Feeling like a hermit crab...

As some of you may know, Will and I are in the process of purchasing a new home over here in Las Vegas.  The loan approval process is always extremely tedious and even the slightest delay or lack of information can send the entire thing into a bottomless pit of underwriters.

This is what I wrote to them...

I called your customer service phone center to request a Pay Off Letter for my home loan process. It is a very common letter and well known by virtually every single financial institution - except CitiBank, apparently. After requesting twice and having the customer service representative misunderstand my intentions, she finally put me on hold to ask someone else what to do. She stated that CitiBank does not offer Pay Off Letters and that I should print out my statement 2 weeks later. As a financial institution, you should understand that Time is of the Essence when it comes to the home mortgage loan approval process. I was able to obtain Pay Off Letters with absolutely zero difficulty or hesitation from Wells Fargo, Discover, and ACS Student Loans. Once I stated this fact to the representative, she consulted with someone who then said I would be receiving a Pay Off Letter shortly.

The call experience was only mildly unpleasant. I was only compelled to write this letter due to the fact that this is the "Pay Off Letter" that I received:  "Dear ALVINA Y ANDRZEJEWSKI: We're confirming that during the past 12 months, your account has been current and not in default under the terms of the Card Agreement."

If you are reading this complaint letter... I hope that you can tell the difference between what I REQUESTED and what I RECEIVED. So, here is my response.

Dear CitiBank: You failed. Thanks for nothing. I officially despise your financial institution for your ineptitude and complete disregard of my needs. I will make sure to tell everyone my experience. Even though that will hardly make a difference, it will still give me greater satisfaction than dealing with your customer service department.

As you might have guessed... I did not receive a response.  Oh well, it doesn't even matter because we totally got our loan approved anyway. *woot woot*  It's not completely finalized yet because the builders just applied for a City Permit to build the home - it's a dirt lot right now.  After the builder gets the nod from the City, then construction will begin and then I think 30 days out we can lock the rate and everything.

We should be able to get the keys to our new beautiful home in the Northwest mountains area of Las Vegas in late June/July.  The neighborhood is called Providence (http://www.providencelv.com).  It's a really nice master planned community with parks & playgrounds, a promenade, trails, big/small dog parks, and an elementary school.  We visited just about every single home builder in the entire Las Vegas basin and looked specifically at 4 neighborhood areas.  I literally felt like Goldilocks... this one's too big, this one's too small, this one's too expensive... too shabby, too many rooms, too few rooms, too confusing layout, too many hallways, too many random closets (ya, that happens here), too far off the freeway, too close to the busy road, etc.  After a lot of extremely careful consideration, we chose this one because of several factors.

Firstly, the geographical location of this neighborhood sits at a much higher elevation than the rest of Las Vegas (really, you go some small stony peaks to get there) so it is actually about 10 degrees cooler there in the summertime compared to the temperature on the Strip.  It's 25 minutes away from the Strip - we did the actual drive to the Caesar's Palace parking structure.  Next, it really was the only floor plan that caught our eye and we could see ourselves living in.  It's 2 stories with 4 bedrooms... more than enough space for us to ever grow into but we added a loft option because it was just a better usage of space - and that brought the total square footage to approximately 2300 sq.ft.  To quote the most annoying book that I began reading as an obligation and now I've ordered the next two in the series... palatial.  (ugh! buy a thesaurus!)  Also, it had a bigger lot size than most of the other models we've seen - which is important because we want an adequately sized driveway AND an adequately sized backyard.  Lastly, it was the most bang for our buck in terms of the features and upgrades that come inside the home.  For instance, the Gourmet Kitchen package is standard... so I'm going to have double wall ovens!!  *Eeeeeeeee*

So, the excitement is certainly beginning but there's still a few months ahead of us before we can move in.  In the meantime, Will and I are leasing a 2-bedroom apartment for four months.  We're going to live at the Camden Fairways apartments... and honestly, it's fancy!  OMG, even the apartments are spacious and impressive out here.  It's over 1000+ sq.ft... that's like unheard of in San Diego without breaking the bank!  So, this will be our luxurious temporary home until we move into our super awesome dream home.  And the best part is that this apartment complex allows up to 2 dogs per unit... so my babies will be coming in 2 weeks!  YAY!!