We closed house #1 in 31 days. House #2 in 30 days and house # 3 in 30 days. Not cash deal

That, asianthree, is called a triple play! Well done and congratulations.

Three houses in how many years? How interesting.
Wow, that must be some kind of a record!

We just recently used BOA (US Trust) and they bent over backwards to meet all needs. Their rate was .25 lower than Citizens and the fees were less. Citizens also has a debt to income ratio and required me to take an $8,000/month IRA distribution to meet the ratio since we do not have any income at this moment. BOA has no such requirement. We ducked the scare tactics to use Citizens and are grateful to BOA.

A thinking consumer would applaud Citizens for having a debt-to-income ratio to meet!

WE taxpayers have to pay for the $20 billion in bailout money that Bank of America finagled and got, because of their mortgage lending to unqualified buyers!

"The U.S. government early Friday morning agreed to invest $20 billion in Bank of America, and to protect the bank against up to $118 billion in potential losses from bank assets related to risky mortgage loans."

Bank of America getting extra $20B in bailout funds - ABC News

We used Citizens to buy two homes here, and we'll use them again. They are invested in this community's future housing market and won't be going with tin cup in hand to Congress for a taxpayer bailout. They make sure they lend to people who can repay.

:ohdear:

red Tape
 

Great post. You hit the nail right on the head. Prior to the new regulations that Government imposed in 2012, a 30 day close on a pre-approved client was no problem. Now it can be done but it could be a problem for the reasons posted.

Iam surprised that the Developer let a sale get away for a mere 15 days difference in closing. Indeed, sales must be very good.

I believe BoA paid back its TARP loan.

Red Tape
 

If folks thought this situation was messed up, wait until Dodd-Frank real estate lending changes go into effect in the next month. They were originally scheduled to be in effect in August but because of all of the compliance issues for the banks, it had to be postponed. The training class I went to shared that unless you are paying cash 30 day closings,you will not be possibles because of disclosures and verifications no mater who you are. If there was a holiday in the contract period you needed to add a week. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

TOTALLY AGREE:shrug: Retired Mortgage Broker

Pay Cash, then you don't have to deal with the banks, or deadlines.

At the risk of stating the obvious, not everyone can do that.

Yes, but if the house is listed with Properties of The Villages, you negotiate through the sales department.

I think the bottom line is in this case, if the buyer (s) mentioned by the OP really want to be here, they could contact Citizens Mortgage and get pre-approved for their mortgage. Then enter into a purchase agreement on a new or pre-owned home through The Villages, and the job will get done. In most if not all cases any delay will be on the developer and/or their subsidiaries, and any late penalty will be waived.
I do understand the buyer (s) have already done this once with their own mortgage lender, and to some this may be fair or unfair. But the reality is, the best way to buy a home and become a villager other than paying cash, is what I stated above. It will be worth the effort in my humble opinion.

You are right in most cases, Gracie. However, there are outside realtors buying up manufactured homes in the historic district, removing them and replacing them new homes. So there are actually a small number of new homes for sale that you won't find on the Properties of The Villages website.

I'm not sure that this is allowed in other areas, but it is going on up here.

Had the same restrictions in 2013 and was surprised the amount of hoops I had to jump thru that I had not done when building a house a decade earlier. I went thru Merrill Lynch both times and used stock as collateral to secure the loan. Although the ML office I deal with is in Illinois...their home loan div. is in Jacksonville. The person in Jacksonville seemed very unconcerned about the 30 days, so much so that I contacted Illinois about this situation. They asked for the person's name I was dealing with and said they would get involved. I ended the conversation by politely stating that if the money wasn't there on the close date they had 2 options....1. Pay all fees, penalties and loss of discounts I may incur or 2. Have me pull all my stock out of there business. The money was there on my closing date at 11:00 am. I must say I have a great relationship with Merrill Lynch but, as previously stated, I believe this Dodd-Frank bill has many unintended consequences and still doesn't address the main concern of Fannie and Freddie.