Adventures on the road to home ownership: Part 2
You know when you’re in a situation that isn’t terrible, it just isn’t exactly what you want, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel? Well, that’s where we were in the process of buying our house. Until that light was snuffed out because of $89 owed to a gym.
We were supposed to have our financing for sure yesterday. I sent Jay a text to ask if he had heard from our mortgage guy and he asked me to call him. So he could tell me that our credit score wasn’t where it needed to be – where it was when we got our pre-approval – and therefore, we couldn’t get confirmed for the loan.
Apparently we had not been paying a gym membership, which were positive was being automatically deducted from our bank account. Of course, we had changed our debit card number, but assumed the gym had used a checking and routing number (which is the smart thing to do) to make monthly withdrawals. Well, they hadn’t done this. They used the defunct debit card number.
And never told us that they weren’t getting paid. They just waited a few months and sent it to collection, thereby screwing up our credit.
It was a Tuesday, so I was at work, and got this news right before my client meetings for the day. The timing really couldn’t have been worse. After calls with our fabulous lawyer and our fabulous mortgage guy, we thought we would either have to 1. Pay the debt and wait 30 days for the credit score to go back up or 2. Find a cosigner.
Scenario one means that the sellers are unhappy. Scenario two is not a situation you want to be in. You’re asking someone to take on more than a quarter of a million dollars of debt with you. That hurts their credit.
While Jay called the gym, I went into the hall and called my dad. My dad called everyone under the sun and was prepared to help us out, provided he could be removed from the loan after the 30 days had passed.
I went back inside, ready to cry, and asked Beth if I could work from home. I nearly broke down crying when I told her what was happening and I have to say, I’m really glad I went in to talk to her. She told me it would all work out – and I know she wouldn’t have said it if she didn’t mean it – and then advised me to go to the gym and cry until they get the collection agency to remove the debt and let me pay like that had never happened. Her confidence gave me confidence and really calmed me down.
The rest of the day was marked by one phone call after another, between doing the work I had on my plate. The woman at the gym said she would call the collection agency and get back to us. An hour later we called and she said she emailed them.
Wrong answer.
We called the collection agency and explained what had happened. It was an honest mistake and we can pay the debt off right now. Collector guy said he would give us the benefit of the doubt, collect the payment, and write a letter for us to send to the credit report agencies so they could delete the debt and put our credit score back to where it was supposed to be in the first place.
Of course, this knuckle head sends us the letter and tells us we have to call the agencies, but doesn’t tell us that it’s impossible to do that and he is the one that is supposed to call. Thankfully, our mortgage guy is the man and gave us the scoop.
To wrap this story up, our credit score will be back to normal on Friday and we expect to have our loan :knock on wood: on January 18. Granted, we planned a trip to California for January 19-27, and that’s going to make the actual closing a fun time, but you know what? We will get to close on this house.
This is the most stress I have ever endured. I have to say, it showed me (again) everything I have to be grateful for. I have parents who will go to bat for me, a boss who understands everything and helps to make things easier, instead of harder, I have colleagues that genuinely care about my well-being and the progress I am making in my life, a temporary roommate who always assures us that we will all find a way to make this work, and I have the most amazing partner to go through all of this stress with.
So, friends, while buying a home is the “American dream,” it is also a giant pain in the ass. Don’t go into it without a safety net, and be sure you have all your ducks in a row before making any big decisions.
Laura ♥
