Turning over a new leaf

Today I did something that I would normally never do...I answered a phone survey. That's right Jeff, and it's all because of you. Normally, when surveyors call, I tell them I'm busy or not interested or whatever just to get rid of them. Today when she asked if I would spare 15 minutes, I hesitated, but because of Jeff's constant appeal to be nice to people on the phone, I did it. It was about my credit card use. One thing I didn't like is that when it was all over, she asked me for my full name and postal code. I gave it to her, but I didn't like it.

Mortgage brokers

Overall, I have been pleased with my mortgage broker. He is very patient and has taken the time to explain everything to me and answer all of my questions. What sucks though, is that he never gave me enough warning to get all of my things in order. Let me explain. For my pre-approval, he asked me questions about how much money I make, what savings and what other debts I have. I asked him at that time if there was anything that I needed to get, like a letter from my employer. He told me that we wouldn't be needing that for the pre-approval and not to worry about it. Since I've never bought a house before, I just did what he told me.

Several weeks later, we found a house and put in an offer. All we had to do was get approved for a mortgage within five days and the house would be ours. Now keep in mind that I've never done this before, but I figured that since I was pre-approved, getting approved would be a cinch.

Here's my complaint. Now we only have five days to get everthing in order. Things like our bank account balances and three months worth of transactions, GIC's, RRSP's, student loan information, letter of employment, etc.. If all of those things are not in by monday, we don't get the house. Why didn't the mortgage broker just tell us before? He knew we would need it sometime. Why didn't he say three weeks ago, "By the way, start gathering bank account info, we're going to need it"? I've been going crazy the last two days trying to get it all sorted out. Had he told me before, I could have just handed it to him when we found our house. We're still waiting on several things to be faxed to them and if they aren't, well then, it sucks to be us. If there are any mortgage brokers out there reading this, please do your clients a favor and tell them what they'll have to get done more than five days ahead of time.