Where to start.
Hopeless- that’s how I feel.
Irish- that’s how much I want to fight right now. Yes, I’m Irish, so yes, this descriptor
applies.
I guess there’s something that most people who don’t know me
too well should probably know about me.
Tell me I can’t do something, and I’ll do it. I won’t fail.
I refuse to fail. Tell me a
second time I can’t do something and I’ll dig right in and prove to you I can. I won’t stop trying- and maybe that’s a
downfall of mine or maybe that’s why some things in my life have worked out the
way they have.
That being said- we received our Appeals for the Appraisal
back. I have no words to describe how
much I despise the company (Powers, Smith & Associates in Keene) that was
used and the woman that did the appraisal.
First and foremost, as I stated in my last posting, this woman
completely missed a full bath. In
putting in that full bath, it should’ve driven the value of the house up at
least a little- right? I would’ve been
happy if it even drove it up $5,000.
Realistically, it should’ve driven it up more than that.
We gave this woman our appeals. I won’t lie, I may have written it as
professionally as possible, but it was so hard not to have our frustrations
creep in. It’s obvious that this woman
did not appraise the house accurately- she missed a few things and her comparable
sales… they weren’t comparable.
We received back her response, and she didn’t change a
friggen thing. Not one penny. Ok- answer me this… if you FORGOT A WHOLE
BATHROOM… how the hell does the value NOT change?! Am I missing something? She defended her entire appraisal and didn’t
once look at the comparable sales that we were supposed to provide to her. She never even mentioned them.
The bank has backed this up by not questioning a thing. I’m sorry- if I hired a third party to do an
appraisal and the client appeals it because a few things were missing and they
made their case, the company comes back and doesn’t change anything- I’d be
asking some questions.
TD Bank has really upset us; in fact if I’ve discussed this
with you already, you’d know the wonderful colorful language I’ve been using to
describe everything from A to Z about them.
It’s not like me, but this is the Irish coming out. The process is keeping us from having our
house. It’s truly infuriating.
Here’s the other thing.
I get this email from my amazing, awesome, State Farm agent. The bank requires us to purchase home owners
insurance before closing. Ok- here’s the
deal. TWICE I asked this “Mortgage Loan
Specialist” if we had to have it prior to the house being even built and TWICE
he said NO – that this is one of those automatically generated things that come
up and it would be required before the final disbursement since insurance
companies won’t insure a home that does not exist. So I talked to my awesome State Farm Rep the
other day and apparently that has changed… apparently we were misinformed TWICE
(after asking twice) that we didn’t need home owners insurance and yes, we have
to pay it in full before closing- on a house that doesn’t even exist. She did take the time to explain to me that
it does cover xyz for the building process so, it made more sense I
suppose. Regardless, this is the types
of things that TD Bank has put us through.
Please know that this isn’t the only question that I’ve
asked several times, got the same answer and then the answer changes. That coupled with having to explain ourselves
more than twice has become a really frustrating point for us. I’ve had to tell them 3-4 times where a “large
deposit” came from… it was from our wedding, and that has since been expunged…
no joke- 3-4 times!
It’s just absolutely ridiculous. Frankly, if it were me in that job with the
pressures we get at my current job, I would’ve been canned. I can’t tell if it’s laziness, inexperience,
or what, but the fact of the matter is, the people I am trying to work with are
relatively unresponsive as well.
I feel like we’ve wasted almost two months trying to just
get a loan to build our house. I feel
like we have a great design, but now Mike wants to change it. I don’t know if that’s the solution because
he’s putting more sq ft upstairs, but that means more$$ being spent
upstairs.
We need a private investor or a different bank willing to
work with us. Before I tell them to
colorfully go play with themselves.. ahem, I asked Mike if I could get 4
questions answered. 1, if we could bring
the loan amount down to the 80% of the appraisal. We can build the house for that, but it would
be without labor, so it would be a little tight. 2, since Lisa contacted me at State farm, I
wanted them to explain what was going on since I had been told one thing and
now another. 3, I had asked a question
about the closing and how this affects the closing date and what costs would be
incurred. I asked this FIVE times before
he answered me – and he only answered me because I had to put my foot down and
put it in an email with these three other questions before Mike and I would
make a decision on this loan. 4, our
credit score. When we went for the loan
with the bank back in February, we told them not to submit it. They did anyways and our credit was run. We want it fixed. I was told that the corporate office can’t
fix it- that we would have to go back to that individual branch to have it
fixed…. REALLY?! Pretty sure the branch
answers to the corporate office- or am I off my rocker? I reminded him moments ago that our credit
score was run twice this second time so I want to have it fixed.
Anyways- this is the headache that Mike and I are
facing. Sorry it’s so long, but here’s a
warning to all:
If you decide to go for a construction loan or a regular
mortgage through TD Bank- I would like to say beware! I’ve been a client of theirs for 20 years
(well it was Bank of NH back then, but regardless, I’ve had the same account
number with them for 20 years). I have never
been so disappointed in my entire life with a company.
Also- if you are in the process of a mortgage in our area
and they hire or wish to hire Powers, Smith & Associates in Keene to do the
appraisal- request another appraiser.
The appraiser might walk through the house and walk past a bathroom and
not have it in the appraisal of the house- just saying.
Mike and I will be going to another bank to try this all
over again. A complete waste of
time. I put a call in to the woman we
worked with last year to get some guidance from her- so hopefully something
good comes of it. I’m thinking of
talking to a much smaller bank in the area- they do construction loans and have
no fee rate locks, be your own GC, and one time closings. I think they might do better by us- but I
want to know where this woman is first and see what she can do. The bank that I want to look into is First
Colebrook. They sound pretty decent and
I’ve heard good things.
I just want a place of our own so we can start our family…
