Hopefully this week will live up to the excitement that didn't occur last week. Last week we were supposed to close on the construction loan on Monday and start digging on Wednesday. Come Wednesday, still no word on the construction loan. The lender throughout the entire week was constantly being bombarded by myself, my realtor, our builder, and the realtor for the land (since we are packaging together our land and construction loan together). I guess that didn't phase him because we had no answer going into Friday (which happened to be the only day I worked last week since it was my off week). Then Friday as soon as I get to work I start getting slammed with emails and phone calls saying that the processor needed this and that. The lender keeps stating that the sooner I can get this additional information turned in, the faster things will move along! Let's slow this down a little and rewind; I had been on these people all week and stated multiple times that I really need to get this stuff done. I repeatedly stated that I only worked Friday of last week and that the rest of the week I was available at any moment for any reason and urged them to get to work and inform me ASAP of anything extra they need. I also repeatedly said that under no circumstances can I take off a day that I am scheduled to work. I work in an ER...your schedule is set. It doesn't matter if you are sick, your car broke down, you want a day off, your leg fell off, nothing. If you can't get someone to cover your shift, you go in. I have worked very sick many times...that's the nature of the job and you know this going in. So no, I can't take a day off to close or meet for any reason. My builder gets this, my realtor gets this, but apparently you don't go through enough training/schooling when you do whatever it is you do to become a construction loan/mortgage lender to comprehend this.
Anyways, I kid you not, 5 minutes after I get to the hospital on Friday I get several emails and calls stating they need this additional information. Fortunately, we weren't terribly busy, so after seeing some patients and ordering some tests, I was able to fax them the information they needed while waiting for the test results to come back. This is a rarity for me to be able to do this and I am grateful I was able to. The lender called me after that to give me a status update and seemed very excited like everything was fine. He questioned my lack of enthusiasm that things were moving along and that was enough to finally set me off. He got an earful on how aggravated that I was getting all of these requests on the only day of the week that I am working and that no, I was not excited to be 1-2 weeks behind. I threw in some (I'm sure not so life changing) comments on how in my line or work as well as most other peoples jobs, it is not acceptable to set deadlines and run this far behind. I told him that most people if they say something will be done will stay after and get it done because that is common courtesy and respect to your clients. I am sure if it was only pushed back 1-3 days I would have been much less irritated, but my realtor got me fired up when she said "there is no excuse for a closing being delayed more than a couple of days." To be fair, I made sure he understood that I was not at all upset with him because he had been pushing his processing department all week and they are the ones that kept pushing things off. But he is an extension of his company and if he wanted to, could pass on the message.
Moral of the story is 1) I should have went into mortgage processing where apparently you can work at your own pace and do things as slowly as you desire, 2) It's amazing how fast they are working now that I unleashed on them and 3) I am grumpy at work.
So the weekend has gone by and I am much more relaxed and not quite as mean. I have aspirations of great things happening this week! On my last discussion with the lender (which was much more calm and cheerful), he said that we are through underwriting and processing with the bank and they just had to forward it on to the mortgage insurance underwriters. He said they are much more easy going and have to respond within 48 hours. He said although they got it all turned over to them in the afternoon on Friday to probably expect any requests for additional information on Tuesday. We are hoping for a closing date on Wednesday or Thursday...otherwise I won't be able to schedule it until the following Monday due to my schedule. Our builder has all of the building permits and final blue prints and is just waiting for the go ahead. After tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be pretty decent the rest of the week, so hopefully no set backs! Of course, I don't take too much stock in the weather forecast since they can't seem to get the weather right 12 hours from now.
Hoping my next post is either good news on a closing or a post with pictures of the staked out property, which means we have closed!
