Need to vent and hear from some loan officers out there... Here's my story...
My husband and I put a contract on a new contruction home in March of this year. We had a home sale contingency to sell our current home. We paid our earnest money deposit to the builder and we saw our new home go up slowly. Our loan was approved, no issues on our end. As contruction progressed, we listed our current home and waited for a buyer. We kept our builder and lender apprised of our progress to sell our current home.
We finally received an offer and ratified the contract on August 8, 2014. The closing date we agreed to was 9/17/14. The buyers were getting VA financing. Their lender is an independent broker in the local Washington, DC area. As for next steps, the Inspection took place quickly, the house is new ( 4 years old) so there were very minor repairs needed, so we obliged and took care of everything requested. We also included a full home generator with the sale, as well as the majority of the home furnishings. Lastly, we agreed to pay their closing costs.
We kept asking about the appraisal which hadnt been done yet, with the closing date fast approaching we began to get concerned. We then learned that the buyers had some credit challenges which they were working through. Through our agent, we learned there were also issues with one person receiving disability income and somehow lost their medical documentation. Then their lender finally says he can't meet the 9/17 deadline and needs until 9/30 to get everything he needs to close the loan. In the midst of this, the house finally appraises for over asking.
My husband and I are pissed because our new home is complete. We have to break the news to our builder who reminded us that our contract with them assesses an fee for each day we are unable to close on the new home. While we understood the terms of the contract, we asked them to reconsider because the delays are not due to any fault of ours. After a few calls to the builder's corporate office, they agreed to waive the fee. And we all proceed with the 9/30 date of settlement.
On September 30, we learn that the buyers arent eligible for VA anymore since there are issues with the COE and they are being considered for FHA now. From there its a litany of reasons for the delays from their lender ranging from missing documentation, still proving disability income, DTI ratios, changing the price of the house, increasing our sellers contribution, and a few lies which I have emails to prove. Our builder and lender even got involved to see if they could help and this broker just said he's working as fast as he can. The file is either missing documentation or in underwriting, just depends on the day of the week and the direction of the wind.
To speed things up - We gave these buyers the following extensions based on the claims made by the broker after the 9/30 missed closing: October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 29th.. Today. Last week he said they were conditionally approved with 3 conditions, all being small and we should be good for 10/29. On the last extension bringing us to today, we stated that we needed to close on or before 5pm today or we reserve the right to cancel the contract. Yesterday, we received yet another email from this lender saying they are still in underwriting and they should get the clear to close sometime today. Well, it's 4:00pm EST and we've yet to hear anything.
Is this guy stringing us along for a ride and he really can't do the loan? I've purchased and sold property before and this is BEYOND comprehension. We know that if this deal doesnt go through, we lose our earnest money with the builder ( over $15K), so we are trying to stick it out as long as the builder will work with us. But everyone's patience has an end.
Do we keep going or cut bait and try to sue??
