With all the talk about the condition of the housing industry, the mortgage industry, and about the impossibility of buying a home with less than perfect credit, I'm going to blow you away with this great story about what a determined couple and their realtor and mortgage lender accomplished via fax, phone and email from Iraq!
Here are the characters in this story:
First Time Home Buyers: Jill and Joe (names have been changed)
Realtor: Mary Ann Daniell
Lender #1: (shall remain nameless, but is a HUGH well recognized national name in the mortgage business)
Lender #2: Local Fort Hood area lender who knows HOW to work with active duty and retired home buyers, meeting their unique needs.
I got a call from Joe who is deployed to Iraq. Joe will be back to Fort Hood by early 2008, and he and his wife want to buy a home now. Joe asked me if he really needed a realtor to help him buy a home. He specifically asked WHY he needed a realtor.
After explaining everything that I do for my clients, I told him that there is NO CHARGE for my services. He was surprised, to say the least! I explained to him that the seller of the home he buys pays my fee for bringing a buyer for their property. He had no idea that agents who help buyers do not usually charge a fee.
Once he realized having a licensed realtor represent him was a good thing (as Martha would say), he asked me to call his wife and talk with her.
Jill was home and waiting for my phone call. We had a great visit on the phone and set an appointment to start looking at homes in a few days. Meanwhile, I asked Joe to contact his lender and have them send me his prequalification letter and his Good Faith Estimate.
After reviewing the documents, I had some reservations about just what the lender was up to. I asked Joe to call the loan officer to give her permission to talk with me about his loan terms.
Once I got her on the phone, we talked a bit about the charges on the Good Faith Estimate. She told me they always charge a 1% origination fee AND an additional 1% fee for a VA loan .
I nearly fell out of my chair! I have NEVER, EVER, heard of a 1% fee for a VA loan in the Fort Hood market.
When I asked her if she was willing to waive this fee for my buyer, she said NO, that they always charge that fee on VA loans. Her attitude gave me a brief visual image of someone in a cubicle hiding behind the telephone, twirling around in her chair, getting a good laugh at my expense (so she thought).
Well, folks, I have been working with VA loans here at Fort Hood for over 8 years, and I know from experience that I have never seen a lender charge a 1% VA fee when it comes to these loans. In fact, I've done VA loans with this national mortgage company for many years, and have never had them try to pull this on a borrower. I think she dreamed this up to pad her own pocket. (Although I know local lender may charge a fractionally higher interest rate and not charge any origination fee) I could say a lot more about this, but will save it for another post,
Once the steam stopped spewing from my ears, I emailed Joe and let him know that I didn't think that his loan officer had his best interest at heart, and asked him if he would consider talking with a local Fort Hood area lender. Joe called me right back back to get the lender's phone number, and within an hour, had been prequalified for his loan at a great rate, and NO ORIGINATION FEE and NO bogus "VA Loan Fee". He was one happy camper! The move to the other lender saved him about $4600 in loan fees, and the local lender's regular closing fees were much less than what the national lender quoted him on his Good Faith Estimate for even more savings. He was impressed with the professional service and straight talk he received from this local lender, and thanked me more than once for helping him get a better mortgage deal.
WHEW! One crisis solved!
Jill and I had gone out to see some homes, and we did find the PERFECT home! It was one she and Joe had not even considered because of the smaller size, but it WAS in their preferred subdivision. I knew it was a FANTASTIC home that was well maintained and had some great upgrades. The minute Jill walked in, all she could say was WOW, I LOVE IT!
We wrote up the offer and it was accepted. Jill hired an independent home inspector to give a report on the home, We negotiated the minor repair items found in the inspection, and the seller agreed to fix everything. All is well and everyone is happy to have this phase behind us.
But... Crisis #2 is on the horizon...
The lender had noted that there were some credit issues on Joe and Jill's credit report that would have to be cured before they were fully approved for their loan. This means that items that Joe said had been paid off were still showing as negative comments on his credit report. NOW WHAT DO WE DO?? He's in Iraq. She's here. They go into panic mode!
What we do is identify the problem and plan a solution! The lender worked with Joe on the phone and on email to tell him exactly what she needed from him and from his creditors.
Joe and Jill both worked together to get the lender what she needed, but it seemed that one particular issue just could not be fixed. Jill was heartbroken that she wasn't going to be able to get her beautiful new home, and Joe was irritated that the bill he KNEW he had paid off was still showing on his credit report.
The lender and I told both of them if the bill was paid, there was a paper trail somewhere (or an electronic trail these days). If the creditor was unwilling to help him, he could contact his bank to find proof of the payment. Joe worked on this all the way from Iraq, while I kept encouraging Jill to not despair.
These issues take time and perseverance to fix, and I had a good feeling that Joe would get this cleared up, and HE DID! All the way from Iraq, amazingly, he managed to solve the last issue, and they were approved for their loan.
So, even though this was a rough experience at the beginning, Joe and Jill ARE going to close on their first home in about a month. By not throwing up their hands, this couple, their realtor and their lender made their dream come true. Special thanks should go to the lender who worked so hard to make all this happen.
If you want to buy a home, don't give up at the first evidence of a possible problem. Don't say "well the mortgage market is a mess" or "a realtor says I can't buy a house". Keep hammering away at it until you have exhausted every possibility. Question everything and everyone who can possibly help you find the answers to solving what stands between you and owning a home!
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