Share your home buying horror stories!

[NoNo]

I'm currently in the process of buying a house. A process that was supposed to CLOSE last Friday. Yeah, that didn't happen. My mortgage company completely messed things up. They didn't have paperwork, they weren't prepared, they weren't calling people back. In the mean time, I had packed a UHaul full of my stuff, including all my furniture. Once we figured out the deal wasn't going to happen, we had to unload the entire thing into a garage that my aunt lent. The kicker is that my parents are going to rent the apartment I'm vacating, so they've been living with me for the last three weeks. Now I have to share a futon with mom while dad sleeps on the couch (his choice), we have no tv, no internet. I have no idea when the closing will actually happen, but the thought of moving all that stuff again makes me shudder.

So please humor me. Tell me I'm not alone in this. What closing horror story do you have that you now laugh about about how you got your house?

[ny biker]

As my realtor drove me home from the settlement, he told me that he had spent the last several days on the phone with the mortgage people to make sure everything would be ready on time. The mortgage guy we had been working with had left town due to a family emergency and his staff was not picking up the slack. He told me they almost didn't make it, but he refrained from telling me about it so it wouldn't upset me. (He is a great realtor -- I wish I could afford to buy more houses because he deserves the business.)

When I refinanced, I found errors in the forms that the mortgage people filled out, and also identified a bug in their software that automatically computed some of the numbers. They had to have a special training session for all their brokers about it.

If you want to know when to get the best mortgage rate, wait for me to refinance because the rates will plummet a week after that.

BTW I highly recommend the movie "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvin Douglas for anyone who is buying or renovating a home.

[lph]

Well, this isn't my story, but it might cheer you up. About three weeks after moving into a beautiful penthouse with a magnificent view, my brother-in-law decided to oil a few small tables, out on the rooftop terrace. He left the rags with linseed oil in a small metal bucket, as he had heard they could smolder, then went to hang out and relax on his boat for the afternoon.

Got called up by a vet a few hours later, who wanted to know if he was maybe the owner of this cat they had got in, with a little smoke in her lungs. Yup, the rags had ignited, the terrace had ignited, the full length windows had exploded in the blaze, the sprinkler system had gone off and the entire apartment was covered in soot and water and stank to high heaven. (The cat was fine!)

So instead of enjoying his lovely new apartment, he got to spend six months in his old teenager room, living with mom and dad while his apartment - and five more apartments below - were being renovated.

[IBrakeforPastry]

Well, this isn't my story, but it might cheer you up. About three weeks after moving into a beautiful penthouse with a magnificent view, my brother-in-law decided to oil a few small tables, out on the rooftop terrace. He left the rags with linseed oil in a small metal bucket, as he had heard they could smolder, then went to hang out and relax on his boat for the afternoon.

Got called up by a vet a few hours later, who wanted to know if he was maybe the owner of this cat they had got in, with a little smoke in her lungs. Yup, the rags had ignited, the terrace had ignited, the full length windows had exploded in the blaze, the sprinkler system had gone off and the entire apartment was covered in soot and water and stank to high heaven. (The cat was fine!)

So instead of enjoying his lovely new apartment, he got to spend six months in his old teenager room, living with mom and dad while his apartment - and five more apartments below - were being renovated.

Way to make an impression with his new neighbors! What a shame, though, and I'm glad the cat was okay.

[NoNo]

Wow! Glad everyone was ok. I guess that's got to be just as heartbreaking: Going through this whole terrible process only to lose everything right after. And now I've learned something about linseed oil!

[Helene2013]

Quite a story!!!

I bought 3 houses and sold 2 (still in the 3rd one since 1992).

But when we sold our 2nd house, the guy had visited many many too many homes before. He came visit ours probably 4 times. I will spare you all the discussions about questions that were useless, and even his home inspector did not do the right checks!!! Oh well.

But the worst is that we're about to close and go to the notary (in Québec notaries do closures - not lawyers). We get a call from him...when he should have gone through his agent. He said he was not sure he could take the house as he no longer had a job. WHAT!!! He already had his credit approved, we were 2 days from changing owners. I can't back away from the one we just purchased, etc... I called my agent who call his agent. It was a mad rushing thing! He kept bugging us until we told our agent that we did not want to hear from him and only see them (the couple) at the notary for the sign off.

Long story short....he made it there and we were able to move on. But we were always afraid he'd come back to hunt us about a hidden vice or somethig...nope...all was good. whewwww!

