Unclosed

We didn't close on Thursday. Our agent called Wednesday night at 9:50 PM. We could not imagine who was calling so late, other than family, and they would only call so late if something was wrong, so my pulse was already elevated when I picked up. As the story goes, the buyer's lender called at 9PM the night before we were set to close to say that a receipt from the federal government (something about taxes) was insufficient proof of payment and that they required a copy of the canceled check. The receipt was submitted several days ago as proof of payment. She cannot control when the check is deposited or when the bank decides to process it. You asked her to show proof of payment and she did. If a receipt wasn't good enough, why didn't you say so several days ago when she submitted it?!! Why did you wait until less than 24 hours to go, and well after normal business hours in any US time zone, to speak up?

At the time (Wednesday night), we were told that the only thing holding it up was the canceled check. Once that was submitted, we would be ready to close. A copy of the check was submitted Friday morning. We were hopeful for a Monday closing. Instead, the lender (allegedly) said, "Okay, we can now send it to the underwriters. Not sure how long that will take. We do have other clients to take care of." Excuse me?! Either this is the most irresponsible lender on the planet who has no respect for anyone else's time and needs, or we're not getting the whole story (or the whole truth). At this point, I don't know or care which, I just want to close, preferably before the March mortgage payment is due!

Did I mention that we already had the utilities set to be turned off on Thursday? And that temps had the possibility of getting below freezing again, though things were expected to be warm over the weekend. We really don't want to go through the time and hassle (and extra fees) to have them turned back on, but we can't afford to risk the pipes bursting! Just such a royal PITA. Plus, if it gets pushed off into March, we'll be gone for a few days, making it that much harder to schedule and that much later into the month.

Our agent called this afternoon to say that closing is now scheduled for Wednesday at 2 PM. I'll believe it when I see it. At this point, I won't fully believe it until I walk out of the lawyer's office holding the papers that say we no longer own that house. Third time's the charm, right? (Knock wood.) Keep your fingers crossed, please.

Currently feeling: please let us close Wednesday