The waiting game is no fun! Since hearing that the appraisal came back ok, we have been in waiting mode. We've been keeping ourselves busy packing, which is starting to overwhelm me. Tuesday night of this week I packed things that were on shelves in our storage room and as I wandered the apartment, box in hand, looking for some open floor space to set it down, I nearly had my first meltdown. We've been living in a maze of boxes for over two weeks now. With all of the furniture still here plus the boxes everywhere you look, it just makes you feel like you're never going to get there. Every time I think I have a particular room all packed, I'll spot something else I forgot about. Looking around the apartment at everything sitting around, the fear of something going wrong struck again. I have no idea what we'd do. We have no contingency plan for temporary storage. We have no flexibility to stay beyond the 31st since the new tenants are ready to move as soon as we're out and we absolutely are not going to pay movers to move us twice. All we can do is keep moving forward and pray for the best.
I took another step this week to complicate things even further if the situation ends up turning bad by calling to transfer all of our utilities effective on our closing date, the 28th. Why not just toss that in there as well to cry about if something goes wrong.
I learned on Wednesday night of this week that our file had been in underwriting for four business days. What? Everything I've read has indicated that underwriting should only take about 24 hours. This can't be good. What is the hold up? Do they need more information? Are they questioning something? I still hadn't heard whether the appraisal had listed anything negative about the house that would have to be addressed before approval and closing, so could this be it? The loan officer said that she would check in with the underwriters in the morning and let me know what's going on.
By Thursday afternoon, I hadn't heard anything and began to worry. We're only a little more than a week out from closing and being "homeless". I've become "that" person in the sense that I set up the loan officer and the real estate agent in my VIP list for emails so that when I received communication from them, my phone would light up like a Christmas tree. So, when the bells and whistles started going off just before leaving work Thursday night, I nearly tripped over my own feet to grab it off of my desk. While my loan had been in underwriting all this time, it was just being worked for the first time that afternoon. While I was relieved that some number cruncher hadn't been stewing over it and debating nearly all week whether to give me the loan or not, I still wanted an answer and wanted it now. I likely wouldn't hear until sometime on Friday.
Shortly after lunch on Friday, I received the appraisal from one of my loan officer's assistants. I sent back the acknowledgement of receipt and began reading over it. I was thrilled to see all of the positive things he listed about the house and what great shape it was in. I was even more happy to see that there were no FHA/HUD contingencies that required addressing before loan approval and closing.
Shortly after reading through the appraisal, my phone began to dance across my desk. There it was, an email from the loan officer. Hands shaking and knees wobbling, I picked it up. All I had to do was read the subject line. That alone told me exactly how this story ends. APPROVED!! in big bold letters!! Holy crap! We had done it! In this age of nightmares and horror stories about home buying experiences, we had received a clean approval, with no further conditions attached. I made one and only one trip to the mortgage company to turn over my initial collection of documentation and sign the loan application papers. There was no running back and forth. There was no gathering additional documentation. And as it turns out, there was no reason to stress out as much as I did. We were approved over a week prior to our scheduled closing date and all signs pointed to an on time closing. Wow!
In the approval email, the loan officer made a point to mention the manner in which I submitted all of my backup documentation and my ability to "get" how a paper trail needed to be followed. This will my biggest piece of advice to anyone thinking of going into this process. I did my homework ahead of time, provided probably more than they required, and got a clean approval without the constant back and forth that so many friends have described from their own experiences. In the end, it was so worth the extra upfront effort!
So we are now 9 days away from closing. We are still packing and are down to probably two rooms left to get boxed up. I'll probably update again next weekend just before closing and then again shortly afterward. It's all coming together and we couldn't be happier!
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