December 2022 by Gil Boylston
Feedback to American National Bank (Lender to buyer of our house in Stoney Creek)Over the past 40 years, my wife and I have bought and sold five houses where we lived, have bought a sixth residence, and have bought three rental homes, all across six different states. Only once, has a closing been delayed because of a lack of loan approval for the buyer. And that was the sale of our home in Stoney Creek.Late on the Monday before the scheduled close on Thursday, we learned that the closing was not likely to happen as planned. (And therefore we would not be able to close on our new home in TN on Friday.) This was because the loan had not been approved and because the buyer has to have three days to review the closing disclosures. The packers were coming on Tuesday, truck load on Wednesday, truck unloading on Saturday in TN. Issues with the buyer's loan included questions about funding and a complicated 2021 tax return just filed on 10/15/2022. Given just the issues that we know about, l believe the lender should have known well before Monday that the scheduled closing date was extremely unlikely. It is very likely we would have been able to reschedule our move to TN if warned earlier.The avoidable late notification jeopardized the purchase of our TN house, jeopardizied our interest rate lock-in, cost us an additional $7,700 in storage cost of our household, and doubled the risk of damage to our belongings (truck packed and unpacked twice). Because of the 7 day grace period (required by law), we had to wait out the efforts for loan approval (which thankfully did finally come) six days beyond the original close date.If you are selling a house and your buyer's lender is American National Bank, then seller beware!
