So finally the mortgage got going this week. It turns out that it was sent to the wrong department by mistake, and it took a week to recognize the error and correct it. In the meantime, I was trying to add up the numbers as to how much cash I had to come across with, to close the deal – and could not make the numbers add up. It was looking like they wanted about US$5,000 more than I had – and I needed clarification. Over the weekend, however, I sat down and went through every line, and figured it out. The difference was the “earnest deposit” that I had put in with the offer, and some weird math they do just to make it too complicated for mortals to figure out.
Oh yes, and Monday they came and replaced my car windshield. Sure enough, came to the office, did it in the parking lot, took just over an hour. Wow.
There were about 60 pages of documents to sign, and many more that I initialled and crossed out open space on. Yikes, my wrist was sore after all that. Then I found out that some of the documents weren’t in my “keep” package, so I had to break up the bundle and duplicate them. Then, I found out that there were “information” sheets that I needed but weren’t in my “keep” package, so I had to break up the bundle and strip them out. Yikes.
Then courier’d it all off to the mortgage office.
I contacted the company – apparently I misunderstood – I have to pay the whole closing cost up front and then apply for reimbursement! Ouch! Good thing I brought in more than enough… but, now I don’t have time to do a check, or even a bank to bank transfer, as they take days to clear!
So, I went three days in a row, transferred US1000, US1000, and US$900 from Atlanta RBC Bank to local Wells Fargo.
I had to get proof that the money was available to me locally. Wells Fargo did up a statement showing all the inflows and that the money was available.
Then, on Thursday, I finally got to an insurance broker and got a single quote on home owner’s insurance – ouch, about 400 more than expected! I had to go back a fourth day and transfer US500 more to ensure that I could cover it. And, get another statement.
The government needs documented evidence of cash flow sources, to ensure that it’s my money that I’m using for down payment. What, as opposed to somebody else’s? I wonder what kind of games they were playing down here before 2010! Anyway, all this money exchange was complicated, so I had to write a story book about the cash transfers and why. Ugh.
In the end, I hope I satisfied the documentation requirements. We shall see.
And, after all that, I was able to get a second quote that lowered the cost about $450, back down below the original target, so the last panic wasn’t necessary in the end. Oh well, I have the cash. Good. And, now I have insurance – that’s good too, they won’t go on processing the mortgage without it. Whew!
On Saturday, I ordered Internet for the house. It’s starting to become more real. Let’s hope the mortgage goes through.
Saturday afternoon, I visited that second auto museum in the Metrocenter. It was great, but not many cars. Now, apparently they have some 200 more cars in storage, and the shopping centre is preparing a huge display space for them to showcase them all. It’s going to be impressive when done.
They told me that there is a car show in the parking lot of the Metrocenter once a month. I missed last Saturday’s, which was the biggest ever, with something like 800 cars and over 4,000 people attending. Where was I???? At the jazz concert, oh yeah. Well that was fine too. A lot fewer people.
So, at the end of the week, I’m looking for dancing bears. Or tight rope walkers. Or trapeze artists. Or something like that. Kind of feeling like the T-shirt – “I went through the mortgage process, and all I got was… wait a second, I didn’t get anything!!”
