My son in law was in the finance field in Charlotte. We all know what happened in that field. He was laid off in April from his job and within a week had 3 offers from capital mortgage firms offering him positions as a mortgage loan originator. He went to the class to become certified and two weeks ago he started his job as a mortgage loan originator, working on commission only. They are so backed up he's working 6 days a week just to try to catch up. His company is still hiring new people daily to try to catch up with all the refinances etc going on. Most of these new people are inexperienced and it's entirely possible that things are falling through the cracks. So I don't think it's that the UW doesn't care about you or your situation. I think if it's anything like my son in laws position, the UW is overwhelmed and things will fall through the cracks. I know that's small consolation for you, sorry.

Don't even get me started! (see fsbo property offer thread)
We're supposed to close on Wednesday.
We just found out Saturday morning that the appraiser came in $10K below sale price. UW wants to drop it another $5K.
Comps used are ridiculous - the only thing in common is sqft of townhouse. Appraiser dismissed # BR and # total rooms to consider only sqft. Says we're not waterfront, although we've certainly been taxed as waterfront forever! (Technically, there is 20' of common area between our unfenced "backyard" and the water.)
Buyer has a rate lock and needs to close ASAP.
Loan officer using my arguments for a rebuttal, but who knows how that will go?

Had the same problem closing on our construction loan. It's all the refinancing going on. Everything is backed up, especially the appraisers who are working under new rules.

Loan officers are also affected. Ours was prohibited from having direct contact with appraiser.

If the contract states a closing date and it doesn't close by that date, doesn't that make the contract null and void?

Emily, no; or should I say in NJ no.
The closing date on the contract is a "good faith" date.. basically between the buyer & seller that they'll do everything to try to close by that date.

Now, if you're buying new like we did, we did have a date but it was able to change until they sent the actual "call to closing" letter" with their pick, which could or could not be the date agreed upon.

Emily, we just kept filling out an extension with the buyer. Luckily, the buyer was willing to hang in there (good thing since it was THEIR fault we had all the delays in closing). In good news, we did finally get the clear to close on Wednesday and closed last Friday. Yay!

Congrats!
It also looks like we're going for another try on Thursday. Will allow myself to be happy when the check is sitting in the intermediary's bank (this is a 1031 exchange, so we never actually see the $$$).

Good luck, c9pilot! It's been a long road for us, but we made it eventually!

Thanks!
I'm printing out about 50 sheets of documents to sign and notarize as I type...hope the ink cartridge holds out...and hope I can figure out which ones need 8 copies and which ones don't and get this overnighted out of here. (I'm in FL, townhouse in MD, why are all my home sales out of whatever state I'm in?)
If we had closed last week, this would be simple. This week my DH is in Denver at a conference and they have to send him everything to print out at the hotel's business center and get notarized and overnighted, too.
Keeping fingers crossed until Friday!

If it ain't the lender, it's the builder. My original estimated completion date = 12/15/07, Actual "Close of Escrow" delayed by Ryland Homes = 1/18/08, Move In date = 2/3/08. No wonder a new trend is for people to stay put where they are when they retire. Moving to a new area is stressful enough, but when you have to put up with many other challenges, you think twice about whether it is worth it or not.

Its been terrible for us to. I know how you feel. We started closing in the middle of March and we still have not closed. Everytime we turn around they need new information. We built and the construction loan is killing us. I hope to hear something by tomorrow.

Ohhhh, Pleeeeze!!!!! I thought my brother and I were going to kill each other!!! We have been waiting for a close on our mom's home (she has moved into an apartment) since the end of Feb.! The home had been on the market for what will be two years this Sept. The home is 60+ years old, needs updating, is on a main street and had been a combo Doctors office in the front and his private home in the back. We had a bunch of what we thought were low but acceptable offers at the begining, which endend up never going anywhere. For what ever reason, I guess it is just the market, we would have buyers make offers that we would accept, sign the non binding offer to purchase papers with a small refundable deposit and just sit back and wait for the market to continue to spiral downward and walk away for something more attractive!!!! And we had this happen 3 times! After price drop, and more price drops (almost $300K on a what started as a $700K home - the market just kept on dropping and dropping and we were trying to keep up with it) and getting a new REA, we finally had an offer that was acceptable to all in in Jan. '09. Soooooo, we went through inspection, did several repairs and then waited, and waited and waited for the buyer to get financing. He did not want to go the conventional route as he was trying to get a business loan for the property and there were lots of hoops he had to go through in order to get the loan. It was to take time and we understood that. Nothing seemed to be happening except the closing date being moved back every few weeks. April's closing came and went so we finally called our lawyer and told him to tell the buyer that he had one more week to get his financing in order or the home would go back on the market. We knew the buyer was very interested in the property so we gave him a first right of refusal. Then, Surprise! our lawyer got a call from the buyers' lawyer saying the buyer was just having too much trouble getting financing together and we should just put the house back on the market!!!! GEEEEEZ, Thanks!!! We did tag him for our lawyers fees but there was not much else we could do! We put it back on at the last price we listed in Jan. and got another offer immediately for more than the first buyer offered!! Our closing is now set for August and we are on top this daily. Just crossing our fingers. What is sad, though, is we have not been upfront with our elderly mom and don't want to upset her. On the other hand we listed our own home and had an accepted offer in 12 weeks, closing at the begining of Aug, and everything is going very smoothly. Let's hope it stays that way!!

And people wonder why buyers are being required to submit a pre-approval letter with their offer? (Not that this guarantees anything, in my experiences noted above, but it's a little better than having folks start the financing process after the offer.)

Update: We did finally close and the clock is ticking for us to identify our replacement property....(1031 exchange)....

Update: We did finally close and the clock is ticking for us to identify our replacement property....(1031 exchange)....
Congratulations! Best wishes on the 1031.

"Update: We did finally close and the clock is ticking for us to identify our replacement property....(1031 exchange).... "

Congratulations! What a relief that must be. Good luck with the replacement property.