So, today has been . . . quite a day.
This morning we found out that the bid we had placed on the house we saw last weekend was not accepted. (Well, to be fair, the sellers accepted the bid that they received just prior to ours.) So that was pretty disappointing. The problem with buying a house (as most of you know!) is that you spend all this time envisioning how you would fit your life around that house, so having to dismantle that vision is difficult.
*Then* we found out that the second mortgage lender on the first bid (the one we placed back in March and had finally, reluctantly, given up on ever hearing back from . . . the contract was long since void, and anyway, time was moving on) had actually *accepted* our bid. A week ago, this would have been cause for much rejoicing. Now, however, it merely stressed me out, since we now had a very limited window to decide if we still wanted that house. Dan was pretty sure he did; me, since I had seen something I liked better, wasn't so sure. (Don't get me wrong, I still like the house, I just wanted more time to weigh our options).
(I keep wanting to compare house-hunting to spouse hunting, and I've been having some anxiety at the idea of "two-timing" any given prospect. Silly, I know, but it's the only other large *investment* I've made in my life).
Anyway, to go back to our story. This is how things stood at the end of the day: we were more or less prepared to move on the bid--Dan had contacted our lender, and I was getting ready to call some appraisers, but we'd asked our realtor to hold off on delivering the earnest money until we found out from the lender if the deadline for closing was reasonable. It's a good thing we did, since the lender told us that we might be able to make the deadline (it was possible, but not probable), but only if everything went smoothly--if it got held up at any one point, we wouldn't make the deadline. But here's the catch (and the point of this post): Citibank, the second mortgage holder who had been holding up the show by not responding to our bid, stipulated in the contract that if we *don't* make that deadline, we're liable for 10% of what they're owed (which would be nearly $10,000 in this case). And, since *they* were the ones dragging their feet, now *we* were going to be the ones held responsible. We can't help wondering somewhat cynically if this feet-dragging was done deliberately, as a way to recoup some of their losses since we'd bid lower than the asking price for the house.
Needless to say, we're not exactly happy about this. (Well, truth be told, I'm strangely relieved, but Dan was irate . . . moving rapidly towards disenchanted). At any rate, Citibank has now officially lost our current and future business. (And hopefully that of many of our discerning readers).
So, it's back into the market.
Sigh.
2 comments:
Citibank called me at 5:00 in the morning to offer me some "buy a house today offer" and lost my business forever. We did use their offer on our next move to get a better rate from the lender we wanted. And they took TARP money. Lots of good reasons to hate citibank!
That is just terrible. I hope that this will now make things easier for you in the future, though I suppose that now that you're back into the market, that's really not easier. I hope you find a house even better than the one you lost. I really had to laugh at your idea of two-timing. I certainly wouldn't have made that analogy. And, thanks for warning all of us to hopefully be looking for homes soon about Citibank.
Post a Comment