Oh do I have a horror story for you. In fact, I am still living it because it's not over & has just barely begun. I live in New York State. So I contacted the local bank that had the highest recommendations. Things should have been easy. A lot of it was easy.
The hard part was my person at the bank didn't ask if I had any businesses.
They did ask if I was employed, but that doesn't cover if you own a business. Most micro business don't make money. Mine sure doesn't right now.
The road block here was that in April of 2016 they, the government, changed the rules for what you have to do differently if you own a business. They now require a professional accountant prepared Profit & loss statement for the prior year and the current year.
My bank person was very hands off and did not answer any of my questions but would only say that they would be taking care of things and to do the complete opposite of the information that they copy&pasted into the e-mails to me.
After a very calm but angry letter that I sent I finally got real answers that they thought I needed. I would have to resubmit some paperwork because they had expired after the month that the person had been trying to push my application through. That person insisted that another would send me what I needed and it ended up being them.
When I finally received my acceptance note so I could make my new account, it was on a holiday weekend and followed by a sudden trip the next. Why didn't I know that there was a 15 day limit to getting it set up? Because it hadn't been in the body of the email. it was tacked into the certificate itself.
Let me tell you, I have left panicky voicemails in my life. None as bad as this. My mom's friend's cousen worked at the same bank. I called her and then two days latter I stopped by because I hadn't heard anything from her. It was the last day to set it up. I found out the phones were messing up and she set everything up asap for me and was so very helpful. And mortified because she hadn't gotten back to me. She also asks if I have take the home owners class-thing yet. I said no.
So, after that near fiasco... I didn't hear anything for a bit. I shoot an e-mail to the original person that is suposed to be 'helping' an e-mail asking when I can take the class. They seemed put off that I would ask so soon because that happens 'later'. Considering the time crunch this person implied, that I only have two years total from the start of the prosses to the last minuet, to close on the house... Ten months that are taken to saving only with a 'few months' for setting up the closing paperwork...
Yes I am worried. Some people have had other problems with this bank. I just know that I will be writing some kind of letter about this person. God help me if they manage to screw this up and I don't get a house. I would flip out... and then write angry letters.
I will say, that for the grant of $7,500 it is almost worht the run around. Almost. I will be posting updates as I find out about them.
