A Mortgage

Last week I was stressing a bit (okay, a lot) about the insane process of buying a house. I called my mom in tears and told her about all of my stress and frustration. It was a good release for me, and she reminded me that buying a house is one of the most stressful things a person and specifically a couple will do. There are lots of "stress test" questionnaires that are around (I used to have my students do one in my Child Development class when we were talking about marriage and children.) Buying a new house or moving is worth a huge amount of points.  Moral of the story being that buying a house isn't supposed to be easy. It will always be stressful. But it is how you deal with the stress that matters. You can let the stress get to you and destroy yourself and your relationships. Or you can grit your teeth do what needs to be done and come out on top.

As I am trying to make this blog more realistic as a journal of our life, I decided that I probably ought to write about this process... because eventually we will want to be able to look back and be grateful that we survived. (Or maybe we will need it as a reminder to NEVER EVER MOVE.) However, I'm grateful that through the whole thing (save a few breakdowns) we were able to stick together and deal with the stress in a good way.

The last Friday of January we got a phone call from our mortgage lender, Box Home Loans, to say that they were sorry but they weren't going to be able to process our home loan. Say, WHAT!?!? We have been working with them for months and here we are, just a few weeks away from closing, and all the sudden they can't work with us anymore? The reason they gave us is that we are part of a down-payment assistance program and they won't accept money from any down-payment assistance programs. So, let me back up.

Our last semester at Utah State, I was working in my IT Computer Lab Manager Office and one of my friends, Larry Bucio, comes in and jumps on the computer next to me. He starts telling me about this program that he just heard about in his Family Finance class called the IDA program. The things that he was saying sounded way too good to be true, so we both started looking up their website. Utah Saves works in conjunction with the USU Extension (and other finance courses) to provide a program that promotes saving. In this society, saving money seems to be a lost art - and so they have set up a system that teaches peopel how to save and then rewards them for it. The deal is that you save a certain amount of money each month into a special savings account and then at the end of 2 years, they match your money $3 for every $1 for use on starting a small business, paying for college, or buying a house. That very hour I signed David and I up to be a part of this program, and it was fantastic. We went to financial literacy classes, which were great in of themselves as we were still trying to figure out our finances as a married couple. We filled out some paperwork and were accepted into the program. It was amazing that we heard about it when we did, because after we graduated we both got jobs and we wouldn't have been able to qualify for the income restrictions. Every month for two years we drove to Zions Bank and deposited our $62.50 into our IDA account. Now that we are buying a house we have $1,500 saved and the IDA program will be matching that money with a $4,500 cashiers check. Amazing opportunity right?

Except, now - back to the present. Box Home Loans won't work with us because of our IDA. They don't even have a reason why, except that they "just don't work with downpayment assistance programs". Well, $4,500 is a whole lotta money, and so that next Monday I start making phone calls. I call our IDA rep, I call Box, I call 5-6 different mortgage lenders to get their quotes for a 30 year term with 10% down. Seriously 20 phone calls later, we realize that Box is lame but interest rates have gone up and if we go with anyone else - our $4,500 is really only worth about $1,000 because our 3.25% interest rate would now be 3.625%. (Cue me calling my mom in tears.) Not only would our interest rate be higher, but most of these other companies aren't even sure that they can push the loan through soon enough to close during mid-February. (Oh yeah, and McArthur Homes still hasn't given us a closing date at this time - so we could be closing anywhere from February 8th to February 20th.) The people at IDA were pretty ticked off and were making some phone calls of their own. The head lady, Martha, was so up in arms that she was talking about calling Congressmen and all sorts of other high-ranking people. David and I spent several hours discussing our options, and finally we decided that due to the increase in interest rates and the trouble that it would cause - we would just stick with Box and forgo the money that we had tirelessly worked to earn in hopes that IDA would figure out a way for us to get that money. (Even if we had to write a business plan and then put the money into Red Ladder.)

