Well, to let everyone in what prompted this thread, I have been in the process of settling on a house. To say that the lender put me through the meat grinder is an understatement (I have more money at stake than they do, which is insane). If I would have known that getting through approval was going to be this painful, I would have cashed in some of my retirement savings to cover the bank's portion of the sales price and paid cash. I purchased and sold three houses before purchasing this house and I cannot recall the process being this excruciatingly painful. I feel sorry for first-time home buyers who are financing most of the price of a home. I can only imagine what they are put through.
Specifically, what pissed me off was that the underwriter took forever to reach the "clear to close" stage. I am not a struggling younger person with a 600 credit score and loads of consumer debt (I was young once and remember how difficult getting started can be). What should have been completed in a day or two took an entire week and left me with minutes in the business day to wire the funds I needed for closing (the law office handling the closing required the funds to be wired). I had to plead with the bank officer to stay late and perform the wire because I had drive to a different state the following morning to close. The entire process was a cluster. I retired to get away from procrastinators who dropped their share of a project in my lap at the last minute because they knew I would get it done. I sure as heck do not expect this level of stress when I am the customer.
