I’m in the middle of buying a home. However, with downpayments being what they are I have to be creative. Journalists get paid well, but we’re not millionaires. So, I’m refinancing the mortgage on my co—op and pulling equity to help me get some of the funds. Now I’m going to share the good, the bad and the ugly about my experience so far.
First, the good. When I got my first mortgage I was presented with War and Peace, oops, I mean mortgage documents. Although I’d be willing to bet my mortgage documents were longer then War and Peace. This time around the process was more automated.
I was able to e-sign my disclosures and GFE. I was also granted access to an electronic loan folder so I could see all my documents and where my loan was in the pipeline. I was also tickled that although the lender private-labels the technology, the name of the vendor is still there and it’s a vendor I often write about. It’s good to see the technology you write about in action.
So, things were looking up, and then came the bad. My lender won’t e-close. I was very disappointed that I couldn’t do an e-close. I thought, especially given this was a refi, that I’d have that option. Oh well, it wasn’t the end of the world and I was still encouraged about the disclosures and e-loan folder.
Now we come to the ugly. My wife is on the loan with me and she misplaced her 2007 W-2s. The lender told me upfront that they were going to do a 4506-T so I wasn’t too concerned. If they’re going to do a 4506-T and verify our income with the IRS it shouldn’t be a bid deal that I couldn’t find the paper W-2, right? Wrong!!!
My loan wouldn’t move until I got the paper even though they were going to check what I gave them. Why? The investor wanted both the paper W-2 and the 4506-T. Does that make any sense? Not to me. If you’re going to verify my income, why do I have to tell you what I make? Talk about a backward process.
I was even more inflamed when I was asked to wet sign and fax back a consent form for the 4506-T. Why can’t I e-sign? The IRS won’t accept it. I can file my taxes electronically, but I can’t e-sign to give my lender permission to do a 4506-T, what a crock. So much for us moving closer to the Technology Age.
In the end I got the paper W-2s and signed the 4506-T consent. I guess there has been progress since my last mortgage, but the mortgage space still has a long way to go.
