You might remember that we started the mortgage refinancing process back in August. I said that I would provide an update and share my lessons learned, and I never did, but only because I didn't have an update. The sad truth is that we just closed on our mortgage refinance this week.
That's right. August to March is a 7-month process. To put this in perspective, we started the process before I was pregnant (or at least before we knew I was pregnant), and I am about 8.5 weeks from my due date. It should not take the same amount of time to refinance a mortgage and grow a new human...but it did.
So, here we go. Lessons learned. Neglect and incompetence on the part of the bank were the general themes of the process. They asked for documents in November. We sent them a link and offered to mail the docs, and they never asked for paper copies or acknowledged receiving it. They never acknowledged anything we sent, so we assumed all was well. Then they asked for the same docs in February. We sent the same link with a friendly reminder that we sent them the docs four months ago, and here they were again. They said they couldn't access the docs online and we had 36 hours to mail or fax the docs or the mortgage refinance would be cancelled.
The docs were too big to email (a fact that we noted in both emails about them), neither of us was able to get to the post office in time, and we don't have a fax machine. However, I came up with a solution that allowed us to make the deadline and had the potential to be very annoying to our incompetent mortgage processor, a double win. I split the documents into 1-page PDFs and emailed them individually.
Yes, this process took a long time and was annoying, as I had to create about 85 documents and then send 85 emails. But the thought of leaving our mortgage processor with a full mailbox and maybe even a paralyzed computer as all the emails arrived was enough motivation to keep me going.
When he first made his demand, I might have sent an email response that was more heated than what one would expect from me. I almost certainly used my go-to phrase in times of duress, "This is unacceptable!" I might have thrown out words such as "incompetent" and "unreasonable" in an accusatory kind of way. Such tactics are not the best way to win people over, and in hindsight, perhaps I ought to have tempered myself.
Or not! Because we actually had forward progress on our refinance after they received the docs. Sure, they tried to put up another roadblock, demanding additional docs, but B was able to track down the PDF copies of them from our town's website (thank goodness for modern technology).
Several more weeks passed, and then early this week, I received a call from the guy who locked our rate. He explained that (despite all evidence to the contrary) the bank really wanted to close the mortgage. However, all the delays meant that they owed money to Freddie Mac because they weren't able to close the deal in the time allotted. They very generously (sniff) offered to pay half the fee, but they expected us to cough up the other half, about $700.
This put us in a very difficult situation. First of all, our amazing rate is long gone and will probably never return in my lifetime. Secondly, if we were to start the refinancing process over again, we'd have to pay over $300 to lock a new and higher rate and pay for a credit check, plus we'd be paying our current high mortgage interest each month while we waited for the loan to close.
I asked whether there was an appeal process, as we had responded to all requests in a timely way, so therefore, the delay was not our fault. He said we could appeal, but we'd be taken out of the queue that we were in and put in another queue. The appeal could take 30 days, and there were 3 possible results: the bank could cancel the loan entirely, they could deny the appeal (and then we'd owe about twice as much for the extra delay), or they could approve the appeal.
What could we do? I agreed to pay the fee. I am contemplating using the small-claims courts as my own personal appeal, but first I will have to do further research to determine if I have a case.
While I had him on the phone, I asked for the closing costs, which he gave me. Incidentally, they didn't match the actual costs on the docs we signed. Details, details.
I asked if we could bring a check to cover the closing costs. He said that any modifications would only delay the process. Again, all I could do was say ok and go along with it.
Although we weren't allowed to pay any closing costs, he said we were required to bring the $700 fee to the closing. He couldn't give me the exact amount and said we'd have to wait for a phone call on the day of the closing to get the number. Around 3 PM that day (after B had called and emailed everyone we knew at the bank trying to get the number), we received a phone call and email saying that we didn't have to bring any money to the closing and would in fact be receiving a check back from them. For what, we don't know.
For our closing, which took place at our house, a lawyer arrived with the docs. We signed them all, handed them back, and then it was over.
On the one hand, we feel as if we ought to celebrate. But the process was so long and horrible that we just want to feel grateful for our new rate and try to forget the drama that we went through to get it.
Now that we've got our mortgage finished, it's time to move on to other adulty tasks, including setting up a living trust, getting wills, and starting a 529 plan for the Rooster. Let the excitement begin.
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