Is Refinancing A Home Suppose to be Like This?

I'm not sure if I'm suppose to put stuff this personal out there in the blog world, but, I just have to know, is refinancing your house suppose to be more painful and invasive than childbirth?

Last April, we were thinking about buying a larger home down the street from this home. We spoke to a mortgage guy who supposedly "pre-approved" us for the loan with no problems. By August, the home we wanted to buy had sold to someone else and we decided to refinance our home and stay awhile.

We figured that everything would go smoothly, but ran into a few glitches because of the tightening standards in the mortgage industry (right at same time we decided to re-fi), and the fact that Photoguy and I draw a large portion of our income from freelance ventures -- not the preferred way of doing things in the eyes of the lenders.

Finally, at the end of October, we were told things were a "go" and forked out a whoppin' $450 from our own pockets to get an appraisal -- what we were led to believe would be the last step before signing closing papers.

Our mortgage guy surprised us on closing day with a 30-year mortgage (we need a 15-year), a 6% interest rate (he had promised us 5.5%) and an additional $6,500 in closing costs. Ummmm . . . gee no thanks.

We then moved to another guy who had the very easy task of taking all the documents the first guy had collected and drawing up a new loan meeting our expectations of a lower interest rate, lower closing costs and being a 15-year mortgage. After a series of setbacks with this guy, we lost our trust with him when he was Mr. Eager Beaver to lock us in at 5.5% when we knew full well that interest rates had just dropped below 5%. Ummmm . . . again, not going to work out.

In walks mortgage lady #3 who was referred to us by a friend. We were very excited to be with her, she was so reassuring and great to work with, plus she immediately locked us in at 4.7% -- hello, how fab is that? Then, we found out that she is SO good and does SO many mortgages that we end up being tossed around between five team members who are not so wonderful to work with as her. At the beginning of December, current mortgage lady assured us that we would be closed and finished with this process by the end of December. At the end of December, she assured us that it would happen by January 9th (today). Now, we are being told that we may not even be able to refinance at all. And, even if we can, it could still be months in the works. Oh, and, by the way, that appraisal is looking a little bit old nowadays so maybe they should just order a new one -- because the only thing worse than paying someone $450 to tell you how much your house is worth is paying them $900 to tell you twice.

See . . . it seems not to matter that our credit scores are among the highest, that we are refinancing for less than 50% of the current appraised value and that we've lived in the home for 9 years and never so much as been a day late on a payment. All that matters is that we don't have hard and fast W-2's to show our income. So, they look at our 2006 and 2007 tax returns. Ummm . . . we lived in China for half of 2006, so it is only reflective of 6 months of earnings instead of 12. So, that hurts us. And, they won't even count much of our income even though we declared it and paid taxes on it -- does that make any sense at all!? Why on earth would we be paying taxes on money we didn't earn? Don't people usually try to not declare money they have earned instead of vice-versa. Oh . . . the crazy world of the mortgage industry.

I feel like I am going certifiably insane with the whole business of it. I won't even begin to tell the stories, because, as those who are close to me can attest, the madness of it all just goes on and on and on and on. Let's just say that every other day they are requesting more and more documents from us that send my blood pressure soaring to new heights each time as we dig through boxes and boxes of paperwork trying to supply them with every last stitch of everything that we've ever done in our lives since we were born. And, sometimes they ask for things we can't even provide -- like last week, they asked me to give them my 2008 1099 from the newspaper.

Them: Well, we spoke to the newspaper and since you aren't a W-2 employee they won't supply us with your last year of earnings (this, after I have given them 7 solid months worth of paystubs and documentation of my 2006 and 2007 writing earnings on tax returns). Do you think you can just get your 1099 and get it to us right away (bear in mind this is only days away from when we are hoping to close the loan).

Me: Ummmm, I don't think I can really control that. They have until the 31st to send those out, so, I'm not sure when I will get it.

Them: Well, can you just try to get it in the next few days? Do you think it will come sooner rather than at the end of the month?

Me: ?

Which leads me to call the newspaper and try to find out when tax forms will be sent out. My questioning leads to a series of people repeating to me, "We have until the 31st, we have until the 31st, we have until the 31st." Hello mortgage people, I am not magical.

I said I would not tell stories, so, I stop right here and only add that this is the kind of ridiculousness that consumes a crazy amount of my time at present.

The other day, as we were frantically searching for, yet another annoying list of forms, Photoguy said, "Does it kind of seem like they don't want to do our loan so they just keep giving us more and more hoops to jump through until they finally find the one task we can't do?" "Yes!" I said. "That is exactly how I feel!!!" What is up with that?

Yet, we persevere. And, we put up a front of patience as we continue to complete the ever-increasingly insane tasks they put us to in hopes that we will, at long last, get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow -- the refinance. Because, for various reasons, we really, really, really, need this to happen. And, if we jump ship again, we will miss out on this amazing 4.7% interest rate. I keep hoping that it will happen and this insanity will finally end.