Background

In March 2008 I began Finding Pennies. In December 2008 I began sharing these "Penny Tales" with a few close friends. They encouraged me to blog the Penny Tales such that more people could enjoy the Adventures with Penny Angels.


Please visit the website: http://www.pennyfinders.com

Joyfully, Tina


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Penny Palace Update

It’s been a while since you’ve had an update and a number of people are asking if we have begun construction yet.

We expected to begin construction at the first of the year. (The City had given us their blessing before Christmas). We are not allowed to move any dirt until the bank has their loan recorded. The bank was backlogged due to all the refinancing going on, the rain, the holidays, etc. They said funding would be mid-January, then end of January, then February 1st. Then one of their clerks made a typo. That caused a whole week delay to give us the legal time disclosures. So signing was to be today, Feb 8th!

This afternoon we got the call from Escrow: “Your loan docs are finally here!” (Our escrow account was opened in December). I asked how much money I needed to bring for closing. (Our Good Faith Estimate was around $10,000, but I wanted to confirm). We had been asking the bank for several weeks how much we would need to bring to escrow. The escrow officer said, “Please bring $100,000+” and be here in 20 minutes to sign today!” First of all, it is at least a 20 minute drive to their office. Secondly, just how the #&#&#& am I supposed to come up with that amount of money in 5 minutes?

We are taking out a loan for much of the construction costs, but we planned to use our savings for the smaller stuff (landscaping, appliances, light fixtures, etc.) The bank is demanding that 100% of the estimated cost of the project be put into their holding account. Then we can request vouchers for reimbursement (of our own money) after I buy the fridge, lights, etc. and submit the receipts to them. (Plus pay them a fee to disburse our funds back to us!) Can you hear me growling?

Needless to say, we did not sign loan documents today as planned.

No comments: