Ok, without all the drama, we were told that once it went to underwriting we would have an answer in 48 hours. Over two weeks later we still didn't have an answer. It was the Friday before President's Day and I was about in tears. I called Christina and said, listen, this file has been at underwriting for over a week and a half, and I need an answer now. There is no way I can go through another weekend and not know. It's really making my hair turn gray, and I haven't slept in 10 days. She called underwriting and they gave a verbal yes on the loan. We had an approval. Not a pre-approval, we already had that, but an approval. A verbal approval. That was Friday afternoon around 4:30. They said we needed to do our taxes over the weekend and file those with the IRS on their website, print it all off and fax it to them Monday morning. Even though it was President's Day, underwriting was going to be working that day. They also needed page 5 of Brannon's divorce. Fine, Brannon got all that stuff faxed to them first thing Monday morning. Tuesday afternoon Christina called and said they declined the loan. I asked her why. She said that the lady in underwriting who was handling our file did an average on Brannon's income over 11.5 months instead of 12, and it knocked him out of qualifying as far as income is concerned. Christina said that was crap, that VA has guidelines and taking a 12 month average is the norm. She had no idea why the underwriting didn't take the 12 month average. Christina went on to say that Brad, the owner of Farris Mortgage was SO UPSET that he was calling a meeting the very next morning with the President of the bank. So, Wednesday morning Brad, Christina, the underwriter who declined the loan, a representative of Farris who works at MSI (the bank that said no), the President of MSI, and our realtor all sat in for a meeting. Brad's objective was to get the President of the bank to override the underwriters objection to the loan. The President stood by his underwriters decision. After the President gave his final answer, Brad informed him that was not how they did business at Farris. He said that it was COMPLETELY unprofessional to give us a verbal approval and then jerk it back the very next business day. Brad went on to explain that that kind of business practice was not cool and because they don't do business that way, Farris was NEVER AGAIN GOING TO DO BUSINESS with MSI. And Brad yanked his business and walked away. Do you have any idea how huge that is????? Someone had a VERY BAD DAY. Farris is a HUGE mortgage company here in Springfield. That could very well have been a career decision the underwriter made. It was not good. Christina said that Brad cussed out the underwriter and the bank President. Farris was a huge account for MSI. Not anymore. It was a very very very bad deal. Brannon and I were completely sick about the whole thing. We weren't (obviously) able to close last Thursday. Right now we have our loan with about 5 other banks, but some stuff has come up, a late payment that Brannon's ex wife made that is a really big deal. Also, she can't refinance for at least 3 more months because she had the house on the market. So, you have to have had your house off the market for a min of 6 months before you can refinance it. If it's not one thing, it's something else. Brannon already has a 200,000 dollar house in his name, they aren't going to give him 2 at 200,000 each. Yeah, he's pretty much maxed out. Now, if we could sell this house and get out of it what it's actually worth, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If Z hadn't made a late payment, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If the &^%$#@! underwriter had taken Brannon's income on a 12 month average instead of 11, we wouldn't be having this conversation. There have been other things too which are just so ridiculous they aren't even worth mentioning, but it's been one thing after another. Just to illustrate how fucked up the market is right now, a friend of mine just sold her house and moved to Dallas last week. Their house was worth 250,000 dollars. They listed it at 200,000 and gave it away for 175,000. They ate 75,000 dollars. If that doesn't make you want to barf, I don't know what would. That is why I don't want to put this house on the market, I would get NONE of the equity I have spent the past 10 years building. Do I really feel like giving away 30-40,000 dollars? Not really. I'll just live here before I do that.

Well, to say the least, Brannon and I have been sick to our stomachs for the past 3 weeks. The sellers agreed to a 14 day extension, but with the types of documents the banks are asking us for, they are grasping at straws, so Brannon and really dont' think they are going to give us the loan. His credit is perfect except for the one late payment that Z made 6 months ago. Which really SUCKS, it is hurting us terribly right now. In the mortgage business a late payment on a mortgage is an automatic disqualification. With the quit claim we can kinda get around that. Then there is the fact that he hasn't been on this job for 2 years. But his income is great, his credit is great, its just all the little things put together. Blah blah blah blah blah. I could talk about this all day long, but the end result will be the same. Brannon and I are really trying to just leave it up to God and try to understand that whatever happens, God has a reason and a plan. Although we are so packed in this house, I can't do this for any more length of time. I really hope God reveals His plan soon. He knows we don't fit in this house anymore. Maybe big things are on the horizon and I just don't know it yet. Maybe nothing is on the horizon. This is very hard and I am not sleeping. My stomach hurts all the time and we are living out of boxes and I have a pod in my driveway and we are spending money left and right on this house thing that looks like it's not even going to pan out...I'm just sick.