My wife and I bought a new house this past year. Because we hadn't sold our old house yet, we took out a bridge loan until that house sold. Now the house has sold and we're ready to get a conventional 30 year fixed mortgage.
Well, we live in small town America (Pampa) and it's screwing us. Our credit is good. Our ratios are good. Our house appraised above what the mortgage will be, and we're putting 20% of the value of the house as a down payment. The problem is that virtually no houses in our town sold last year. Plus, the house we're financing is large, old, and unique to the neighborhood. So although the appraisal value is ok, there aren't enough good comps. So my bank can't find a secondary market mortgage company that will issue a mortgage for us.
Part of my frustration is that this is a local bank, one in which my family, my wife's family, and we have banked at for years. I get that there are regulatory hoops to jump through, which is why I've had to repeatedly provide my tax returns, my W-2s, and have our employers verify mine and my wife's employment multiple times even though we are neighbors and family friends of employees of the bank. But part of a small, local, home town bank used to be that someone would vouch for you and help you secure financing.
But that bank is super nice and has offered us an in-house 5 year arm at a rate well above the going market rate.
So for those of you mortgage experts out there, are we just screwed due to the lack of comps? Are there still banks out there that will underwrite their own conventional 30 year fixed mortgages? Thoughts?
Well, we live in small town America (Pampa) and it's screwing us. Our credit is good. Our ratios are good. Our house appraised above what the mortgage will be, and we're putting 20% of the value of the house as a down payment. The problem is that virtually no houses in our town sold last year. Plus, the house we're financing is large, old, and unique to the neighborhood. So although the appraisal value is ok, there aren't enough good comps. So my bank can't find a secondary market mortgage company that will issue a mortgage for us.
Part of my frustration is that this is a local bank, one in which my family, my wife's family, and we have banked at for years. I get that there are regulatory hoops to jump through, which is why I've had to repeatedly provide my tax returns, my W-2s, and have our employers verify mine and my wife's employment multiple times even though we are neighbors and family friends of employees of the bank. But part of a small, local, home town bank used to be that someone would vouch for you and help you secure financing.
But that bank is super nice and has offered us an in-house 5 year arm at a rate well above the going market rate.
So for those of you mortgage experts out there, are we just screwed due to the lack of comps? Are there still banks out there that will underwrite their own conventional 30 year fixed mortgages? Thoughts?
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