Money Matters
formerlyGDaisy09
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Well that didn't go as planned-VENT
So H and I decided several months ago to do a refinance of our mortgage with a construction rider. We had several "must do" projects around the house (windows needing replacing, and making space to expand our family, and had been considering risks and benefits of going solar for several years). The refinance would put us at an interest rate 0.7% lower than what we secured 3 years ago (generally not enough to refinance, but given we didn't have the necessary cash on hand for repairs to the windows it was good).
We've had so many problems with the bank, first they pushed us to sign the contract with the solar company after they sent us a GFE for the loan they said we were approved for. The day after we signed the contract and paid the deposit they notified us that we weren't actually qualified for that loan and upped our interest rate 0.5% from the original.
We then got a new GFE in the mail, which indicated we'd need to bring $3000 to closing (After our loan officer said we'd need about $800). So I contacted the loan officer, asked her if this was, in fact, true. She quickly contacted me and said No! we would actually be getting about $450 back at closing, because we'd built closing costs into the loan and we were coming in under what we'd estimated. So at closing today, we actually owed almost $2000 in closing costs. We got the loan officer on the phone, she said her records indicated we'd be getting money back, so we then called the closing department that said that the numbers the laywer had on the HUD were right and we owed $2000. WHAT?!
so here we are now, sitting with the lawyer, trying to decide if we're actually going to go through with closing or if we're going to walk and go shopping with other banks. The reality is that we're under contract with the Solar Company, they're expecting payment of $9,000 to order materials in the next week. and the other parts of our project are not really optional, or at least in the case of the windows we'd be talking about a more expensive project if we leave the windows and let moisture build-up continue to be an issue. We could have probably explained a delay to the solar company and walked away to go to another bank, but having looked at other banks after our initial issue, interest rates were the same as were expected closing costs, not to mention we'd still be responsible for about $1200 of fees for the title search, appraisal, and lawyer.
So we closed on the loan, the "saving grace" was that they set the final pay-out value on the loan before our July mortgage payment was due, so most the $2000 was in our account. We're only responsible for paying interest on the construction portion of the loan ($40,000) and property taxes until construction is complete (the bank gives us 6 months to complete construction, so our tentative "first payment" date is in January. we'll be able to replenish savings (and plan to pay more than just the interest). I really just want a glass of wine...but I think a pint of Ben and Jerry's will just have to do.
I will be filing some kind of complaint with the bank because the loan officer we used just seems inept...but for today I just needed a vent and some ice cream 
Me: 28 H: 30
Married 07/14/2012
TTC #1 January 2015
BFP! 3/27/15 Baby Girl!! EDD:12/7/2015
Re: Well that didn't go as planned-VENT
Phew, I'm just glad you were still able to close! I know the roller coaster ride this has been for you all. Sorry to hear about the screw up on the closing costs. Such a blow to morale to be expecting a bit of money back only to be whamo'ed with having to bring a chunk of change to the closing table.
(Raising up my wine glass and a spoon of ice cream to you!)