Things learned from closing

1. I really don't know how to sign my full name with middle initial.

At work my signature is J. Lastname RN which is pretty much the only way I ever write it. I was told this was prohibited and I had to sign my FULL name. Though interestingly it never looked the same way twice.

2. Our interest rate was slightly better than my sister-in-law's which I know is driving her crazy! :)

3. BJ does not handle disorganization and last minute changes in plans very well.

Of course I already knew this - I mean he's an engineer and details and precision are his life - but this was my first time seeing it in action. I was wishing we lived in Colorado so I could have borrowed some of JCR's xanax which always helps in such situations!!!

(author's note: of course as a professional nurse I would never knowingly take or encourage anyone else to take a medication not prescribed for them by a licensed practitioner. Though I'm not against spiking his coffee with Nyquil or whiskey)

4. The title agent has a daughter named Jennifer Jones and she has had issues with being confused with deadbeats who have the same name, which is another example of why I am choosing to hyphenate.

5. Our mortgage broker is disorganized and does things at the last minute causing unneeded stress in MY life (see #3).

For some reason he allegedly thought we were closing on the 14th, so basically our appraisal wasn't ordered until Monday, he was needing documents from us up until yesterday afternoon, and we weren't sure it was actually going to happen until this morning. We had also asked several weeks ago when we first started the process whether we'd need a specific affidavit signed and were assure "No" only to find out on Tuesday that we needed it completed, signed by someone else who lives out of town, and returned to the bank before closing.

6. You can get a $135,000 mortgage without ever walking into a bank or meeting your mortgage broker.

Yes, we live in an information age where everything was handled with online applications, emailed documents that we'd sign, scan and email back, and the telephone. Of course it might be a good thing that we don't actually know where his office is, because yesterday afternoon we might have been ready to rumble. And did I mention that it was just this morning that we read about the balloon payment on our second mortgage (we did an 80/15 loan) due in 15 years that was never discussed with us?

7. BJ is the first person the title agent has ever closed who wanted ALL of the documents up front (approximately 250 pages worth) and then ACTUALLY READ them before we showed up to sign.

8. Other than the aforementioned mortgage broker issues, buying a house was a remarkably easy process for us and took less than one month from the time we first started looking.

We had heard horror stories about fights and drama and stress for couples buying a home, and it's literally been a breeze. Of course I'll need to re-evaluate that AFTER we've moved and see if I can still make that claim!

9. It's VERY exciting to be able to say that we own a home!!