refinancing fun

[cellio]

When you refinance a mortgage, you have to go to a closing just as if you were buying the house in the first place. Odd that there's no way to expedite that. We even refinanced with our current mortgage company.

So we had our "closing" this morning (ironically, 10 years to the day since my closing on my first house). It took about an hour, which wasn't bad. Despite correcting these things in the paperwork they sent in advance (the original application, I guess), they still had our martial status and Dani's SSN and citizenship wrong. I wonder if the corrections will stick this time. I wonder what bad things happen if they don't.

There was a huge accumulation in the escrow account, so we didn't need to bring as much money as we anticipated. Property taxes are due in January; I really hope that this doesn't mean that each loan "assumed" the other is paying that bill, even though it's all the same company. That is, if the new loan assumes that's been paid and the old loan pays out the escrow before paying the bill, we could be screwed. I mentioned this to Dani, but I suspect he'll blow it off rather than check up on it.

It then took me 45 minutes to get from Parkway Center to work, which should have been 15 minutes tops, because of inadequate signage on Pittsburgh roads and irrevocable hidden on-ramps. Whee. It should have been trivial to cross the Fort Pitt Bridge heading downtown and get onto Forbes outbound, but it wasn't. Sigh. "Doing the driving" is one of the chores that Dani agreed to do when we split up all the responsibilities, but he flat-out refused to do this and told me we would drive there separately on the way to work.

Comments

Re: Things get screwed up when you buy new, too

[cellio]

Heh. I think they get that sort of stuff from credit reports and past deeds (if any) and stuff. When we bought this house, nowhere in the paperwork did I use a middle initial. I've been casually trying to excise that middle initial; while making no judgements about others, on me it feels a little pretentious or goofy or something. I'm just "Monica Cellio", no "J". But when we showed up for the closing, that damned "J" was plastered all over the paperwork anyway.

We weren't married when we bought the house (though we were engaged), and after that changed we told the mortgage company. And when we filled out the application we said "married". And when they sent us forms to sign we corrected "unmarried" to "married". And today at the closing we did so again.

I'm told this designation mainly matters when resolving inheritance law -- if he gets hit by a bus or something, the house is mine without going to probate and vice versa. Except I thought two names on the deed did that anyway. Oh well, whatever. We should avoid getting hit by buses. (We've each been hit by cars once.)

Oh well...at least it's done, right?

I sure hope so!

Re: Things get screwed up when you buy new, too

[figmo.livejournal.com]

There are two ways things can fall depending upon how your names appear on the deed. In one case the partner inherits it all if something happens to the other one; in the other case, it can go to the descendants or other relatives of the deceased partner.

It can also affect how things get divvied if you get a divorce. In one case one partner can easily buy the other out; in the other, you're pretty much forced to sell.