I have a wonderful single buyer client whom I've worked with for over a year. She is a middle aged single mom and her biggest desire was for a home of her own. She has rented for years and has had to put up with rude landlords, drug dealing neighboring rentors, filth and fear. She had been without electricity and water because her landlord "forgot" to pay the utility bills.
So, she came to me over a year ago to see if there was any way she could buy a home. I gave her the name of some local lenders and we perused over the current listings. I advised her that her first step was to see if and what she was qualified to purchase.
She made the appointment with the lender of her choice and began the process. She was told she was pre-qualified for x amount of dollars and she could start looking in that range. So we proceeded. The paperwork was almost completed and then the lender she had been working with quit her job and moved to another company. She was assigned to work with another lender at the same company but was totally ignored. After waiting a couple of weeks for him to get back with her she decided to seek out the person she had been working with previously and so had to change companies.
So she had to resubmit all the paperwork....copies...faxes....copies, etc. She was given an initial price range so we began looking around mid Missouri. Looked at several properties in our community and surrounding communities and found one she really liked. Made and offer and it was rejected. In the mean time the paperwork at the new bank was almost done and then the lender was laid off. Back to square one. She went to another company and applied, filled out some initial paperwork and then was pretty much ignored again.
Poor lady was by this time getting very, very frustrated. I gave her the name of yet another lender and the process started again. copies, copies, copies, faxes...etc. Got the pre-approval and started looking again. Found a home that she liked better than the first one but it needed some cleaning up as it was a foreclosure. That's ok. Made an offer and it took forever to get an answer back...ended up resubmitting the offer as the first one expired. Finally got an acceptance. Did all the inspections, had to have the home dewinterized in order to get it inspected, hired plumber didn't show up. Time is running out. Found another plumber and got the water on and inspected.
Now the lender had all the information on the home completed, detailed listing information, description, etc. She had funded the loan under a USDA loan. Home was to close on Friday and the lender called...can't do it. Home does not qualify because it is an earth contact home. My poor buyer was beside herself and in tears as was I and the lender. We had all worked so hard. What do we do???? The home could qualify for an FHA loan but she did not have the 3% down payment. Meetings were held and the lady's boyfriend said he would gift her the money. Forms were completed on Sunday evening so we could close on Monday. Lender called me in tears. We had to prove that there was some sort of connection between the buyer and the person giving her the money and she didn't think there was one since the couple did not live together. Lo and behold the guy had been paying her cell phone bill and that qualified. The paperwork was completed and we closed on Monday.
The buyer cried through the whole closing and afterwards. That to me is what is is all about. I was so happy to have been able to help her through all the ups and downs of buying a home. Luckily we ended up with a lender who was able and willing to go above and beyond to be able to help get the loan approved and funded.
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