CHAPTER SIX: Closing Blues

The date of the #closing approached, along with a flurry of last minute details.  Rita and I, Gershwin, the seller, and various people from the title company, the banks, and Attractive Mortgages sat around a boardroom table at the Attractive Mortgages office.  Things were moving pretty smoothly until the A.M. representative announced that the #mortgage would be at the current rate of nine-and-a-half percent.

"Hey, wait a minute!" I gulped.  "I'm locked in with a floating lock at nine percent.”  I looked to Rita for confirmation of the day I had gone into her office to tell her so.  Rita agreed that I had, indeed, done this.

 The Attractive Mortgages man hummed and hawed and ruffled his papers.  "First of all,” he said, “there’s no such thing as a ‘floating lock’ and, secondly, if you had been locked into anything, you should have had some paperwork sent to you and paid a point in advance.  Did you receive any paperwork, or pay a point?”

“No,” I said. “I didn’t.  Kirsty did tell me it would cost a point when I first asked her about locking in.  And, by the way, she did call it a--I held up both hands with two fingers in a quote-unquote sign—‘floating lock’ because it would change as the interest rates varied.  When she told me a few days later that I’d been approved, she didn't tell me I needed to pay anything right then, nor did she send me any paperwork, so I assumed the point would be added on to the mortgage, or paid at the closing."

My protestations were to no avail.  I had no written proof.

The Attractive Mortgages man shrugged his shoulders.  "Well, since there’s no record of anything like that taking place, there's nothing I can do about it," he stated firmly, looking anything but concerned about his employee's alleged mistake.  "It will only cost you about five thousand dollars extra over the life of the loan."

I wasn’t going to give in so easily.  I demanded a phone to call Kirsty and find out what the hell was going on.

I fully expected to not be able to reach her, but to my surprise, I was successful.  However, when I questioned her about the lock-in, Kirsty as much as placed the blame at my doorstep for not requesting the paperwork to pay the point.  As to the apparent non-existence of a so-called ‘floating lock,’ she became very vague.   It occurred to me that this may have been a routine, deliberate mix-up on the part of Attractive Mortgages.

Rita took one look at my face and dragged me out of the boardroom for a private conference.

“Now we’ve come this far, if you don’t go through with the sale,” she whispered, “the seller could very well sue you.  We’ve no proof you spoke to Kirsty about the lock-in, and after all, the extra half-percent won't add up to that much over thirty years.”

Despite my fury, I knew I still wanted the house.  I didn’t have anything against Tony the seller, who was sitting worriedly in his corner watching the battle rage back and forth across the table.  It was the mortgage company I was mad at for ripping me off.

When Rita and I returned to the boardroom, the Attractive Mortgages representative showed no remorse.  Rather, he looked smug, as if mentally adding another gullible customer to his list.  He did, however, graciously condescend to compensate me somewhat for my mistake by letting me off the half-point I was supposed to pay at the closing.  Very grand of him; it came to a measly hundred and seventy-five bucks. 

“A check will be issued to you, tomorrow,” he promised. 

Needless to say, I requested the promise in writing.  

He motioned to a secretary to type up a quick note. The resulting note, however, stated that “Anastasia Scuttlebutt will be refunded $175 for the amount of the FHA appraisal.”  I didn’t know what this meant, but as the half-point had been deducted as promised, I didn’t argue.  As he signed the note with a flourish and added a title below his name, I saw that Mr. Smug was actually the Regional Manager of Attractive Mortgages.

After various costs and fees, such as the appraiser’s fee, the credit report, and points for loan discount had been calculated, the amount of my mortgage ended up being $39,850.00.  Tony handed me three checks: $600.00 for the downstairs tenants’ security deposit; $475.00 for the downstairs rent for April; and $400.00 for the upstairs tenant’s rent for April.  These instant profits quickly dwindled as I wrote my own checks for various closing costs: bank attorney’s fees, quarterly city and school taxes, state taxes, first escrow payment, first two months of hazard and mortgage insurance, and recording fees.

When the #bankers and mortgage people had left, I wrote a check to Tony for $10,000.00.  According to the settlement statement, he had made about $10,000.00 on the transaction.  I then wrote another check for $4,500.00 to the Bargain Registry.

The house at 51 Manson Street was now officially mine.

I drove back to the office in an agony of doubt.  It was very difficult to hand over all those checks.  It made the whole thing so final.  Now I had a #house, no savings, and I didn’t know if I’d made the right decision. 

But there was no going back. 

I’ll open a new bank account, just for the house, I decided, and endeavored to console myself with visions of small mortgage payments, large rental income, and a growing savings account. 

The trouble started a week after I bought the house. 

I had no idea then that it was a portent of the hell to come.