First Home Style

Yesterday I received my mortgage denial letter from HSBC, I wouldn't bore you with the details but basically it cited my student loans as a reason for the denial. Fair enough. I was not angry.  I wasn't disappointed. I guess I just became accustomed to bad news.    And though my loan application is pending with another lender, I've been reflecting on my experiences over the last few months. There have been a lot of lessons learned along this home buying journey. One of those being that buying a home can be extremely stressful. I had a very modest upbringing   and by no means did I grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I grew up seeing my parents and their families working.   W hen they had a goal they created steps to attend that goal. Similarly I have worked hard to achieve my goal of home ownership. Anyone who has really known me over the past five years knows the sacrifices I’ve made to achieve this long held goal of being a homeowner. And as I have been documenting

I’m feeling extremely anxious.   I’m nervous waiting for a mortgage commitment letter from my new lender.   I guess it’s a case of once bitten twice shy but I can’t shake this feeling. I’ve felt a lot of emotions since I started this home buying journey, but this feeling is very different to any I’ve had before. It’s a type of nervousness that comes with nausea and a slight headache. I’m physically ill thinking about whether or not I will be approved for a mortgage.   And the humidity here in New York isn’t helping either. Yesterday I paid $445 for the property to be appraised (though the appraisal has not yet been scheduled). I also paid $12 for a credit check. Today I fax signed disclosure documents to the lender and now all I have to do is wait.   I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’ve had a full night’s rest since the first application was denied. My loan officer believes that we will hear something back as soon as this week. My loan offers knows of my history with HSBC and has b

Source: http://dailybail.com/home/hsbc-cartoons.html This wasn’t the type of post that I wanted to write today. I wanted to be very upbeat and happy and tell the world that after reviewing my mortgage application again, my mortgage loan was approved by the underwriter. But unfortunately that isn’t the case. Today, I received an email from my attorney stating that the sellers want to cancel the contract because I haven’t secured a mortgage as yet. I’m disappointed, but I understand. The sellers are eager to have this property sold as much as I’m eager to have it be mine. Now, I’m fearful that I will lose the property that it took several long months to find. No, it’s not perfect. The kitchen and bathroom are outdated but the space, location and view of the Manhattan skyline is incalculable. I have already painted and decorated and planned parties in my mind but it looks as though it wasn’t meant to be. This doesn’t mean that I’m giving up.   I’m still in this fight though I have to

I have made much progress on my de-cluttering plan from last week. Of course there were some minor setbacks when I got some bad news from the mortgage lender and I wasn’t able to concentrate on clearing the space.   There were lesson learned during this process too. One of those being that my bedroom is a lived in space. It’s not perfect. I need to keep it to a level that I will be able to maintain it.   I realized that I need to make a concentrated effort every day to minimize clutter. It's ongoing. If I move something I need to put it back in its original place. I wanted to share my progress so far. desk before desk after I was able to organize my desk but most of my desk clutter just needed to be rearranged. Nothing major here, though it looked atrocious in the original photos. I think it looks better in the after photos. ( And there are no clothing on the floor.) I had already spoken about how emotional it was to get rid of old pieces of paper because some of them

Today, I was still pretty distressed about the mortgage loan denial. But I’ve been trying to put a positive spin on things, maybe it wasn’t meant to be. As I mention yesterday, my attorney had given me the contact information for a new lender who is now reviewing my documents (2 years tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements and student loan repayment schedule and the cooperative financials). At this point, I was looking forward to my HSBC denial letter as is required. After writing that long blog post yesterday, I had mentally prepared myself for yet more bad news from HSBC. But then I was stunningly surprised by the email I receive this Evening.   The email was forwarded to the loan officer from the underwriter and copied to myself and my attorney. The email states as follows, “the borrower provided a document indicating that her student loans are currently in deferment until 2015. A deferment on a student loan for more than one year indicates that the borrower is still in school. U

