Back By Popular Demand

BEWARE......long post!

Well, I cannot guarantee how much I will blog right now or how bright and cheery the posts might be but I will do my best. Here is a quick synopsis of our past couple of months since my last post. This may not make any sense either because I am frustrated, so bare with me.

We are alive in Iowa. Within the first week of arriving here, we found and put an offer in on our dream home. I had actually found this home on a website before even moving here and fell in love. It was priced way too high for us since we did not have a down payment and still have the home in Arizona. We looked around when we got here and could not find anything in very good condition that fit the needs of our family. We decided to put a really low offer in on our dream home just to see what happened. Well luck was on our side and they came down over $30,000 on their original price to accept our offer of $152,500. The only draw back to the home was there were renters in it that required a 60-day notice to vacate. So our close date was set for Feb 13th and the countdown and heartache begun. We moved into a little apartment. We did not need any space, we had no furniture. We borrowed air mattresses and our lovely realtor had a kitchen table, that was it. We sat on the floor and slept on air, but we stayed happy.

The appraisal on the home happened immediately but we could not get the results of the inspection for over 2 weeks. Turns out that our mortgage company just failed to return several phone calls to get a loan number to file the inspection. The owners of the home refused to give notice to the renters until the inspection came back so every day we waited, is one more day longer until we closed. It was also one more day we had to pay for all our belongings to be stored, NOT cheap. Finally, almost a month after we put in the offer, the ball started rolling. Don't most mortgages take a month from start to finish? Hmmm, interesting!

While all this was happening, the renters in our Arizona home decided they did not need to pay rent. OUCH! They produced lie after lie to postpone getting evicted. Then once they were evicted, they refused to leave. Our amazing property manager got tricky to motivate them to move out but it came down to having to take them to court to have the physically removed. I guess the prospect of court finally motivated them and they left after living in the house for free for 6 weeks. We were able to get amazing renters in there within a few days of the others leaving which has taken a huge burden off our shoulders. We LOVE you ZIERSE's!! This was all just a lot to handle for us!

So back to the Iowa home......we had to deal with our loan processor. She requested information from us which I provided within a day. We emailed her several times and left her numerous messages to see if she got the information. Our realtor started calling as well, no luck. Finally 2 weeks later, she emails us asking for the information I already sent her again. The next 3 weeks were followed by several frustrating attempts to get her to answer her phone or return messages to no avail. She would occasionally send an email saying she would call me later to discuss things. She then began asking for information beyond what is the normal for a loan request, stuff that I am certain was illegal for her to require. I was always so nervous and on edge during this whole process. I had that gut wrenching feeling that things were not going well with each email and phone call. You would have thought we would have clued earlier. So after giving blood samples and our left lung, we were assured everything was okay and we were good to close on Feb 13th. I had Ryan make a specific phone call on the Tues before closing and pleading that if there was anything that could hold this loan up, to let us know because our truck was scheduled to be delivered and we needed to cancel it if we were not going to be closing. She promised all was well and there was no need to stress. She gave us the amount we needed to bring to closing and we got our cashiers check and finally felt calm we might actually close. On Thurs, Feb 12th, I sent our processor several emails and left several messages because the title company did not have our paperwork yet so I was wondering when she would get it to them. She never called me back. At 3pm, I received an out of office reply saying she had left the office for the day and would not be back until after the weekend. I then frantically called her manager, no answer. At 5pm, the night before we were scheduled to close, her manager called me and informed me they would not be funding the loan. WHAT THE &%*#!!! They said the Arizona house was too big of a liability. But they knew about the Arizona home from the get go, why at 5pm did they just discover this? She basically told me that the loan originator and the loan processor dropped the ball and should have never proceeded with the loan. She assured me she would have a talk with them. A TALK? So they get a slap on the wrist while we just totally got screwed!!! Our truck was coming, we had to be out of our apartment and they get a talking to. She had the audacity to tell me it was hard for her to have to make this phone call so she was suffering too! Seriously, I would have punched her in the face if we were sitting next to each other. I asked her what we were suppose to do? I offered a co-signer, anything. They said there was no circumstance they could think of that would change their mind, they would not give us the loan.

Our realtor contacted the owners of the home and asked if we could rent it from them so we could have our stuff delivered somewhere. They were hesitant because they said if we could not get a loan through this mortgage company, why are they to think we could get a loan through any mortgage company. After a very long night, he finally convinced the owners at 9:40am, 20 minutes before our truck arrived, to let us rent the house. They gave us 30 days to get a loan or move out. Not a great situation here. The kids love the house and love having their stuff back but it is hard to unpack until we know if we get to stay or not. I cannot even believe this happened. I am not upset that they did not feel comfortable giving us the loan, just the timing of their refusal to do so. It felt just as bad as the day Ryan got laid off. Just an awful feeling! We are helpless. It takes on an extra burden with children trying to provide for them and give them a place to live.

So as of now, we don't know what the next month holds for us. We are trying to get a loan through another mortgage company. They sounded hopeful they could give us the loan but so did the other place. I am not sure what the point of getting pre-approved is when they can un-approve you later. I just want to belong somewhere. It seems like we have lived in limbo so many times over the past 7 years of our lives. I want to settle in and get comfortable for awhile and I hope we can do it in this house. Never mind it being my dream home, I just want a home. I want to unpack and hand stuff on the walls. I want to RELAX and not be so stressed out like I have been since Oct 14, 2008. Come on, throw me a bone here, give me some peace!!!

Well, enough venting for now. Well, wait, one more thing.....I was not going to do this but if I can save someone else from this hell, it will be worth it. NEVER, EVER do business with COUNTRYWIDE!!!! Whew, I feel better!

I never ask for this, I always feel like there are better things and more deserving people. But I am desperate here so if you all could please, pray for us. Just pray for peace for us, I just need some gosh darn peace.

I will try and post pictures of the kids later tonight or tomorrow. No promises, but I will do my bestest!