Skip to main content

Hoping For A Commitment Soon


On Saturday July 20,  I received a letter from my HSBC loan officer stating that I needed to provide more documents in order for them to process my loan application.  The letter stated that all these items needed to be addressed or else they couldn't move forward on my loan. The document had outline a 22 item request list, some of which I had already submitted weeks earlier.  Another of which, I hadn't received the relevant document from the loan officer to complete. One question asked me to verify that 15% of my current home was not being used as a home business.  I was confused. Why is my loan officer requesting information that she already received or not provided to me? Furthermore why is she asking me questions regarding a home business that doesn’t exist? I thought at first that she may have gotten my file confused with someone else’s. I quickly wrote her an email asking for her to explain. Of course, I got no response. To her credit, it was Saturday. On Monday morning,  I called her and to my surprise she actually answered the phone. I asked her about the letter and she immediately feign not having any idea of what I was referring. I told her about the letter signed by her with her contact information. Her classic response was, the letter must have been sent by the processor (underwriter) without her knowledge. Really? I thought.  How unprofessional.  After having a minor panic about the short period of time to send these documents, I have finally completed the task today. I’m feeling relieved but not overly confident. I’m hoping to get a commitment letter this week. I stated in an earlier post that I have made mistakes in this home buying process and one of those mistakes was not shopping around for a mortgage. However, I can’t say for certain that my experiences would have been different with, Chase, Capital One, etc. Since I have had this experience, I have been soliciting information from others and have heard similar horror stories. I have learned that HSBC doesn't have a monopoly on giving buyers a hard time. My underwriter asked me to submit three years tax returns while my coworker had to submit four years tax returns. I have been in contract on this home for two months. But others have taken up six months to close on their homes. I should consider myself lucky, at least they have not denied me a loan completely.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Still Here

When I started this blog a year ago, I was in contract on a two bedroom cooperative in Brooklyn, NY. I was very enthusiastic about getting the property and I started planning my design strategies. A year later after being denied by the coop board for the property, I have taken a bit of a break from my home search. I will still update the blog from time to time. However, I am less enthusiastic about the property search and haven't really seen a coop that grabs my attention like that first apartment did. There are certain things that I do not want to compromise on such as location, price and bedroom space. I haven't become a homeowner just yet but I haven't lost all hope of that happening. It just may take a longer time and I'm ok with that.

Money, Money, Money

Home-buying can be emotionally draining and stressful process. More than the process of searching for a home, making an offer, waiting for the seller to accept or counter your offer and then applying for a mortgage, I’m finding the financial to be the most stressful of all. For years, I have diligently saved and deprived myself certain luxuries in the hopes that I would someday become a homeowner. But now here I am writing the check for down payment, handing over what took me the greater part of two and a half years to accumulate. And then after that, there is the closing cost which is another huge chunk of change. As we get closer to the closing day, I find myself in a mini-panic. The money that I’m using to pay for my down payment and closing cost could actually afford me a three-bedroom, one bath with a finished basement and back yard in Pennsylvania. I could have bought a home in Pennsylvania for cash! It’s a little vexing that as a first-time home buyer in Brooklyn, NY, my home

Choosing Paint Colors and Patterns

I’m always impressed by the way that furniture stores layout furniture. The photo above was taken at a Macy’s furniture store a few years ago.  The brass bed frame, dark wood armoire and end tables are all part of the Martha Stewart Turkey Hill collection. At the time this photo was taken, this was the look that I wanted for my dream bedroom.  My tastes have changed ( for the better I hope), but I still like the gray blue color on the wall. Over the last few days, I have been thinking a lot about paint colors. I thought, I had finally decided on a light blue paint color for the living room. But then I changed my mind. I have narrowed it down to the following: This is the sky light view paint from Valspar. It was my first choose but then I thought maybe I should try something darker. This is the twin cities paint. Then I wanted something blue and found this Silver Dusk color I like patterns and I have been thinking about doing a stenciled accent wall in the livi