I decided when I started this blog a few months ago to not only update you on the latest trends in the DJ world and on my business but also to refer to things happening in my personal life. Today is one of these days where something big happened: after weeks of pain, false information, lies and hope, I finally closed on my first house today.
For those of you that have been thru the process it is supposed to be one of the most exciting times in your life. I can attest that this was THE most stressful time of my life. I won’t get into too many details here but will provide you some insight into why I now feel this country has the mortgage problem that it does. I was lucky, I had a semi-insider who could keep an eye on this transaction. If it was not for this person I can tell you I would have walked many times and been a renter until my time passed.
In my original plan I was approved to get into a no-fee mortgage, where the bank was going to pick up the cost of the closing and the attorney for me. I got approved into this program with a required closing date of May 28th. If we missed the date I had to pay a flat rate closing fee. As you can imagine I was pushing hard to get this to close on time.
All started our smooth with the paper work going in, the offer being accepted and the pre-approval on the mortgage being OK. This all took place in the month of April. By the beginning of May my attorney began to ask where information about the title was. This person, who I will never recommend and will remain nameless on here, then stated the bank’s mortgage person was not being cooperative. After getting them on the same page by mid-May I was told everything was great and we should close by May 28th. That’s where it all got crazy!
- On May 15th, the bank mortgage person called me to tell me she made a mistake and didn’t realize in New York the bank needed an attorney to represent them at closing. This lack of knowledge began a key part in why nobody could get the title laid out correctly as the local lawyer said he had no clue who to call since there was no lawyer for the bank in place.
- On May 18th I was told everything was in place, nothing else was needed and that I could possibly close early as in May 19 or 20. Perfect timing I thought with a long weekend…
- On May 19th, the lawyer calls to tell me I may need a land survey to make the deal close by the following week. I was told you may need to spend the money to do it or may not but if we don’t do it and you don’t have it in time you won’t close on time and will need to pay closing costs. Nice catch 22! Needless to say I spent the $700, only to have the attorney throw it back in my face that he said I might not need to spend the money when I complained this was costing more than it should…. It gets better!
- We pulled miracles, worked connections and got the survey done and on May 26th I was alerted to the fact we were closing on May 28th at 9am. Awesome I thought! I should have thought better….
- May 27th, day before closing I get a call from the lawyer who says there are errors on the sellers end and you likely won’t close on time. They need information that isn’t as easy as you think to go. I thought oh man here we go. Oh how I was right! The seller couldn’t get the information needed in time and my no-fee deadline was looming….
- May 28th (day I was supposed to close): Lawyers, bank and I are trying to figure out the error on the sellers end. Basically, there was a mistake in filing that should have been caught early on by the seller’s attorney and was not. They had the abstract to see this problem I was told on April 27th (which later became even earlier at April 3rd) and they didn’t look at it until May 26th. Things got even worse when I was told at 5pm there was no way I was going to close on time (we had til May 29th technically to get it done).
This led to a lot of decisons…. stay, walk, see if I can get an extension for an error that was on the sellers attorney (again nameless and never a referral from me). The bank said sorry this was not our error and you must pay closing costs. The seller is a saint and we developed a nice relationship. It took aa phone call from her to me to explain the situation.
To make matters even worse, the contract said “on or about May 28, 2009″ so we could not come after the seller or their attorney for any damages or closing costs since “on or about” does not hold up in court. Add in the fact my attorney apparently reviewed the contact and never put anything about “time is off the essence” in the paperwork and that stopped me from again going after people. I know this was not an intention error on the sellers part but the attorney had the paperwork for about 5 week and did not do anything with it. To add insult to injury the paperwork the seller needed was in at 2pm, which would have pushed for an ultra tight 5pm closing and kept me on a no-fee mortgage.
There was no 11th hour miracle. We needed 4 more hours time to get the paperwork done. I was told I would have to drive to Syracuse to close. We called the attorney’s office and I was told mine was away al day and no available (which is funny b/c at closing today he said I told someone at the bank’s attorneys office that he was available but never told his own secretary). Again are you freaking kidding me.
I had a long weekend to think things over. My fiance really really wanted the house and I was told I would need approx $4000 to close on this place if I wanted it. After much debate we decided to try and press forward. That takes us to Monday. The sellers paperwork was turned in and everything was supposed to be OK but I had another issue. My mortgage rate was only locked until June 9th. If this did not close by then I was going to have to get another mortgage (at a higher rate with points). The lawyer calls me and says if all goes well we will close on time. That was the last phone call I had with my lawyer.
