The 10th anniversary of paying off my mortgage is coming up. Here is an accounting from my former employer of what made it possible for me to buy this place.
Date: 07/29/1998
Principal: 48,000.00
Interest: 65.03
Payment: 48,065.03
Type: Personal Check
There is a story behind this check. It was during an unbelievably stressful time. I was preparing to sell my house and buy the house I’m in right now, when I was told my mother was near death.
I stopped everything and rushed out to Phoenix, where Mom’s doctor had given up on her. The family was told to prepare for the end, but Mom was saved thanks to the arrival and intervention of two of my sisters — an MD and an RN — and she lived for another seven years. (After Mom’s recovery her doctor provided good care for her. He passed away recently.)
Returning home that summer, I wanted to accommodate the house sellers, who had asked if they could stay for two weeks after the closing. The lawyer said that required rent to be paid, and we agreed on an amount. The buyers of the house I was selling agreed to the closing date, and the mortgage loan application clearly stated that I would need to own both houses for two weeks.
Not being the trusting sort myself, I called the underwriter at my bank regularly to confirm that everything was okay, but I never heard back from her. The bank was BankBoston, later acquired by Fleet, which was in turn acquired by Bank of America.
If that condition had been rejected at the outset, I would have told the seller, “sorry, the bank won’t let me do it.” But I heard nothing from the underwriter, so finally I demanded to speak with her boss. When at last I received a return call, I was astounded to hear it was too late for them to approve that particular condition. The delay was their fault, but nevertheless they wouldn’t write the mortgage!
The underwriter’s boss admitted that money wasn’t the problem, as I had that covered for the two weeks. But he said Washington Mutual had to approve the conditions of the mortgage, and that was why there wasn’t enough time for them to work through the process. I thought I was dealing with BankBoston, and not Washington Mutual, but the mortgage had already been slated for sale to WaMu!
Very distinctly I remember my heart pounding and me yelling at the guy on the phone, “YOU’RE LEAVING ME NO OPTIONS!” His reply was, “There’s nothing I can do. Good-bye.”
So in desperation I turned to the founder of my employer, the CEO (now Chairman), for help. I explained the situation, and asked if I could sell back my shares of private company stock. He said there was no need for me to do that. Having once been screwed by a Boston bank himself in the company’s early years, with a smile he said, “You know what we’re going to do? We’re gonna f*ck ’em!”
The CEO explained to the CFO that he would loan me the money personally to pay off the mortgage on the house I was selling, and he wanted the CFO to contact the bank on my behalf. After providing all of the mortgage details, the CFO handed me a standard short-term loan contract and then called someone at BankBoston.
I don’t know who that certain someone was the CFO called, or what was said, but after sitting anxiously for a while I was paged to pick up a call. It was the underwriter boss at BankBoston. This time he was yelling at me.
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!?!”
“Hey, I told you I needed an option.”
“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON HERE!”
“Oh, I can imagine.”
“I HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO TELL YOU THAT WE AGREE TO ALL TERMS! GOOD-BYE!”
I can’t imagine any other company where the CEO and the CFO would stop everything on a busy work day and go to bat to such an extent for an employee.
Once everything was set for the closing on the purchase, I told the real estate agent, a major developer in town, what had happened. He said, “I’ve been doing this for a long time.” Then, with a bemused chuckle his take on what I did was, “You know, you got them fired.” Hey, the big boss did say we were going to f*ck them. Assuming the underwriter and her boss were fired, I can’t say I have ever felt sorry about the outcome.
BankBoston did indeed sell the mortgage, and my loan payments went to WaMu until I refinanced with a local bank (for 5%) that holds onto its mortgages. The irony is that, after Dubya became president a couple of years later, Washington Mutual dropped all of its underwriting requirements and was one of the worst culprits in the sub-prime mortgage mess. It went bankrupt ten years after making my life miserable, when the financial crisis hit in September, 2008.
There’s another story, about the couple who bought my house. Their bank’s lawyer screwed them, they called me in desperation, and I stepped in to help them. I’ll save that tale for another post.
P.S. WaMu CEO could get $13.65 million for 18 days work https://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE48P8LG20080926
