Friday, January 11, 2013

Meeting with NVR Mortgage

Today was not the fun part of our home buying journey.  I'm frustrated now and want to go back to daydream by picking "dream" furniture and decor :)  We had our meeting with NVR Mortgage this afternoon.  Everything went ok and the loan officer said we should have our determination in about 4 weeks.  4 weeks, really??  She said they are pretty behind on getting things processed because they are busy and in the middle of an office move.  I REALLY hope that they stay on top of things and get our application processed.  I don't want delays because the mortgage company didn't do their part.  She said we look pretty good but she could not be sure because the mortgage insurance companies have stricter underwriting guidelines.

The first meeting was just turning in the required documentation and signing preliminary paperwork; the loan officer really didn't provide specific information about types of loans (which is what I was hoping for).  It sounded like you don't get loan details until it is close to closing time.  That's kind of weird - we are obligating ourselves to spend a lot of money and aren't even sure what kind of mortgage rate or programs we are looking at.  I understand about the rates because the change so quick, but I really wish NVR would give more loan details at the beginning of the process.  I even asked about things like the origination fee and mortgage insurance and my questions were really brushed off.  I just hope that we get to have detailed discussions and they just don't put you into whatever loan they want to - I need to know everything that is available so I can decide, not them.

The worst paper to sign was the acknowledgement that basically stated that NVR Mortgage "may not be the best deal".  I HATED signing that, it was like giving money away.  I like to have choices and pick what works best for me, not be locked into a company where I may be paying more.  

Because we don't have a full 20% down, we have to go into a program with lender paid PMI.  We are going to pay a higher interest rate but not pay monthly mortgage insurance premiums.  This is OK, if there is nothing else we can do (I made a ton of calls to other mortgage companies to make sure), but they still charge upfront the upfront mortgage insurance premium.  Part of this is credited back to me at closing, but not 100%.  Then there is the 1% origination fee.  I questioned her about options to get out of that and she tried to convince me that some of the credit they give for the upfront mortgage insurance premium could go towards the origination.  That makes no sense - if the credit does not cover all the upfront MIP, how could it also cover part of the origination? 

I've found two other lenders that do the LPMI program with no origination fee. UGH.  Guess there's nothing I can do about it, it's just throwing money away when I need it for moving expenses, furniture and most importantly keeping in savings.

Well, need to be positive.  Here's hoping for a quick approval and getting loan terms I won't always have heartburn about :)