kitz
A Mortgage Story
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
We are closing on a condo somewhere next week. Once everything is in place we will sell our current condo which should more than cover the new one. The lending bank was told this. The payments on our loan will be less than 20% of our income. The bank knows this. I provided some checking account statements to verify my income from SSA survivorship and pension from public service. The bank seemed happy.
My spouse provided some checking account statements to verify SSA survivorship benefits and quarterly deposits from her family trust fund. The bank was not happy. The bank asked for her 2021 Schedule K and it was provided, but it did not make the bank happy–the bank wanted 3 years of 1040s up to the Taxable Income line. We gave them both sides of the pages. Still, the bank was not happy. The closing date was seven business days away.
The mortgage wizard insisted on a copy of the family trust. Now we were not happy. The mortgage officer was not so happy either. I suggested that trust income was being held to a higher burden of proof than employment income–does the bank insist on an employment contract or look into the financials of the employer? No, the mortgage wizard just looks at pay stubs and deposit statements–so what’s the prejudice on trust income? Emboldened by this argument, the mortgage officer (bless her heart) drew back the curtain and found the mortgage wizard wrapped in this cloak from Fannie Mae:
After chanting “Fannie Mae, twenty-oh-eight!” several times, we pointed at the word “or” and provided the wizard with a secure letter from the trustee that addressed amount, frequency, and duration.
The casual reader can hear the ruby slippers clicking and imagine that the story ends, but no, we are walking in a strange land.
The mortgage underwriting wizard was still not happy, but a little nervous with this hole in his curtain. The plucky mortgage officer gathered her friends and determined that better than a broom, better than a brain, or a heart, was the courage to propose 3 years of Schedules B & D.
The mortgage wizard finally left in a balloon throwing buckets of money overboard for us to get to Kansas, well, somewhere.
Hope to see you there.