A Win With the Bank

We've been going back and forth with U.S. Bank about our application for an increased HELOC.  They said we needed to take a State Title Elimination Form to the Dept of Licensing to prove our property  has been surrendered as real estate and it no longer a titled vehicle.  What?

I called and left a voicemail explaining there hasn't been a mobile home on our property in the 18 years we've owned it, and beyond.  Our primary mortgage is with U.S. Bank, and this wasn't an issue with closing that loan.  This is our third HELOC with U.S. Bank (we've increased it over the years as our home value has increased) and this has never been an issue.  She didn't mention it again, and that requirement fell off the list of things they needed from us, so I assumed it was resolved.

Then we got another auto notice from their system that we needed the State Title Elimination for a manufactured home.  I emailed her and asked about it.  She said it was still required, and reminded me of the email she sent explaining how we'd have to take the form into a D.O.L office and blah blah blah.

My emailed response was not as nice.  I reminded her of my voicemail, which she never responded to with a call or in writing.  Then I re-explained how there hasn't been a manufactured home on this land in 20+ years, how this was never an issue with previous dealings with this bank, and how any necessary proof must be located in closing documents somewhere from one of our past loans.

Today she emailed to say the manufactured home stuff has been resolved and we should have loan approval in a few days.  Success!

About Another Month....Blah

I emailed the permit coordinator to ask how things were looking.  She let me know our file hasn't been picked up by plan review yet (the people who look at the actual house plan itself).  And even worse, 3 of their 5 reviewers retired and their positions aren't being filled.  That leaves 2 reviewers.  Before Covid, with 5 reviewers, permits were taking 16-20+ weeks to be issued.  I can only imagine what this is going to do to permit wait times. 

The coordinator thought our file would be picked up soon.  She's estimating another month until our permit is ready.  This isn't great news.  We were hoping for a July permit and we'd be digging and clearing in August.  No such luck. 

Hopeful Notes

Today I logged into the county's system to see if there were any new notes for our project.  There were!  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but there's a note from the really bad guy that seems to indicate he's signed off on our drainage plan and sent it to his manager for final review on 6/30/20.  EEEEE!  I've asked our builder to take a look and see what he thinks.  But this seems like it could be a big deal.  If he's signed off, I'm not overly worried about his manager.  And I'm not worried about the actual building plans passing because our architect is awesome.  We could be close to having a permit!