underwriter nightmare- 2 1/2 months, still no clear to close

[Cole0408]

I am writing to today to get advice/opinions, and really just to vent and attempt to clear my head.

I am extremely frustrated with my mortgage application and at this point am really just ready to give up and throw in the towel...

My husband and I have been under contract to purchase a home since November 18th.  This will be a VA purchase.  Our file has been through underwriting, and we had cleared all the conditions the underwriter presented to us before Christmas.  We assumed we would close the beginning of January because we never heard back from the underwriter.  2 weeks ago our file completed the QC review and was ready to move to the clear to close department.  As of today, we are still sitting in the clear to close department and now the underwriter is asking for a statement from my husbands' commanding officer saying that he there are no factors preventing him from reenlisting when it is time to do so.  This isn't an issue- his CO already agreed to providing the letter, but now we have this winter storm to contend with and his CO won't be in the office until "possibly" tomorrow (Friday). 

My other issue is that we have been asking for extensions to our lease since the end of December and our landlord has been nice enough to grant them, but he has told us our final extension is January 5th. 

I don't see us being able to close by the 5th since this mortgage company has taken so long up to this point. Is it possible for us to close by then?

Also- is there any reason why this process should have taken this long?  It just really seems to me like we have been taken advantage of in this process...  The only thing I have good to say about this experience is thank goodness for patient sellers as we have signed 4 contract addendums and they are still patiently waiting.  But for how much longer I don't know...

Please help!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

The letter from the CO is required if there it's within 12 months of release from active duty/end of contract term.  Should say right on the LES.  The lender should be able to get docs out within 24 hours of your clear to close, assuming they don't continue to ask for additional documents.  Sounds like this may be the first time this lender or the loan officer is doing a VA loan, unless you have delayed providing them documents in a timely manner then from what you've mentioned it has been the lenders fault so far.

[Cole0408]

Thanks for your reply.  Yes he is within 12 months of his ETS.  I just don't understand why they didn't ask for this a long time ago.  I have been really good about providing them with everything they have asked for- usually within an hour of the request.

[edcampbell613]

Sounds like the big bank blues.

I left the big bank 5 months ago for stuff like this.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Was he within 12 months of ETS back when you started, or did it just cross over into the 12 months or less timeframe?

[nykole0408]

He was within the 12 months when we started.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Well then they should've asked for that from the very beginning.  Hopefully his CO can come into the office tomorrow.

[Cole0408]

Well we got the letter from my husband's CO Friday.  I emailed it to our loan officer first thing friday morning, only to find out Friday afternoon after attempting to email and call him that he wasn't working.  Is it possible to close by Wednesday?  I am not very optimistic at this point...

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Still possible if you have the clear to close today.

[Cole0408]

I got an update from my LO this morning- we had to send in new paystubs from the military yesterday.  He said this morning that everything else in our file had passed QC and clear to close reviews, and the processor had sent in the paystubs and put a rush on them.  We hope to get a clear to close today.  Fingers crossed!