So incredibly frustrated
chicagocubsfan23
member
When I moved up here to go to college, my dad bought a house and had me pay rent. We did this for 2 reasons. One was once I was done with college, I could easily buy the house from him at an affordable price for me. The second reason was the house payment is about $400 less a month than renting somewhere in this area. Well, hubby and I are now at a place in our lives financially where we can buy this house. We went and met with a banker last night. Our payments would be $35 less than what we're paying my dad right now a month. However, because of our student loans that we pay each month, our banker told us that we couldn't afford to buy this house.
Umm, excuse me, but we're paying the payment right now and we're doing fine. I work for a mortgage company in the Default area, so I understand people taking loans that they can't afford. I deal with foreclosed properties everyday. But it's just so incredibly frustrating to have these degrees that we have yet to be able to get jobs in, and now an extra $1100 a month in student loan payments, and we can't get a home loan because of them. I just want to cry! I know we're so much better off than a lot of people, I mean we have jobs, we have a roof over our heads, we can pay our bills, and we have this beautiful baby on the way. But to have worked so hard and come so far to have somebody tell me I can't afford something that I KNOW I can afford just is really bringing me down today 
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Re: So incredibly frustrated
DD1 5.26.12 - Femara, Gonal F and IUI
DD2 10.18.14 - IVF
I know about the formula they use because I work at a mortgage company. It isn't that I "think" I can afford it, it's that I know we can afford it because we're paying more right now. We'll obviously have to keep renting from my dad because it's the only option. It's just frustrating knowing that we're making more than what our house payments would be if we got the loan, and we're affording that.
I hate this. I'm dealing with it as well. If we bought a house right now then our monthly payment for our housing would go down by about $300, that's some serious money, especially with a baby coming. I can totally afford it, but because I'm an independent contractor I have to wait to have 2 years of W2s to prove I make the money I do. I'm almost there, I'm just waiting for my 1099 right now to file my taxes and hopefully *fingerscrossed* a bank will finally approve me. I wanted to be in a house already so we could be getting it ready for the birth, now we will have much less time to make the place ready for us, plus we will be moving when I am 8 months pregnant, blegh. Meanie banks, I have a great credit rating and everything.
Plus they wont let me refinance my duplex I own in another city because of the same reasons and because it's worth less now. They said they couldn't do the refinance before because 'what if I couldn't make the payments'... Well, I can make the payments now when they are higher...obviously it's in your best interest to keep me as the owner and paying you. I kept all that up while unemployed for almost a year, this is one of the reasons they wouldn't help me. No benefits for those of us that managed to pay all of our bills. If I had wrecked my credit rating and defaulted they would have helped me out. Lame.
I completely understand your frustration. DH is British and we moved here in March 2010. Unfortunately, we couldn't buy a house or a car straight away because DH didn't have a 2-year record of US employment or US credit history. We went to four banks and three of them turned us down flat. Told us to come back in another year. Fortunately, we found a local bank willing to work with us. It's so frustrating though when you KNOW you can afford something but they won't give you a mortgage because of some silly formula. Keep checking around with different banks (reputable ones, obviously). Hopefully one will be more flexible with you. Good luck!