First Home Style

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...

One of the reasons that I haven’t posted in a while is because I didn't want to have to write the words, I’m still waiting for mortgage commitment from HSBC. Seeing those words written, as you can probably imaging, is disheartening. I am so emotionally attached to the property and exhausted that we've been in contract for two months and yet haven’t been able to secure a mortgage.  I have decorated in my mind, chosen colors for the living room and entry hallway. Perhaps it’s a tiny bit crazy, but I strongly believed that this would have been a shorter process.   I am a first time home buyer so I didn't know what I didn't know.   I didn't think that I had unrealistic expectations either. I had already compromise on the ideal neighborhood. I compromise on the cost. I compromise on having a kitchen full of updated cabinets and stainless steel appliances. I compromise on having an updated bathroom. I have watched hours of televisions shows were two weeks after making...

I wanted to title this blog post, HSBC mortgage services sucks. But then though better of it. There have been so many highs and lows in this home buying process and right now we're at a particularly low ebb. It’s been almost two months since we went into contract on the property and yet I'm still in HSBC mortgage services limbo. I still have not been approved for a mortgage. I thought about shopping around to other mortgage lenders but I had chosen  HSBC because I was already enrolled in their first time home-buyer program (First Home Club). As part of my enrollment, for 10 months I saved $188 in an regular HSBC savings account. HSBC would then match my savings by 4. Over the 10 months, I have saved $1880 with the financial match, this becomes $7520. This program is designed to assist home-buyers with closing cost.  I also had to attend a home buying seminar at a community organization. Despite my student loans, I would consider myself t...