Forgive me, as I write this post through a cake fueled haze. I’m an emotional eater. And today, well it has been an emotional rollercoaster. Where to begin? Today I was informed via email that my HSBC mortgage loan application was being denied. According to my loan officer, she was appealing that decision. Several minutes later I received a convoluted email about an unreimbursed employment expense on my 2012 tax return which would significantly decrease my income for 2012. What? I called the loan officer for an explanation. In 2010, I attended graduate school, trying to advance my career in my field. I worked fulltime and was on a three year part-time graduate school track.   I paid for the first year of school mostly out of my own savings and bi-weekly paychecks. It was a struggle. In the second year of grad school, I applied for and received a federal student loan. However the loan did not completely cover the full cost of my tuition and last year I spent $16,000 of my own hard e

Is it odd that though I haven’t got a closing date, I have already chosen paint colors for my new home? Forget closing, I haven’t even gotten a mortgage commitment as yet.   Like I have mentioned before, I have chosen to focus on the more positive aspects of homeownership than on the things that are out of my control, such as the underwriting process. As frustrating as the mortgage process has been, there is no doubt in my mind that I will not receive the approval. This waiting is just part of the journey.   Most things now appear to be so instantaneous (we get emails and text messages on our cell phones. We can track the arrival of the buses and trains on an app) that we have become accustomed to having everything right away. But there seems to be something for that old adage, “all good things comes to those who wait” or “patience is a virtue”.   I’m trying to put it all into perspective. This morning at about 9:20 am, I received a forwarded email from my attorney regarding the la

Design Style, do I have one? Not unless you count clutter as a design style and judging by the state of my bedroom, yeah I have one. I’m not a minimalist. I have a lot of stuff. My bedroom, for examples, serves as both as a place to sleep and an office.   It’s littered with grad school text books, stacks of paper and a desk that is so overrun with office supplies and paraphernalia that there is no space for my computer. (The computer has a permanent spot on my bed.) Naturally, I am embarrassed about this. I would rather have a more sophisticated look for the bedroom. But I’m feeling overwhelmed to begin the sorting, shredding process.    I never expected to still be in this space. This was going to be my temporary home. The plan was to buy and move into my first home before August, but as I have been blogging over the last few weeks, I have not yet received mortgage commitment from HSBC. Frustrating yes, but made worst by the space being so cluttered. I don’t feel like my home,

Yesterday, I received a telephone call from my attorney, who informed me that the sellers are requesting information regarding the mortgage commitment. Apparently he's getting a lot of push back from the sellers attorney. I explained that I haven't heard  from HSBC in the past week. In fact, my five telephone calls to the loan officer went unanswered. My attorney suggested that I send an email to the loan officer letting her know the urgency. I called the loan officer and to my surprise she actually answered the phone. I relied the information regarding the urgency of the matter and she agreed that my frustrations were warranted, However she says, my file was no longer with HSBC but with the underwriter. She suggested that I write an email detailing the urgency, which she would then forward to the underwriter. I wrote the email and sent it to the loan officer, copying it to my attorney. At about 8:49 pm, I received a letter from the loan officer stating that the information was

One of the things I love about New York is it’s accessibility to shops.  I love window shopping, especially for furniture. Yesterday my friend Dominique and I went shopping.  We looked around Pier 1 Imports but there were nothing really that stood out or grabbed our attention. Disappointed, we wondered around the mass of people on the overcrowded street until we stumbled upon a store called Restoration Hardware.  Neither of us had been there before, so we decided to have a look. First impression, this was definitely an upscale furniture store and nothing like down-market Pier 1 Imports.  The furniture  hankers  back to that old Hollywood style that appealed to me. Dominique on the other hand hated it. She felt it was too over the top.  We both agreed though that the look was definitely not for apartment dwellers. The furniture was large and  over-sized.   Personally I liked the upholstered headboards, the dining chairs, But it just  didn't  seem to fit the style of m