My loan officer came back with an answer, and it was no for the "American Dream" loan. Their UW guidelines for that loan are apparently very strict. However, I called around to other lenders, and one actually pulled my credit. He says he can get the loan approved, he'll rush it through and we'll probably end up closing only a week late. 
When the US Bank LO heard that someone else could get me a loan, she decided to see if we can go FHA as that's what the other guy is going for. She found out that I can in fact go FHA with my grant. She's contacting UW to see if it can be approved as an FHA loan, since their UW guidelines are less picky - and I pointed out to her that FHA does not require that unpaid collections be paid. I'm waiting to hear back from her now. But if we do FHA, I will need an FHA appraisal. I already pre-paid the original appraisal, and I refuse to pay for another one upfront. The other guy will not charge me up front for the appraisal, but he's going to get a full credit approval from UW before ordering the appraisal. Things ARE looking up....
I'll update as soon as I know something.
Hang in there Sommery I really hope everything works out for you.
I really hope everything works out for you.
I'm sorry Sommery
This just means that there is something better for you. Don't give up. See what you can do about the collection. You have more power to negotiate now because you are not under the time crunch of trying to meet your closing.
This just means that there is something better for you. Don't give up. See what you can do about the collection. You have more power to negotiate now because you are not under the time crunch of trying to meet your closing.