender #4 into the fray. They also thought that this woman should never have been counseled to buy a house at this time, and was getting iffy about being able to find an underwriter for a loan.
We found this out while we were at our attorney’s office, signing a power of attorney statement because we were going out of town. Just in case some miracle occurred and we were able to close on the house while we were gone, we gave power of attorney to Mark’s parents to sign for us and close the deal.
While we were on our way to our lawyer’s office, Kathy called and said that the other realtor had asked if her buyer could go with Lender #2’s offer for the 90% loan. We were seriously considering it, if only to get away from this mess and be done with it.
Kathy called again and said that Lender #1 had called her and asked if he could have another chance at securing a loan. He told her that he wanted to try for an FHA loan. Kathy said that we had had a previous offer, and those buyers had wanted to use an FHA loan, but the appraisal had specified repairs to the house that we were unable to take on the cost of repair for, so the deal had fallen through. Lender #1 told Kathy that he could get an FHA appraisal that would show no repairs needed…. Now, Kathy happens to know that once an FHA appraisal has been made on a house for sale, it is binding for any FHA offer on that house until it sells. So here he was again, offering to commit fraud for the benefit of a sale.
Meanwhile, Lender #4’s loan officer, too, was having trouble getting the needed information from Lender #1, and decided to pull his own credit report – an “unrepaired” credit report. That was when we found out that the “repaired” credit report had somehow erased not one but TWO court-ordered collection judgments against her for failure to pay a loan in a timely fashion. This meant that – from a legal standpoint – she *could not* apply for another loan until she had paid off these other two loans.
And then our attorney did a little checking of his own and found out that Lender #2 was an assumed name for Lender #1 – as in, it was the same company running under two different names!! That’s when we said that enough was enough, thanks but no thanks, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, the deal is off.
So, while I would like to say we are back to “square one” on the house, we are really minus several squares. As I mentioned earlier, we were completely packed and ready to go. So now we were being told to go back on “active” status with a house full of boxes! We have decided to be optimistic that another buyer will be coming soon, and have put almost everything into storage, to try to make the house more presentable.
No one has come by to see the house since it went back on the market – which is probably just as well since it is still quite a mess. I am hopeful that God is just giving us a little time to “tidy up” before sending our real and true buyer.
On a happier note, I mentioned that we went out of town; we went to visit my brother’s family in California for a week. It was so beautiful and peaceful there; it was the perfect antidote for all the insanity happening here. But would you believe that while we were visiting, my brother had to work for several of the days we were there because – can you guess? – their company was moving!!!! :^)
Have a great day!
posted by Kathy Romer | 12:15 AM
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