Housing Headaches

I promised a home-pursuing update, and while we watch the game, I figure I can at least update ya'll and bring us into the present.

After we found out that we were out of the underwriting and audit phase, we thought we'd be in the clear, right? Man, we were super duper wrong. Turns out that because of new rules in place with CPS and IHDA, we *might* make too much money to get the grant. This = NOT AWESOME. I really just about lost my $&!# when I heard that.

A friend took me out to dinner that night because, in her words, "Angie needs a drink." And that I did. While I was stuck in rubberneck traffic on the way to her home, I decided to call our lending agent and give him a big ole chunk of my mind. I had to leave a voicemail (two, actually, and that news is nothing to anyone who knows me and knows my voicemail habits) but I got my point accross.

I started my conversation with the lender by wishing him a happy weekend, because there was no way in hell I was going to have one. I let him know I was furious with the knowledge that we might make too much money to get this grant, because that's the first question they asked us to get pre-approved. They knew our income. They had our bank statements and even a copy of my contract and papers from my boss to prove that I was employed where I said I was employed. How much more does one need?

Then I said that if we didn't close before November 30th (not gonna happen now, but I yelled enough to get my point across) that we'd lose the $8,000 tax credit and the $6,000 grant and that was $14,000 we had trusted in him enough to count on. "So G---, who is gonna give me $14,000? That's a lot of money to lose!" Then I added that we went ahead and paid our rent for December so it was really $14,800 that we were owed because he promised me we'd close by the end of November. He actually promised me on two separate occassions that we'd close by mid-November but that didn't happen.

I ended by saying that it was simple addition to figure out if we made enough money or not to qualify for the grant--all you have to do is add our salaries together. I mentioned that if I was that bad at my job, I'd have been fired, and that we'd take the weekend to think about our options and see if we didn't pull the plug on the whole deal because all the stress and headaches and not sleeping and foot dragging weren't worth it in the end.

On Saturday, I got a phone call from the lender. He apologized and said he'd get in touch with us first thing Monday morning. On Monday, we got a call from his processor, Lynn, who said that our file had been pushed to the front of the line for the first round of IHDA review (being a &!%*# and throwing a tantrum sometimes pays off, my friends!) and we were in the secondary review. She couldn't make promises--she told me that a few times--but it "looks promising". That was Monday night. Based on the conversation I had with her and the way she repeated phrases like, "I can't make any promises" and "It was a really nice thing of her to push your file to the front of the line like that," I'm thinking that she probably heard about my tantrum with the lender, and I'm okay with that.

Graham and I have gone back and forth with this: do we be nice and patient or do we get squeaky? Well, we were nice. We were more than nice. We bent over backwards to get them paperwork and forms and just about everything they asked for. We did our job, so where the hell are our keys, huh? Like Graham told Brian and Robyn this week, "They could have had Good Cop Angie, but they didn't play nice, and now they get to deal with Bad Cop Angie." True business. And Graham knows all too well that Bad Cop Angie will rain down hell if she doesn't get her way. (And he married me anyway! Willingly! Someone get that boy a CAT scan!)

So on Monday I'll call and see what's what. I also need to all our realtor and see what the hold up is for the seller. She needed to dig up some power of attorney form to prove that she can actually sell the place. If all else fails, I'm calling OUR attorney and asking him to put the squeeze on the realtor to get the closing done, and I won't fail to mention that he knows my uncle well. My dad's twin has worked at a title company for decades and the minute we told him our attorney's name he nodded and said he knew him well, and said that he was a good guy. I don't always like having to play the "family name" to get things done, but if I have to you damn well better believe I'm gonna do it! (Did you like how I said "family name", like we're the friggin' Windsors of Chicago?)

Well, that's where we are. It's *possible* that we'll close this week, but I'm really tired of hoping that it will happen. Everyone told me at first that "a week doesn't matter" in the grand scheme of things, but it's been two weeks already, and now we're looking at three. So what....will a month count? This has made it impossible for us to paint or renovate the living room until at least March, possibly summer. Moving in December was in the top ten list of Things I Don't Want To Do Before Christmas. It's killing Graham that we can't decorate yet. This whole process is making me crazy....literally.

On Monday I will call. On Tuesday, I will call. So on and so forth. We've started packing, and we have non-essentials stashed away. Our bikes and fall decorations and summer clothes are hidden at my in-laws' home. We've put away some books and some kitchen items (like that large salad bowl I know we won't use before the move) and all our knick-knacks (they're ALL put away! Praise the lord!). I'm making a mental list of things I want to get done ASAP when we finally get the keys...like change the locks, clean the bathroom, hug the front door...the usual.

That's what's new. It's entirely possible that we'll close this week...and it's entirely possible we'll close the first night of Hannukah. Either way, I want those keys, and the crazy white chick in me is prepared to do whatever is necessary to get them!