Bank Paperwork

Over a month ago, we took on the challenge of getting our finances rolling.  First we filed our taxes early so we could beef up our bank balance a little.  Then we filled out the pre-approval paperwork.  My net worth was up by over 40% of my annual salary since last summer when we had last applied for pre-approval, and my credit score is almost perfect (in the 820 range), so we were surprised when it came back (a week later) and the bank had not approved us for enough to get the job done.  I resisted the urge to panic (because we had qualified for more last time) and contacted my loan officer instead.  It took a bit to get a hold of him that week, but we eventually found out that the loan amount had been determined by the max he could sign for without extra “underwriting” paperwork (I guess even loan officers try to avoid doing paperwork).  I told him we needed the full amount we had asked for and he said he would get on it.   It was another week later before we were sufficiently pre-approved…

With the pre-approval in hand, we set to finishing the arduous “dwelling description” and “sworn statement” paperwork.   These would be used to determine the value of the home.  The home would need to appraise for at least 125% of what we were being loaned or the bank would need to reduce their contribution.  The dwelling description asked strangely detailed questions like the finish on the closet doors, the brand, position and color of the microwave and 8 pages of other detailed questions.  It took a couple evenings for Sherri to make her final selections in these areas and then several more hours for us to sit and fill it all out.

The sworn statement took much more effort.  I had already figured out most of my budget as it was attached to my gantt chart (chart of the building process).  But I still had to finish off a few more cost calculations, tweak some of the build process to save a bit extra and then add it all up.  The number was still too high so we looked at ways we could save money.  An easy one was to factor in the amount of a Federal Tax Rebate that would come in during the build year.  We also decided we could save money on rigid insulation and vinyl waterproofing by buying second hand (I updated my insulation page and my umbrella page with some info on that.)   The electrical quotes we had received were high enough to justify me doing the electrical myself.  We replaced some of the earth moving costs with the assumption that we would buy a used compact tractor with a bucket on the front.  We can sell it at the end (if we want) for almost what we paid and save some money in between, plus it will be useful for unloading trucks, dragging steel around, etc. We decided to drop the surveyor and site the home ourselves (I could put together a whole post on how I plan to do that), etc.  Finally, we decided that we needed to do our own ledge stone work to save the last chunk we needed to get things safely under budget.  I felt like my time was tapped out and Sherri agreed to do that last masonry task.

After we had the total down to the right level, I still needed to adjust the format from the gantt budget to the groupings that the “Sworn Statement” required.   For instance, in the gantt budget, I had steel framing costs spread over a dozen separate steps, but I needed to aggregate these for the sworn statement.  The sworn statement also included details about which contractor had provided each quote, etc.

Of course all this happened during a week when I needed to get a paper done for my MBA class. 

Once all that paperwork was filled out, we realized we couldn’t print it (technical difficulties)… We ended up printing part of it at my in-laws, but they ran out of paper.   Mean while, the USB I had carried it on was corrupted and messed up the formatting on the dwelling document.  I had to waste a bunch of time fixing the formatting and then try to print again.  We also realized that it needed to be notarized before we could send it in.  Since Sherri and I both needed to sign it in-front of the notary, that required some more scheduling, but we got it done.  Then we drove to Ann Arbor to drop it off at the bank.

Now we wait.  It could be up to 2 more weeks before the appraisal is done, then another week before closing.

In the mean time, we are trying to do what we can without spending any money.  I am shopping for a compact tractor, Sherri is getting all the permit paperwork ready to go, etc.