Just wanted to provide those within the Central Florida and Northern Florida areas waiting for a response from USDA an update:
I called this morning and they are now reviewing files submitted to them on 9/26-10/2.
I was even in communication with one of the processors in the USDA office via email last week who was kind enough to provide me with an insight as to why they are so far behind.
Unfortuantely due to budget cutbacks they are super under staffed and have been slammed with USDA files to review. Furthermore, LO's have been providing them with "incomplete files" only adding more burden on the approval process. If some of these LO's would review their files accordingly prior to submitting them and provide USDA with COMPLETED files, the process would go extremely faster!!
They have decided to now place incomplete files on the side, notify the LO of what is missing, and rather than waiting on a response and go back and forth with the LO, they are now immediately moving on to the next file while the LO provides them with a COMPLETE file for a second review. That way, they can move forward with all other files and once a LO responds with a COMPLETE file, they would go back to review it, and if all is okay, approve it and then continue reviewing other files.
I truly do not know why they have not been doing this since the beginning, but whatever! Now they are, and all I can hope and pray for is that they reach our file before the end of this week!!!! Oh my gosh this waiting has had me on the edge!!! They are slowly inching there way to our file which was submitted on 10/5!! 
I CANNOT wait for that phone call from our LO giving us the great news that we are APPROVED and ready to CLOSE!!!! 
Good luck everyone who is waiting for their phone call as well!!
Emy
Hi Jakye!
You are very welcome! Just as my husband and I have been very frustrated with this process, I was sure there were a whole lot more people out there having the same issues as us. It is also very furstrating not being able to get answers from your own loan officer, yet alone find clear information online. So after getting some information, I thought of sharing it with others who are seeking answers!
I got that information from one of the processors at the Gainseville USDA office via email! I was getting concerned when I noticed their recording had different dates on files reviewed from previous recordings. So I went to the FL USDA Rural Development website and found an email address along with the number I have been contacting. I am no longer going by what my loan officer tells us, heck! We've not even heard from him since the day we were supposedly closing which was 10/29. He was letting us know (via email of course) that we were not closing, but to sit tight, we should be closing soon. It is now Nov 7th and nothing still! That really frustrated my husband and I so I had to dig for information ALL on my own! I never understood why some LO's cannot be completely up front with their clients!!
As for your LO stating they cannot get any answers from USDA, I personally think it is a bunch of baloney! I was able to make contact via email, AND they were nice enough to provide me with clear details, furthermore, they were very apologetic for the delay!! So if I was able to make contact AND get answers as a buyer, why couldn't a loan officer or loan underwriter with a mortgage company not be able to??? At least something!
As of today (11/7) they are reviewing files dated 10/1-10/2 and the recording got into more detail that they are still reviewing files older than that, but that at least they are making better progress to getting to newer files for review. Yay!! I truly hope that by AT LEAST middle of next week they have reached files dated 10/5!! If I read correctly, after they review a file, the turnaround time could be 24-48 hours, so hopefully you'll get your news this week!!!
Could you please provide us with an update should you happen to hear a response from your LO??? It would really be helpful!!
GOOD LUCK!!!!
Any updates?
No, I'm in Ohio, but I've been following your posts. Thanks for posting so much information. I know that each state is a little different as far as turn times, but most of the rules (for USDA RD guaranteed loans) should be the same across the board. Please keep updating. Thanks!
Hi Christlike!! You are very welcome, I am glad my postings have been helpful!
Okay, our time has "somewhat" finally come!!
As of today Nov 15th they are FINALLY reviewing files dated 10/1-10/5!! Ours was submitted on 10/5!!
Now I do not know what the chances are that TODAY they may review our file, since we were informed by our LO's boss that they received an email from USDA about 2 weeks ago letting them know that they are going from 30 days of processing to 35 days. They have been slammed again with tons of USDA files and have very limited staff! So it's been extremely difficult for them to get to all the files within a decent timeframe. How frustrating! As you can see they are still reviewing files dated 10/1, so what does that tell you?
The only thing I can think of that they still have files of 10/1 lingering around is that those are porbably files that are missing information and had caused them to set it aside. As I said in one of my postings, I was told by one of the Guaranteed Specialists/Processors that they have been coming across lots of incomplete files from loan officers and that also is a factor to their processing delay.
My husband and I PRAY that our Loan Officer DID his job and submitted our file FLAWLESS!!! Otherwise, it will be more time of waiting and waiting and currently I am just done with the waiting.....
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!
I shall definitely come back to inform everyone that we are heading to close (If God allows it to happen!!) **STAYING POSITIVE**
@Anonymous wrote:Hi Christlike!! You are very welcome, I am glad my postings have been helpful!
Okay, our time has "somewhat" finally come!!
As of today Nov 15th they are FINALLY reviewing files dated 10/1-10/5!! Ours was submitted on 10/5!!
Now I do not know what the chances are that TODAY they may review our file, since we were informed by our LO's boss that they received an email from USDA about 2 weeks ago letting them know that they are going from 30 days of processing to 35 days. They have been slammed again with tons of USDA files and have very limited staff! So it's been extremely difficult for them to get to all the files within a decent timeframe. How frustrating! As you can see they are still reviewing files dated 10/1, so what does that tell you?
The only thing I can think of that they still have files of 10/1 lingering around is that those are porbably files that are missing information and had caused them to set it aside. As I said in one of my postings, I was told by one of the Guaranteed Specialists/Processors that they have been coming across lots of incomplete files from loan officers and that also is a factor to their processing delay.
My husband and I PRAY that our Loan Officer DID his job and submitted our file FLAWLESS!!! Otherwise, it will be more time of waiting and waiting and currently I am just done with the waiting.....
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!
I shall definitely come back to inform everyone that we are heading to close (If God allows it to happen!!)
Normally, a file wouldn't go to USDA until after the final lender's underwrite. The UW would make sure everything is ok, and that the lender can approve- at this point, I would think any missing/incomplete info would be caught, or the UW wouldn't give approval. I suspect that the primary/only reason for the delay is that they're understaffed, not incomplete files from an LO.
Thanks for updating this thread, and I hope you get to close soon!
Hi Sunshine 85!
Thanks for the good luck, we really need it!
With regards to the files being submitted incomplete to USDA, that has been one of the issues unfortuantely.
One of the USDA specialists/processor stated that in her response to my email when I was asking what the turaround time was for files from Central Florida AND my loan officer also received en email from USDA when they were notifying all loan officers why they have been behind. They informed them that the processing time is now 35 business days rather than 30 business days.
They have stated to both of us that they are coming across way too many files that are incomplete and it is causing more delays on top of the issue of being understaffed and slammed with more USDA files. She even apologized in my email for the delay and explained to me what approach they were going to take when they came across a file that was considered "incomplete". They were originally dealing with that same file by going back and forth with the loan officer going over the issues and doing it until they were finally complete with it, then moving on to the next. But it pushed them father behind so now IF they come across another incomplete file, they will notify the loan officer of the issues, then set it aside, and move on to the next file. Once they hear back from the previous loan officer and make sure all issues were resolved will they then be able to complete it and just keep going.
I wish they had done that from the beginning, but oh well, at least they are doing it now and hopefully it would help speed up the process a little more.
As I stated before, I just hope OUR loan officer did do his job properly and submitted our file with no issues. We have been on this home buying journey since March!! And here we are almost nearing end of November......
GOOD LUCK AGAIN TO ALL!!!