Already looked into that. Rate quotes are 5.25 now. Not worth it. I think they need to force me to say I quit, which isn’t going to happen
Good for you!
Did you ever get in writing, that they would honor their commitment?
I suspect that at this point they are deliberately trying to make you quit. Bastards.
The best I got in writing is are two different e-mails stating that the rate would be honored. But nothing contractual to back that up and I guarantee there are people at the bank who could overrule the person who wrote that if push came to shove. But we’ll see.
Huh - it just occurred to me that the request for your grandfather’s bank statement is a really, really STUPID thing to ask for.
Even if the money had been a loan, he’d have still written a check for it. So it shows up on his statement either way. Morons.
Of course, you won’t be replying to this any time soon since you’re either in a BofA office or jail.
Too much work in work today. I’ve decided to sit in tomorrow :). It’s GFE or bust!
They at least called back today to see if there’s a workaround for the “gift letter.” My response was that the gift letter is irrelevant. It’s in our account. It’s our money. And, frankly, if they’re concerned about how much money we have (which they shouldn’t be, we have enough), then run the numbers again tomorrow when I get paid.
The whole thing is absurd. We’re lowering our monthly payments, which means that if they’re concerned about my ability to pay off the loan under the refinance, they must be shitting themselves about how we managed to afford the house for the previous 6 years!
Your whole process sounds like it’s been a PITA, but I do have a little insight into why they are going nuts over the $1k gift. Years ago, when we bought our first home, my SO’s parents gave us a gift, to help with the down payment.
The bank insisted on a letter, from my SO’s parents, that this was a gift and not a loan. The bank is making sure that no one else has a claim on your house, in the event that you default on your mortgage with them.
Oh no, I can absolutely understand that reasoning. But we’ve given them two signed statements that this is a gift completely unrelated to our property and yesterday they come back and say that we need a third letter, this time signed by my grandfather, verifying that, yes, this is still a gift, but it actually is a gift towards the refinance.
Sorry, but no. I wrote them back and said that the underwriter will not compel us to knowingly lie on a legal document and we can just move on. They’re still figuring it out on their end.
Any progress?
(funny, aren’t I?).
That’s odd. I’ve had BoA ask for a relative’s bank statement to verify a gift for a down payment but the fact that the check cleared my BoA account–after they had asked for the relative’s statement–was good enough.
Update!
Loan officer called today. Apparently the bank’s computers have indicated that home prices in our area have gone down. Consequently, they require another appraisal. Good news though! It won’t cost us anything! Bad news though! If it comes back as less than the initial appraisal (and I’m 105% certain it will), we’ll have to bring that money to closing. Which means another run through our bank account to see if we really really truly super do have the money needed to close.
But it’s cool. We have a choice. If we decide not to comply with this request, they’ll just declare the file dead and we won’t have a refinance.
I predicted to my wife that this would be their next step and it gives me no pleasure to say I was correct.
Here’s my guess on their next step: Bank of America delays until April 15th and then requires updated tax information for 2010.
Maybe your grandfather can give you the extra money?
Joking aside - why would a lower appraisal mean you need more cash at closing? Are you going to be underwater after the new appraisal or something?
Why are we still talking about you getting a loan with BoA? Clearly they suck as a business. I have spent the past 5 years running away from them (they keep buying up banks I do business with) and couldn’t be happier now that my loan is not with those nincompoops.
You should start a new thread “Recommend a new bank for my re-finance because BoA sucks!” 
I think it’s because they promised him a rate that he can’t get anywhere else now. They don’t want him to get it there, either.
If not actually underwater, their loan-to-value might not be 80% any more. Say the house was worth 200K last fall and they want a mortgage for 160K, now the place is “only” worth 180K - the maximum loan they could get under the 80% rule would be 144K (if my arithmetic is correct).
And rates have gone up quite a bit since the fall. We locked in a refi at 4.25% in late October; the same mortgage at the same institution would be 4.875% right now.
BofA has really been jerking the OP around. Clearly they do NOT want to write that mortgage and are trying to stonewall him into giving up.
What’s funny is they’d probably have bent over backwards to get a new customer taken care of already. They know they have him by the short and curlies already.
Yes. The rate quoted in OCTOBER (that, they really really really promise to keep) was 4.00 APR. We caught it at an historic low. About the time we started to get worried was January and by then rates had shot back up. We called around to other lenders. We’re talking 5-5.25 and it’s not worth it to switch even on principle taking the financial hit. So our options are
- Bank of America
- Wait for hell to freeze over and rates to dip back to 4%
- No refinance
We’d do #3 but, darn it, we’re not quitters. Partly we’re getting entertainment just seeing what happens next. Part of it…well, best not to discuss our considered legal options just yet.
Not exactly. We’re still ahead, but barely. Our home appraised for around 15% less than we bought it 6 years ago which means our stored up equity is pretty close to zilch. To refinance, we’ll need to meet their Loan to Value ratio which means possibly coming up with cash at closing. If the appraisal goes down any more, we’ll definitely need to bring cash to closing.
Ah, I get it now. I’ve been sort of following this thread and I remember there are a lot of numbers and a lot of smartness.
But every time there is an update, I open the thread to read it and see “Bank of America” in the first sentence and my eyes fill up with blood and I fall off my chair and never get a chance to read all the info in the middle. I just go to the final post, where I see BoA is still in the mix and…well, you see how I could miss all the pertinent info?
Good luck! Get that 4%!
House re-appraisal came back today.
I’m shocked. Shocked that in the dead of winter housing prices where we had literally some of the worst weather in 50 years, housing went down in our area. Why weren’t people out shopping for houses? How could Bank of America have possibly foreseen this?
So our appraised value came back $2,000 less than before. That’s money I’m sure we’ll have to bring to closing. Oh, they’re not quite admitting that’s the case at the moment. But it’s fairly evident this will turn out to be true.
Either that or we give up and I’m NEVER giving up!!!
OK, yeah, no. I can do math. If it comes down to them compelling us to bring 2 grand to closing or we lose the loan refi, we’re walking. It makes no financial sense for us to continue on at that point. It’s been an enjoyably head banging experience but it’ll come to a conclusion one way or another in short order. But at least I’ll get them to admit that their delays have genuinely harmed us in this contractual negotiation and that’s really all I’m looking for at this point.
Well, if the house is “worth” 2,000 less, that means they’ll write a loan for “80% of (old value - 2,000)” instead of “80% of oldvalue”… so they’d write a loan for 1,600 less than they would have before. Any chance you’ve paid that much in additional principal during the past 6 months?
Possibly. I just wrote them and said (in essence) that I know there are going to be four issues at closing:
Closing costs
Escrow
2 months reserve
LTV ratio
And I know that the appraised value coming back will directly cost me money. But since you (the bank) seem unwilling to put down ANY numbers to fill in those four variables above, I have no concept of how much money it will directly cost us.
So far they haven’t responded. They keep dangling the “if only you do X there’s a good chance we can close by the end of the week” but I don’t see how we can close when I have no hard numbers to work with.
I saw this thread when you first posted it and I am really looking forward to the resolution.
If any bank ever needed anything stuck to them, BoA is IT. Go go go!