On top of the sixty-five thousand dollars (man, it sure seems bigger when I write it out like that, doesn't it?) that I've had to amass for these two closings, Countrywide is now insisting on a two thousand dollar prepayment penalty on the home equity line of credit that's being paid off in two weeks.
I learned this from my realtor last night and spent fifteen minutes on the phone with Countrywide this morning. I said, "I'm one of the good guys. I make my mortgage payments on time. I don't walk away and stiff you with houses. Can't you make any exception?" My new not-best-friend Fred, probably yet another J.D. who couldn't pass the bar, read the whole clause from the HELOC contract to me and said, "I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do."
This whole process has finally reduced me to tears. I hung up the phone after speaking with Fred and just sobbed until I said to myself, "This is inappropriate" and took a very long drink of cold water.
I wisely asked Jo at Title Security in Tucson to give me as much heads-up as she could. This morning she sent me the estimated costs and my total cash at closing is now up to FORTY-SIX THOUSAND NINE DOLLARS AND THIRTY-FIVE CENTS. Y'know, I try not to use this word on this blog, but fuck. Just fuck, fuckety fuck. That means I'll take six thousand out of my IRA on the 10th of August and then hang by my fingernails to get it back in within 60 days. That means in five weeks I will have amassed seventy-one thousand dollars. Aren't I special? (Please say yes!)
Can we please have a big god-damned party on my seventy-eighth birthday and drink margaritas and lemon drops and mimosas and laugh about this time in my life?
Because right now I'm fighting the tears.
I'm one of the good guys. WHERE IS FAIRNESS?
6 comments:
You can bet I will be at that party.
hugs!
Don't wait 20 year for the party! You deserve that margarita now!
And a big hug!
I will drink and laugh with you whenever you want!!
Big hugs for you my friend!
Im so sorry. I feel that statement so keenly on so many levels. Do you have a law suit in here somewhere? This is just incomprehensible to me. Im with jeannie, Ill drink and laugh with you whenever you want (and at the risk of being bold, Im pretty sure lucy will too)
The blessing is you could raise it, the heartache is you have to let it go. You should contact the Center for Responsible Lending and ACORN to let tell them your story and see whether they know of any program or person who could intervene to forgiveness of the prepayment penalty.
You are an amazing woman Jan, and like the Phoenix, you will rise from the ashes of this experience.
Hang in there.
Hugs.
This post infuriated me. It's not hard to get me going on one of my paradigms, and in this case, it's what-ever-happened-to-ethics-in-business?
I see this over and over again, companies position themselves as "experts" in our decision-making, but then when we need help and the money has been spent, the experts don't have anything to offer us.
I'm so sorry that you're going through such a horrid experience.
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