I am learning so much, and the thing is, I'm not doing anything to learn it. I'm simply sitting here at the old house, just waiting to be allowed to close on the new house. I'm learning that people who take vacations have a right to do so, but their employers don't give a damn about anyone really, because if they did, they'd find other people who were qualified to handle the cases left on the desks of the people who are vacationing. This is the situation I am facing now with the agency paying the down payment assistance. They are short-staffed.
They are short-staffed and unable to schedule more than a few closings a day. This means those of us who are waiting to close on a house have to wait until they have enough staff to run their office and handle the paperwork or whatever is needed to send the closing papers to the lenders who have people like me bottlenecked and waiting to be allowed to sign on the dotted line. It makes me wonder, just as I wrote that, just how long the term "sign on the dotted line" will be with us. After all, we don't sign anything on lines really - it's all electronic. I suppose it does resemble a line - and my signature sort of resembles my actual signature.
Well, whatever happens, it is supposed to have already happened, and now we don't know when it will happen, but we know it wasn't today, and we know it isn't tomorrow. Wednesday isn't looking great, but I'm being told that if they can get the paperwork to my lender on Wednesday, we will be able to move on Friday. Then, almost as if on cue, my realtor wrote to say she has another closing on Friday and doesn't know if she can make it. I have three words for her: "Yes, you will".
It is unbelievable how people can simply go on vacation knowing others are waiting to exchange a quarter of a million dollars from one party to the next. That's just me. I'm just one of several, one of many, I'm sure. Sure, people deserve to go on vacation, but if you do - that doesn't mean the world stops turning! There needs to be backup. There needs to be stand-ins; there needs to be prearranged arrangements for those times. Surely, there are other employees who can be trained to take over for a day or so, so that the flow of commerce isn't so abruptly interrupted.
Let's take my circumstance: I am the buyer. I will sign to take over the house from a seller. Those people need their money from the sale to get into the house they are waiting to buy. There are insurance companies to consider, electricians, plumbers, fencing companies, utility vendors, and internet service providers who have been scheduled and then rescheduled, and yes, again and again, rescheduled. There comes a point where they just say, "call me when you're actually closing", as if you (I) have anything to do with them being put off. I have NOTHING to do with it.
What about the man who owns the house I'm in now? Why should he have to wait for me to clear out? He wants to get it fixed up and back on the market. What about the people selling their place to the people I am buying my place from? The list goes on and on. If the group of people who are causing the bottleneck has never experienced this, it would be surprising. I could bet, and probably win that bet, that they've been in this situation a number of times. Maybe the summertime is the worst time to buy or sell a house because of this particular glitch; I have no idea. What I do know is that I really hope I never have to experience it again.
I've Googled it, and I'm being told that lenders, realtors, buyers, sellers, and everyone simply have to wait on the agency if they want their down payment assistance. It's their game, their ball, their field, and their call. We're just at their mercy, and I suppose we're expected to smile and thank them for their service. It's a 2nd mortgage, so they get the money back in time. They could at least have a little more respect for the process; that's all I'm saying.
It looks like it is likely going to happen on Friday. The last day of the month. This means I don't even get to take advantage of a single day of free mortgage time other than the 31 days of August. If I were to close August 3, Monday, I'd have 28 days in August and all of September before I had to pay the first mortgage payment - I can't win. I just can't win. Oh well, I may as well suck it up and just keep smiling. Soon, and very soon, I'll be out of this place and into the new one. This entire experience will be behind me, and I can relax and let the stress turn into a fart and leave my body!
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