But the stress level you can get to when you find something like this is unbelievable. Worst he still had his job...just different title, etc... I can still see him coming with his back pack (looked more like a student than an engineer!), checking out for couch sizes, wall sizes.... heck...you're buying a home that has a decent living room. If your couch won't fit...get something else and put this one in the basement. haha Would you believe it took him 2 visits...and hours wasted just to measure things like this!!! I do understand the need to have stuff fit. But there is a limit. You come out from a tiny apartment...into a decent bungalow. Certainly things will fit no???? argggh

----------

Ah while writing this...my nightmare in a few lines...we were young adults hubby and I (proabably 22-23) and moving into our 1st home. Family came to help. One brothers gets drunk and the other one is pulled over by the cops and arrested....because a friend of his use a small knife years ago...to damage a bench in a park. He had a search warrant on him but since he was living out of the province and never got arrested for anything, they nailed him.

So while I was trying to understand why he was taken in (we did not know anything at that time), the other "drunk" brother was almost making out in the u-haul with his girlfriend. arggggg The joy of moving sometimes!

Does that help you with our "humor". hihi

[Trek420]

Way to make an impression with his new neighbors! What a shame, though, and I'm glad the cat was okay.

Glad the cat is fine. How're the bikes?

I'll post later when not on the tiny screen. My Yelp revue of our mortgage broker should just read thus;

"I deeply and daily regret not going through our credit union for our mortgage"

The rate was/is great but it was the worst customer service experience ever.

[malkin]

Late to this party, but here's another story:

We were working with our bank for the mortgage, and the loan guy misspelled my name which is Virginia to another word that starts with V, with many of the same letters, but with a two times and only one i. Perhaps an ok name for a porn star, and certainly a fine bit of human female anatomy, but not really what I wanted on my home loan. The bank insisted that it could not be changed. We went to another source for our mortgage.

[AppleTree]

I'm currently in the process of buying a house. A process that was supposed to CLOSE last Friday. Yeah, that didn't happen. My mortgage company completely messed things up. They didn't have paperwork, they weren't prepared, they weren't calling people back. In the mean time, I had packed a UHaul full of my stuff, including all my furniture. Once we figured out the deal wasn't going to happen, we had to unload the entire thing into a garage that my aunt lent. The kicker is that my parents are going to rent the apartment I'm vacating, so they've been living with me for the last three weeks. Now I have to share a futon with mom while dad sleeps on the couch (his choice), we have no tv, no internet. I have no idea when the closing will actually happen, but the thought of moving all that stuff again makes me shudder.

So please humor me. Tell me I'm not alone in this. What closing horror story do you have that you now laugh about about how you got your house?

Having worked for a big mortgage company for a number of years, I can tell you this kind of stuff happens more often than you would think. Agents and loan officers would pray that the loan processor would do their job well and things would go through as planned, but every once in while there was a major hiccup...credit rating went down, or inspection found something, or some other technicality. Most of the time it was someone didn't do what they were supposed to do WHEN they were supposed to do it...major panic ensued. It was a VERY high stress job. Big money and peoples lives affected by not crossing T's and dotting I's the way they were supposed to... glad I'm not doing that anymore. At the height of the refinance boom (before the crash) they would haul loan processors out by ambulance for nervous breakdowns every few weeks.

[NoNo]

I guess it's not happening today, either And it's been waiting on one person to sign a piece of paper since 5pm yesterday. Unbelievable. What drives me nuts is there's no accountability. One person messed this whole thing up, but I know he's not going to face any repercussions. If I messed up that badly at my job, I'd have been fired.

[ny biker]

I guess it's not happening today, either And it's been waiting on one person to sign a piece of paper since 5pm yesterday. Unbelievable. What drives me nuts is there's no accountability. One person messed this whole thing up, but I know he's not going to face any repercussions. If I messed up that badly at my job, I'd have been fired.

Boy do I know that feeling!

I hope it finally comes together soon.

[shootingstar]

Sounds as if one has to sell a house and then shortly, take possession and move into newly bought home, it gets complicated. I haven't been in that position yet.

I dealt directly with bank's mortgage dept. I've never dealt with third party mortgage companies. Things may be slightly different in Canada. The terrible US economic crash that we in Canada, read about bad mortgages or whatever the companies structured them, seemed like a lot looser at time of crash, in terms of regulatory controls.

All more the reason, not to accumulate too many assets ..to pack, move etc.

[shootingstar]

No, I don't have home buying stories.

Just personal stories that point to disasters where possessions are at risk.

[NoNo]

Nightmare no more!



Although it was a fight to the very end, with them moving the closing twice yesterday. But once they handed over the keys, all was forgiven. Instantly started moving some stuff in, but I've rented a truck for tomorrow to reload and get my furniture over in. After dinner, it was off to Home Depot, for the first of many trips. Got paint for the living room and dining room, spray paint for the lamp post outside, and gutter extenders. Next will be the dehumidifier and something to control the little bitey things that like to live near the marsh. I'm so excited to get in there and start doing stuff!

[DebSP]

Well I guess that explains why one of the couples buying our house wanted pictures of the appliances and the serial numbers. I was totally insulted. I would not even consider that offer. I cannot believe that people can be like that. Is there no honour left in this world?!?