The Drama That Was My Un-Closing

So, after all this waiting around, today was finally the day. I had been completely stressed about everything for about a week or so because the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) kept increasing (by like $2,000, at final count!) and I was worried about where that was going to end. I had my approved HUD statement by Wednesday of this week, where my mortgage broker pointed out that the settlement company had not accounted for any credit of closing funds from the relocation company (hello? We're talking over $8,000 here!) Anyway, my relocation contact and my mortgage broker were able to work that out and so I had the revised HUD that afternoon and it was a relief to see that I had plenty of money for closing with reserves, so all my worrying in that regard was for naught.

We had the walk-through scheduled for this morning before the closing. Everything was fine, except that I noticed that they had taken this second, big water heater that had been in place when we did the home inspection. This was obviously one that they had added because they are a family of seven and need the extra capacity, but still the exclusion of the water heater had never been in any document related to the sale at any time. Additionally, the house had been inspected with this in place and with the assumption that this was part of the water heating system. I just felt that it was kind of crappy to not have a notation about it on the contract. I think if you're buying a house, it is assumed that the water heater as part of the core plumbing. Anyway, I think it was a bit shitty. The bottom line is really not such a big deal, having the smaller unit will actually be cheaper for me (since I won't have to constantly pay to heat all that water), but still, I really feel like it should have been noted from the beginning. I was, however, happy that all of their stuff was completely gone. The house also looked a lot bigger without all their crap, but I really could see how the whole place really needs to be painted and the carpeting replaced, and the thought of it all exhausts me. It's not even the expense of it, I would gladly pay for having all of this done, it's just the thought of moving in and trying to deal with this around all my stuff ... I just want to unpack and be done with it all by now, UGH!

Well, okay. Then we had the closing. Oi Vey. First, when the settlement rep was going over the HUD with the seller, there was dead silence. Turns out that the money stated there that he was to receive was far less than he was expecting (by like over $8,000). And it also turns out that he needed every penny of this money to fund the closing on the house he was buying (the closing of which was meant to happen right after our's). It came to light a little later into our meeting that there was a pre-payment penalty with his mortgage. How can you have a mortgage with this clause and not know about that? Anyway, not my problem.

But the bigger problem turned out to be on my end. The settlement company confirmed that there had been no wire of funds for my loan! In other words, the money was not in place. My lender is in California (I got a really great rate) and apparently my loan was not one of the wire transfers they had sent out the night before (even though they knew we were closing in the morning on the East coast). Add that to a three hour time difference and we had a real problem. We had an approved HUD, we had verbal confirmation from the lender, but we didn't have the actual funds. In the meantime the seller's lender blew in to deal with his problems with the other closing. Yet, instead of setting him up in another conference room, he sets up shop at the end of our table! So, not only am I now privy to private info about how the sellers don't have enough money to close on their house, but he felt that it was his place to throw out sarcastic and snide comments from time to time about my lenders and the situation I'm in. I was stressed out enough and this guy really got on my last nerve. When we were leaving the closing, he took out a pile of his business cards and literally threw them at me with some comment about the next time I needed a lender. What a jerk! I just looked at him without comment and didnot take one of his cards.

Finally, after about two and a half hours of this Hell, there was nothing much more we could do and we left the sellers to the conference room to deal with their problems with their other closing. All the paperwork for mine was signed and I gave the settlement rep my check for my downpayment and share of closing costs, it's just not officially completed until my loan funds are physically in place. I had an email from my mortgage broker late this afternoon that he had confirmation that the funds have been wired, so I guess everything is okay, but tonight has not turned out to the celebration of relief that I had hoped it would be. I'm pretty disappointed. Well, it's not tragic, I have the keys, the house is empty. I'm supposed to move first thing on Monday and had hoped to start moving some stuff over myself this weekend, I guess I can still do that, I feel a little weird about it though. On the other hand, it's not like someone will think I'm going to abscond to South America with the house or something, so I'm not really sure what to do, honestly.

Anyway, so that is my story of woe. Nothing is the end of the World, but it adds just another layer of stress to this process that I had not counted on. Luckily I have all of next week off from work to deal with things, so that should help. I'll probably come up to the house tomorrow and will take a few pictures and post them here at some point.