We are scheduled to close on our new house on Tuesday, and I couldn't feel less confident about it while still believing it will actually happen. The major issue is getting a large sum of money from S's parents' bank account into that of the settlement company. This is our down payment. S and I will then reimburse her parents after we close on our house the following week (still on schedule with that, knock on wood). It's a bit annoying to have to do this, but that's just the way timing worked out, and we didn't want to make our offer contingent on selling our house, because we were worried they wouldn't accept it if we did. It's mostly a seller's market here, so they don't have to be too accommodating to buyers.
S's dad had to move some money around on his end before he could make the transfer. He did that a few weeks ago, and then he went into his bank in person (he's old school, so he doesn't do anything online or anything like that), and set up a transfer to take effect yesterday (48 business hours before closing). He did it in advance because he was going on vacation and not returning until yesterday.
So, everything is swell until we get an email from the bank saying that actually he would have to be there in person to sign-off on the transfer. This is supremely annoying, considering the entire reason he went in early is because he knew it would be difficult to go in on the day of the transfer. And the bank initially was fine with this. Why shouldn't they be? If he went into the bank and made a transfer that day, it would have gone through. What's the difference, from the bank's end, between it going through that day, or going through two weeks later? Either way, he's there in person authorizing it. It's effectively the same thing. It's like writing somebody a check and then having to sign it a second time when they cash it. It defeats the entire purpose. (By the way, the reason he didn't just transfer it when he went in two weeks ago is because the settlement company told us not to do it so far in advance for some reason.)
But the bank is insistent. Despite what they already told us, he would have to be there in person. Thankfully, he took a red-eye home from vacation, so despite a connecting flight being delayed four hours, he's able to get to the bank around 3:30 pm, and make the transfer. Done. He sends us a picture of the confirmation letter. I'm relieved... temporarily.
At around 4:00 pm, I get a frantic call telling me -- get this -- the fucking settlement company gave us the wrong transfer information! I shit you not. Instead of giving us their information, they gave us the information for the seller (some development company). So, my father-in-law, bless his soul, dutifully following the instructions he was provided, wired our down payment, directly to the seller, and apparently this is major breach of protocol.
S, the hero in this narrative, noticed the disconnect, but just a bit too late. She couldn't figure out why we were paying the seller our down payment directly before closing, but for our current house we had to wait until after closing to get our money from the settlement company. So, she called our agent, who said something was indeed wrong, and he had her call the settlement company, and the woman handling our case there was basically like, "Oops... my bad. Can you have your dad cancel that transfer?" But S couldn't because it already went through, and she was livid. I've never seen her this mad before, and it wasn't just anger -- it was annoyance, contempt, exacerbation, and several other feelings that don't even have names. Not only was our entire down payment in the wrong hands, but we just put S's dad through this whole song and dance to get this damn transfer done, and now it was all for naught.
The thing is these wire instructions aren't transmitted casually. They are uploaded/downloaded through a secure portal and treated as highly sensitive documents (understandably so). How the fuck, then, do you give us the wrong instructions? How do you not double-check that? Her excuse is that the wrong file had a similar name as the correct one. So open the damn file and make sure it's right! I don't press send on emails to family members without double-checking the pertinent information. How do you not do this with somebody's life savings on the line? Infuriating. She's playing with my money and just like Big Worm says: Playing with my money is like playing with my emotions.
S happened to be at our bank to wire transfer the closing costs to the settle company (as if they deserve it), when all this went down. So, she's literally sitting with a bank employee, at like 4:30 on Good Friday, making frantic phone call after frantic phone call, trying to get this all figured out before we push more money out into cyberspace. Eventually she got in contact with the seller and they confirmed that they have the money, and so now they are going to wire it to the settlement company, so that the settlement company can eventually wire it back to them. It seems beyond strange to me, but I guess that's the way it has to go. Personally, I think the seller should just get to keep it now, and the settlement company loses their cut for their mistake. Apparently, they tried to do the transfer last night, but it was too late, so now we have an email saying they will do it on Monday. That's how things currently stand. Not great; I guess not disastrous. Everything is still on schedule, but I can't say I have a ton of confidence it will all go off without a hitch.
I know people make mistakes, but giving the wrong account information for the transfer of a huge (to us) sum of money is not one that should ever happen. Like I said, that should at least be double-checked. S said it's a tiny bit her fault because she should have noticed that the transfer information said the name of the seller not the settlement company, but I put it on her 0%. There was a) no reason for her to question instructions that come from a supposedly super secure portal; b) no reason for her to think anything was that off even if it did click that it was the seller's information and not the settlement company's. What's one randomly named corporation versus another to her? And ultimately the seller is getting the money anyway, so why would she think anything is that strange? It's not like she's a real estate agent well-versed in this byzantine process, and it's not like she knows what sort of financial agreement the seller has the with the settlement company -- maybe it is supposed to go the seller as far as she could reasonably be concerned. That she figured out something was amiss when she did is almost certainly better than I would have done in her shoes. And it is much better she noticed it before everybody shut down for the weekend.
