I have to admit that the hardest part of selling real estate is working with the issues that are outside of my control. I’m a Type A personality that likes things done on time, as agreed and with as little interruption as possible. That’s why when loan gets delayed from closing on time because of lending, I get frustrated.
But it’s happened too many times over my career for it to come as a surprise anymore. Not trying to offend anyone here, but it seems as if banks and loan officers do not take as seriously the contracted dates for closing. The fact that a closing slips is always answered with almost an air of “oh, well”.
Right now I’m two days past the original contracted closing date. I went to the trouble of getting extensions signed by both buyers and sellers for an additional three days. All the while I’m constantly told by the mortgage broker (with whom I’ve never worked before) that everything is on course, stips are being met and that they are just waiting on underwriting to finish.
Well, can anyone on Earth tell me, the buyer & the sellers when that might be? And, of course, you can never actually speak to an underwriter as they seem to be mysterious and secretive peoples. Much like the great Wizard behind the curtain.
Oh, no. You see, in today’s environment there is not only an underwriter but a contract underwriter. I’m sure they are also shaking chicken bones over the paper work and maybe adding in some bat’s blood.
Shoot, the properties are being purchased well below comps, the buyer has plenty of liquid assets and stellar credit. So what is the hold up? Two of the stips were items already provided but the underwriter had “overlooked.” (That inspires confidence.) The other item was one signature missing from a tax return of two years ago. Oh, big stuff. Apparently, this is a 48 hour process to confirm these three items that took me less than 20 minutes to take care of.
Now this is a non-owner occ transaction. Did I mention 20% down?
I know there are issues from real estate agents that drive lenders crazy. But this is my pet peeve about how the residential lending industry works.
But while I sit here frustrated, I’ll just have to prepare more extension amendments, drive all over town getting signatures, re-assure and assure again the seller that the transaction will take place, etc. All the while wondering how long the extension should be for because no one actually seems to know.
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What do I mean? Let me explain. March of 2007 was like a nuclear winter for me. I had three closings set for the end of the month. For two of the closings I was the buyer’s agent. For the third I was the seller’s agent. For all three, there was a different mortgage professional handling the transaction.
Now my business is stronger than ever. Funny thing. When I made the mental shift my business took off. I haven’t had a failed closing because of financing since. Even in this current credit market. That’s a powerful statement when all you work with is real estate investors. 
But Company B is an affiliate of a huge, national real estate company that buys independents and then tries to crush all competition within those independents’ cities. They use their own mortgage company, their own title company, they pay more if you sell listings “in house” and they have even been known to take my company’s listings off their websites. (Think Omaha billionaire when you read all this.)