His office never rang Tuesday. I found out from the seller FIRST then my connection at the bank long before the attorneys office said I was closing on Thursday, June 4th. All they could give me was a time and said they had no information on how much I would owe… That seemed to be the name of the game. I waited all day Wednesday, June 3rd to get an amount, only to hear nothing.
I was so mad Wednesday night because I wanted to know what I owed so I could prep the checks and transfer money around. I did the final walk thru with no clue on how much I was going to owe on the house. Then to top it off, Time Warner turned off the cable and internet at my apartment five days before they were supposed to. With a wedding this weekend and several clients constantly in touch via email with me I was furious. At first they were not going to turn my internet and TV back on. I wigged and said I run a business and I shouldn’t suffer for your mistake. Almost 30 hours later my service was restored. (thank goodness for an unpacked Karate Kid DVD).
This takes me to today, closing day, June 4, 2009. I woke up at 630am after about 4 hours of sleep. I packed a little, took out the trash and prepped myself for the big day. All I needed was the dollar amount I owed at closing then to go to the bank to move money, get a check and go to closing. I called the lawyers office at 830am only to be told they open at 9am. I found it odd that six hours before closing I didn’t have a final closing cost. Long story short… six hours became five and four and then it was 12pm and three hours away from closing and I still heard nothing from my attorney on what I owed. I was furious and steaming mad. The bank is paying this guy with MY MONEY to seal the deal and he can’t give me a dollar amount.
It took a call from my bank connection to let me at 1pm what my total amount was. No attorney call, no nothing. It was almost $4500 MORE than I imagined… After some select words I decided I needed to cool off before I decided if I was going to walk or stay with the deal. As luck would have it, I went for a walk and called my dad to discuss things only to have a bird poop on the front of my shirt, the sleeve and eventually back. I had been poo’d on by so many people that the birds decided to take notice lol.
After cleaning up and changing, I needed to make a couple calls to determine what I was going to do and how we were going to afford it. At 2:25pm I was off to the bank, with no call from the attorney, to tell get a check that nobody told us who to make out to. Can you stand it! So frustrating!!!!
At 3:05 the attorney called to ask where I was… I said I was near Rome to get my check and would be there ASAP. He said you know it was supposed to start five minutes ago in Utica. I said ohh I knew and if someone called me to tell me the amount I owed and who to make the check to I might be on time. He blamed it on the bank. On top of this, the guy tells me that since I no longer have closing costs I owed him his $650 fee. I knew that was wrong since I was paying over $4000 in closing fees. Needless to say I went back into the bank, had them call to check, etc etc… I was so furious and got halfway there trying to figure out what tree the money to pay that fee grew on and fortunately the realtor (who was awesome) texted me to say the guy realized he was wrong and it was built into my closing cost I was paying.
We walked into closing around 3:50pm, almost an hour late due to the fact we had to verify information nobody would call me on. Closing was animated. We asked the attorney who was representing the bank who was responsible for me not closing on time. It became clear that the seller’s attorney dropped the ball and he had already signed his paperwork and left. He didn’t get the earful I wanted to give him. The guy who supposedly represented me took no fall for it and when asked why he didn’t make changes to the purchase agreement squirmed out some weak excuse. Lawyers are like doctors, they are never at fault and pat each other on the back!
After an hour of paperwork I was handed the keys and thanked the realtor and the saint of my future mom-in-law for all their hard work. They should have received the attorney fees on behalf of the buyer and seller for getting the sheets together and making this non-sense come to a close.
If things could go wrong in this deal they did! Am I happy with the house yes! Am I pissed we had to spent $4000 more because some attorney couldn’t do their job and get stuff done on time? Yes I am… We really wanted this place but the fact we had to spend all this money because of a mistake someone won’t fess up to burns me.
If by chance Mr. Attorney, from either side, you come across this, my future wife and I would like to thank you for screwing us out of money we could have put towards our wedding or honeymoon. I know you don’t really care as you couldn’t even shake my hand or say congratulations after the deal. As you all ride in your nice fancy cars and live in your big houses thinking how great you are, just realize we know many people who are looking for houses and while someone else may be willing to reference you to keep your high end lifestyle going, we will be sure to not reference you to anyone in the future….
