A few more days

Last Sunday, I sat in my parent’s living room thinking that the week of May 9th was going to be the longest week of our lives. Our emotions were high. We were excited and nervous but most of all we were looking forward to being able to call ourselves homeowners for the first time in our lives. Little did we know, things were not going to go as we had planned or hoped for. Last week ended up being one of the most stressful weeks. Buying a house has proved to be a very tense and challenging process.

So, here is our latest update. The original date to close on our house in Louisiana was set for May 14th, 2010. We have spent the past month in a half making sure everything was in order and ready to go for our big purchase. For the most part things have been pretty smooth. Our main complaint had been with our USAA loan processor. She was always out of the office and wasn’t that great at returning calls. I spent most of my time talking to others loan officers instead of her in order to get updates on the process of our loan. Although I was irritated with her, I felt that things were going the way they were supposed to. We have banked with USAA for years. We really like them and have never had any issues. We had a couple of little bumps here and there throughout this process but nothing to major (or so we thought). On Monday the 10th, I called our loan processor only to find out that she was going to be out of the office (again) until the 13th and that I was supposed to talk to some other loan processor. Needless to say I was a little upset. I ended up leaving her a detailed message expressing my feelings and reminding her that we were to close on May 14th. I also left a message for the other loan processor. On Tuesday morning I called again because I had not heard back from either processor. I ended up speaking to someone in customer service. She assured me that everything was moving along just fine and that an underwriter had picked up our package that morning. She sent him an email asking him to get in touch with me because I had some questions regarding our loan. Up to this point, Jason and I didn’t really have any idea as to what was taking place. We had questions spinning around in our heads. This is a big step for both of us. Call us crazy but we want to know everything that is going on. Not only is this our home but it is also a big part of our future as well as our kids future.

On Wednesday afternoon, I received a phone call from our realtor. She had some bad news. USAA had called her that morning demanding specific information from the developer of our house. USAA wanted the developer to release the land lease agreement as well as his rights to the minerals on our property. If the developer didn’t meet these terms, USAA was not going to close on our house. Before we agreed to sign the contract, our realtor went over the Louisiana state mineral laws as well as the property lease agreement that the developer has. According to the state of Louisiana, any contractor, developer, or builder who purchases land does not have to release private information or give up their rights to the minerals. In simpler terms what it comes down to is if they were to find oil on our property, we would not have the rights to them. According to Louisiana state laws, no one can drill on our property or within 100 feet of our property. It also states that if your house is built within a community, that community will not be touched. The property is ours when we buy it. They have no rights to our property and can not put any kind of lean on our property. Our realtor tried to explain that to USAA. She even tried to email them or fax them the state documents. They refused anything other than what they had asked for.

Our realtor spent all morning trying to find a solution to our problem. When she called me, she had already spoken with a new lender. The lender agreed to transfer our loan. They said that at the very minimum, they would match what USAA had offered us. We decided to go ahead and use them. We trust our realtor and after talking with our new loan processor, we both felt comfortable and that we were making the right decision. Our new lender is a local lender that our real estate company works with on a regular basis. Our new processor is amazing. She has made us her top priority. I have talked to her more in the past couple of days than I ever talked to our old processor in the two months that she had our paperwork.

Jason and I spent Wednesday evening, all day Thursday, and most of Friday getting all of our information transferred to our new lender. We basically had to start the process all over again. Everything that we had done in the past month in a half with USAA was being done in a matter of 2 days with the new lender. We spent a few hours printing everything from loan documents, to bank statements, to different types of military documents. (A HUGE thank you to the Davis family!) On Thursday, we signed all of the new documents and then spent a couple of hours faxing 96 pages to our processor. There were a few odds and ends that we had to fax on Friday. At 2 pm on Friday, all of our documents were handed over to an underwriter. The only thing that is missing is the appraisal on the house. USAA has 48 hours to release it to our new lender. The plan is to close by Friday May 21st.

So, here we are again in my parent’s living room. It is Sunday, technically the beginning of a new week. Our hopes are high. Jason keeps telling me that the worst has passed us by. He is confident that all will go well and that within a matter of days we will finally be able to call ourselves homeowners.