3.875%

That is the interest rate on our brand-new mortgage. Yes, that's right: the mortgage refinance that we started back in March is finally over! We signed the papers last night, as we watched the Cubs blow the 6th game of the National League Championship Series.

What took so long, you ask? Well, the first time we tried to refinance, we ended up with a broker who thought he'd make an extra commission off us by letting us close at a higher rate and flipping us into another refi since the rates had gone down; he also told us our apartment appraised at one price, had all the paperwork written up at that price, then tried to tell us at closing that it actually appraised about $12,000 less -- which meant we had to pay PMI. So we cancelled the mortgage, but the bank, "Wash. Mu.," processed it anyway. This was at the end of May. It took them a little over three months to reverse their mistake, and in the meantime our new broker found us a great rate, which expired and we had to do it all over again. Then Wash. Mu. "cleared our account" off their system and corrected our credit reports -- but didn't return our mortgage to the previous holders. Which either meant our mortgage was hovering in the ether somewhere or that we owned the condo free and clear. After working with his lawyer to try to figure it out and receiving contradictory or just plain mysterious correspondence from Wash. Mu., our broker threw up his hands and decided to do it this way: we did a cash-out refi for 80 percent of the value of the condo, which we'll put in a savings account and wait for someone to come and say, "Hey! You've got our money!" At which time we'll give them a really big check. And if they don't do it by the time the statute of limitations on it runs out, we've got a nice big deposit on our children's college. Or something.

I'm just glad it's all over.

Posted by Andrew Huff at October 15, 2003 03:00 PM