I write this in an annoyed mood fueled by 5 months of trying to borrow money against our house because money is free and we have a balloon payment we are past due paying off. Our house is, as they call it in the real-estate business, non-conforming. Meaning it is not like all of the other houses out there causing lenders and realtors and appraisers to have no clue what do with it. We had an idea it would not be simple to borrow on the house, but no clue we’d be 5 months into applying for loans and still have borrowed zero monies.
The house is 3300 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, “berm house” made out of concrete on 10 acres. We are trying to borrow 60% of the assessed value of the house, with great then 700 credit score and still failing. If we were back in 2004 when loans were free we’d have been done forever ago. Today we’re about to use hard money at 12% interest as a stop gap because not sure of options that don’t take piles of time. The frustrating parts have been:
- The county inspected the house at every step of construction and provided a certificate of occupancy stating the house is completed and livable. – Wish I could go 90’s spinning gif her. COMPLETED HOUSE. One appraiser asked for an engineer to inspect in the house because he did not believe it was built right. Another asked for more railings and stairs to be installed to space categorized and built as “storage” with no access, No access. An underwriter did not like the OSB we used for finished ceiling and asked that we sheet rock the entire ceiling. – SCREW YOU ALL, this is our house built, and finished the way we like it.
- Fanny and Freddy require comps in X miles of the house or they will not buy a loan. Because an appraiser categorized the house as a “berm” house no comps could be found closer than 100 miles. Berm home is a home below grade on 3 sides. We buried 2 sides and parts of the back of the house for thermal efficiency and because why paint when we own an excavator. Based on definition we are not a true berm but once it was said we were locked in and that killed a loan. First lender could not sell us money because they sell all loans to Fanny or Freddy who do not want our loan.
- Another appraiser said we did not have carbon monoxide detectors – but they are required for final inspection so we HAD to have them based on the county giving us occupancy certificate. We do in fact have them not sure how he missed that.
- One loan company told us no after 3 months because of the Fanny Freddy thing when they knew 20 days into the loan we would not Fit Fanny Freddy. We actually fired our loan dude on that one and made it to a VP eventually due to horrible shitty shitty customer service. Almost left that bank we were so annoyed
- Next loan company we went to with the appraisal from the first company and had their under writing spend 2 weeks looking at it. They told us no problem on the loan. Then a few months later they said no we can’t loan you money unless you finish your house that is only 80% completed, and by finish the house we mean make it like all of the others houses out there.
- Our house that the county says is completed is only 80% complete to loan companies because they don’t like our choices in siding, trim work, ceiling, treatment of storage spaces, and other bits. What we like, desire as final house is not completed to anyone else it would seem. Super frustrating here.
It’s now three days later and we had an amazing experience with BECU. No is never final in our world. We’re smart and resourceful people who will create options to solve our problems. I’m personally a professional problem solver by profession. This morning at about 10am we went to BECU and applied for a HELOC on the house. About 6 hours later Michelle received a call from BECU telling her they had finished a desktop appraisal, all they required for this loan, and approved her for enough money to make us happy.
During the course of the call BECU said no problem closing before the end of the month, offered a great rate, and said no other fees needed. 18 billion degree change from the other mortgage companies we’ve dealt with. BECU I love you. Kev is very happy right now with current situation. Kev still wants to scream and yell and say mean things about the other lenders who pretty much wasted 6 months of our lives.
Our COO (Certificate of Occupancy) signed and approved. – from the wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_occupancy I love the last line. Like most things on the internet it sometimes lies to us
“The purpose of obtaining a certificate of occupancy is to prove that, according to the law, the house or building is in liveable condition. Generally, such a certificate is necessary to be able to occupy the structure for everyday use, as well as to be able to sign a contract to sell the space and close on a mortgage for the space”
