USAA makes a saving throw
On Friday I got in touch with my real estate agent to ensure that everything was as smooth as it could be. He let me know that Ekta, the awesome loan officer, had told him that it was going to be two to three weeks. I was puzzled at this, as Ekta had told both me and Rachel, the title officer, the night before - about 14 hours before, actually - that closing would happen no later than November 30. I asked Bob, the agent, what this meant for the sale - he didn't know, as he had just found out about this himself, but would get in touch with the seller and see what he wanted to do. (More on this later.) I got off the phone with Bob and contacted USAA so that I could let them know about Ekta's extreme unreliability and poor performance. I left a message with her supervisor and drove home after my last class for the day was cancelled.
When I got home Ekta's supervisor Leelee called me back. Having had some time to think over exactly what I was going to say, I remained calm and went over the litany of errors and oversights that had occurred in the handling of my loan - pretty much what was in my last post plus the added stuff from the top of this one. I also added that I had never experienced dissatisfaction like this with USAA before, including my first home loan that I had processed through them. This was really the heart of the matter, as USAA portrays themselves as being there for their members in the armed forces, but here I was, in a very stressful and demanding time, and they had been no better than Bank of America or any other large firm. To her credit, Leelee also stayed calm, and informed me that she had reviewed my file and that I was right - there were several issues in the way that my stuff had been handled; as a result, she was transferring my loan over to her most experienced officer, giving Ekta some remedial training, and would be contacting the VA daily in an effort to expedite the processing of the loan. She also apologized for my experience and hoped that the solutions she'd put forth would help. I agreed that they would, thanked her for her attention and time, and got off the phone with her.
About this time Bob called me back to let me know that the seller had agreed to let me move in before closing, so long as I would pay pro-rated rent in the amount of his mortgage, which seemed reasonable and far easier than rescheduling all the utility hookups, movers, and appliance deliveries I had scheduled, plus it cuts my commute in half.
So all told, USAA came through and the seller was awesome enough to let me move in on my original date. HUZZAH.
USAA Bones Me
Up until now, I've been moving, albeit slowly, through the home-buying process... and here's what happened today: I got a call around noon from Ekta, the loan officer, saying that
1) there was an additional form that had to be filled out and signed before the loan could be processed
2) I had not gotten flood insurance
3) THEY HAD NOT RECEIVED THE LOAN APPLICATION.
It's five days before closing, and you're JUST NOW telling me the loan application never made it there? (I sent it in back in October.) WHAT THE FUCK.
After WTFing for about 5 minutes straight on the phone to Ekta, who never proposed a solution or said she'd try and expedite matters, I proceeded to accomplish the following:
1) downloaded, printed, signed, scanned form and sent it back to Ekta
2) Confirmed that I *HAD* flood insurance, but that Ekta now wanted it pre-paid rather than waiting for closing... so I paid and
3) drove to the place I'm staying to get the copy of the loan application I had, signed and initialed everything all over again, got it scanned and sent back to Ekta. Again.
This isn't the first time she's messed up, either - she told me on Monday that I didn't have homeowners' insurance when in fact I had gotten it back in late October, and my insurance agent had faxed proof of it to Ekta on the 28th. I confirmed this by asking the title lady if she had gotten it that day, and indeed she had.
So now it's a waiting game to see if we'll close on time... or if the seller will let me move in early (we're both Navy, so maybe he will...) - otherwise I have to reschedule the power, water, internet, movers, and washer/dryer delivery.
USAA has been pretty good to me over the years, but they have seriously dropped the ball on this one... Kendra is forward deployed IN JAPAN and the I'm STILL in the process of PCSing! You'd think they would assign a bit more importance to this or perhaps put some additional oversight into the process. Regardless, five days before closing is NOT the time that you want to hear that additional paperwork is due or that other paperwork is missing.
Fall Upkeep and Some Recommendations
Most of my friends, after deciding to buy a domicile, settled on condos. Figuring I could keep the house maintained on my own cheaper than a monthly condo fee plus random assessments plus my slight DIY streak, I opted for a house in the city of Norfolk - another difference there.
With a house comes other things, like a backyard and trees that must be kept up. I've always enjoyed yardwork - there's something very relaxing and centering about the reverse entropy that is getting your yard into shape after the wild, undirected growth of the plants, weeds, etc. has thrown your previous work into disarray. I'm an old hand at lawn maintenance, but trees, shrubs and other landscaping elements are new to me. As such, when I was back and then had to deploy rather quickly again, I thought "meh, how much can the trees grow if I skip a year of pruning?"
As it turns out, quite a bit. I had branches overhanging my house - oak and crape myrtle - and the crape myrtles out front were low enough that you had to duck while walking on the sidewalk. I remembered from way back when that you need to wait winter and/or the leaves are gone to cut trees back. Today's high being 60 or so with almost all the leaves gone from the crape myrtles, I decided to chance it. There was a LOT of trimming to do, to include some high-wire acts on the roof and one rather large branch to the head, but otherwise nothing of note other than the sheer volume. In order to deal with the great amount of wood that I now have in my backyard, I got this chipper/shredder. It's nothing special, but it's far quieter than a gas powered one and perfect for the branches that I'm able to cut with my tree pruner - anything bigger I just bundle up and put by the curb for pickup. (Sorry to those of you who were hoping for a massive conflagration.)
A couple of huge endorsements - first to the tree pruner, which was nothing less than stellar in reaching and taking care of some very high branches. Second and actually more important were the gloves. I use Mechanix gloves while preflighting, but had used standard cowhide gloves for most of my yardwork and home improvement - until I got a large hole in the palm of one of the gloves. As a replacement I got some Mechanix CG Impact Pro gloves, which were instrumental in getting any work done since I practiced a bit too long on the drums last night and ended up with a couple of wicked blisters. Highly recommended for construction/renovation, yardwork, anything in general that you might do around the house or yard.
What I'm Doing...
- Headed home with a mess of lumber in the car. The entire car. 2 days ago
- Got a fish tank and some chairs too. Not inclusive of the $100. 3 days ago
- $100 hot tub - score! Now to move it the 400 feet to the house... 3 days ago
- More updates...
Posting tweet...
Last Listened To
- Queen – You're My Best Friend
- Queen – Bicycle Race
- Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls
- Queen – Killer Queen
- The Raconteurs – Steady As She Goes