Needless to say, we were pretty upset. I'm not sure why Box won't accept the money. Honestly, the way they treat it - the IDA money is as good as Monopoly money to them. I had another mortgage lender explain their version of why some lenders are a little hesitant to use down-payment assistance programs. It makes sense to me to a point: "Due to the mortgage crisis that we experienced a few years back, many mortgage lenders are hesitatnt to work with down-payment assistance programs. What was happening is that people were getting into homes that they couldn't afford and they were using these DPA programs to pay their entire down-payment.After they got into the house, they realized that they couldn't keep up with the monthly mortgage payments and because they didn't actually have any money invested in the house, they wiped their hands clean and walked away - leaving the banks to deal with the defaulted loan." He then explained that because we were already paying 5% out of our own pockets his company wouldn't bat an eye at the IDA because people can qualify for a loan with just 5%, so why would they care where the rest of the money was coming from. So, okay. That makes sense to me. I get why a company would be a little hesitant to work with someone whose whole down payment was coming from a down payment assitance program. But here is the thing - check our income, check our credit scores/history, and look at the rest of the money that we have for the downpayment. We are obviously not a risky investment! We have high credit scores, we have plenty of income to make the mortgage payment, and we have enough money saved to make a decent downpayment on our own. Argh, it is so frustrating!

The back and forth stretched on for DAYS. We had no idea exactly what was going to happen. Box was being pretty snotty with us about the whole thing. IDA was trying to figure out a solution to help us. We were just praying that everything would smooth out in time for us to actually get into our home. IDA finally contacted us and said that they had made a ton of phone calls and finally worked it out so that we could use the IDA money as a "principal payment" at the time of closing. It wouldn't count as our down payment, so if we wanted to keep our monthly payment and mortgage insurance where it was we would need to come up with the rest of the downpayment on our own. Through an incredible miracle and tender mercy, we were able to find the funds to make the rest of the down payment.

Whew. Sigh of relief, right? We called Box and left a message saying that we were glad that they had worked everything out with IDA and that we were just going to be able to use the money as a principal payment. We thanked them for their efforts in helping us (which was generous because they were being really stinky about the whole thing) and gave them some information they needed to continue the process. Later that night I missed a phone call and when I checked my voicemail, it was Box calling us back. The message basically said "We have no idea what you are talking about. Everything that we know says that we won't accept the IDA money, ever. Stop wasting our time." I was honestly so done at this point. I didn't have enough energy to be upset or angry. We were basically resigned that Box was going to not accept the money and just put our faith in IDA that they would figure out another way for us to get the funds. The loan was still proceeding through underwriting - so we took a couple of days as a breather and just tried not to let the whole situation get us down. (Oh yeah, have I mentioned that at this time we have now moved all of our belongings to a storage unit and are spending hours and hours and hours and hours cleaning our apartment. It was exhausting in of itself, not to mention this whole situation with our IDA.)

Finally we decided that we probably better work things out, and called IDA back. Our contact, Scott, was pretty annoyed at Box and basically said that they were being lame and wouldn't lift a finger to help with the situation. However, being the wonderful organization that they are said that they had finally found a way for us to get around all of their loopholes. We are still going to be able to make a principal payment (interest is nasty stuff!), but we have to wait until a week after closing in order for them to accept our monopoly money. Whatever.

I think that we finally have things figured out. Through the whole disaster there were countless little blessings, such as being able to come up with the money for the rest of the down payment, talking to many friends and family members who were supportive 100%, having the people at IDA work so hard to make sure that we would be able to use that money, and even finding the IDA program in the first place. It was an extremely stressful time. Looking back at this post, the words don't even do justice to the frustration and hours and hours spent worrying about trying to get it all figured out. Not to mention all of the normal stresses that come with completing paperwork, paying for apprasials, submitting information and all of the other loopholes through which one must jump when they want to buy a house.

I hope that this is the last time that I have to mention anything about this - and that from here on out everything will go smoothly and that in less than two weeks we are in our home! But if not, we will keep our chins up and grin and bear it. Someday, someday, we will be in our house and then this will all be worth it.