To make matters worse, I went out last night with some buddies, and I was so anxious about everything I drank too many beers to calm down, and now I feel the crap. I'm blaming this on the settlement company too. I'm channeling my inner Homer: This is everybody's fault but mine.
Until next time...
S's dad had to move some money around on his end before he could make the transfer. He did that a few weeks ago, and then he went into his bank in person (he's old school, so he doesn't do anything online or anything like that), and set up a transfer to take effect yesterday (48 business hours before closing). He did it in advance because he was going on vacation and not returning until yesterday.
So, everything is swell until we get an email from the bank saying that actually he would have to be there in person to sign-off on the transfer. This is supremely annoying, considering the entire reason he went in early is because he knew it would be difficult to go in on the day of the transfer. And the bank initially was fine with this. Why shouldn't they be? If he went into the bank and made a transfer that day, it would have gone through. What's the difference, from the bank's end, between it going through that day, or going through two weeks later? Either way, he's there in person authorizing it. It's effectively the same thing. It's like writing somebody a check and then having to sign it a second time when they cash it. It defeats the entire purpose. (By the way, the reason he didn't just transfer it when he went in two weeks ago is because the settlement company told us not to do it so far in advance for some reason.)
But the bank is insistent. Despite what they already told us, he would have to be there in person. Thankfully, he took a red-eye home from vacation, so despite a connecting flight being delayed four hours, he's able to get to the bank around 3:30 pm, and make the transfer. Done. He sends us a picture of the confirmation letter. I'm relieved... temporarily.
At around 4:00 pm, I get a frantic call telling me -- get this -- the fucking settlement company gave us the wrong transfer information! I shit you not. Instead of giving us their information, they gave us the information for the seller (some development company). So, my father-in-law, bless his soul, dutifully following the instructions he was provided, wired our down payment, directly to the seller, and apparently this is major breach of protocol.
S, the hero in this narrative, noticed the disconnect, but just a bit too late. She couldn't figure out why we were paying the seller our down payment directly before closing, but for our current house we had to wait until after closing to get our money from the settlement company. So, she called our agent, who said something was indeed wrong, and he had her call the settlement company, and the woman handling our case there was basically like, "Oops... my bad. Can you have your dad cancel that transfer?" But S couldn't because it already went through, and she was livid. I've never seen her this mad before, and it wasn't just anger -- it was annoyance, contempt, exacerbation, and several other feelings that don't even have names. Not only was our entire down payment in the wrong hands, but we just put S's dad through this whole song and dance to get this damn transfer done, and now it was all for naught.
The thing is these wire instructions aren't transmitted casually. They are uploaded/downloaded through a secure portal and treated as highly sensitive documents (understandably so). How the fuck, then, do you give us the wrong instructions? How do you not double-check that? Her excuse is that the wrong file had a similar name as the correct one. So open the damn file and make sure it's right! I don't press send on emails to family members without double-checking the pertinent information. How do you not do this with somebody's life savings on the line? Infuriating. She's playing with my money and just like Big Worm says: Playing with my money is like playing with my emotions.
S happened to be at our bank to wire transfer the closing costs to the settle company (as if they deserve it), when all this went down. So, she's literally sitting with a bank employee, at like 4:30 on Good Friday, making frantic phone call after frantic phone call, trying to get this all figured out before we push more money out into cyberspace. Eventually she got in contact with the seller and they confirmed that they have the money, and so now they are going to wire it to the settlement company, so that the settlement company can eventually wire it back to them. It seems beyond strange to me, but I guess that's the way it has to go. Personally, I think the seller should just get to keep it now, and the settlement company loses their cut for their mistake. Apparently, they tried to do the transfer last night, but it was too late, so now we have an email saying they will do it on Monday. That's how things currently stand. Not great; I guess not disastrous. Everything is still on schedule, but I can't say I have a ton of confidence it will all go off without a hitch.
I know people make mistakes, but giving the wrong account information for the transfer of a huge (to us) sum of money is not one that should ever happen. Like I said, that should at least be double-checked. S said it's a tiny bit her fault because she should have noticed that the transfer information said the name of the seller not the settlement company, but I put it on her 0%. There was a) no reason for her to question instructions that come from a supposedly super secure portal; b) no reason for her to think anything was that off even if it did click that it was the seller's information and not the settlement company's. What's one randomly named corporation versus another to her? And ultimately the seller is getting the money anyway, so why would she think anything is that strange? It's not like she's a real estate agent well-versed in this byzantine process, and it's not like she knows what sort of financial agreement the seller has the with the settlement company -- maybe it is supposed to go the seller as far as she could reasonably be concerned. That she figured out something was amiss when she did is almost certainly better than I would have done in her shoes. And it is much better she noticed it before everybody shut down for the weekend.
To make matters worse, I went out last night with some buddies, and I was so anxious about everything I drank too many beers to calm down, and now I feel the crap. I'm blaming this on the settlement company too. I'm channeling my inner Homer: This is everybody's fault but mine.
Until next time...
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