primary residence equity loan - unique property

[ambiguator]

I'm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I'm trying to get about 15K out of my house -- i've got 75K equity on my 280K house based on my latest appraisal. I'm approved for income / debt / etc., but when my loan got to the underwriter the application hit a snag.

My home sits on 2 lots, each with its own address, but there's only 1 deed for the property.
I got a Countrywide mortgage for this property when I bought it -- no issues.
I refinanced this property with Wells Fargo a couple years later -- no issues.

Now when I want a measly 15K from TD Bank, the underwriter says I need to get the deeds split up to reflect that there are two properties.
In Philadelphia, this process will cost me time and money that I would rather spend on something useful.

3 questions:

1. Are there any talking points or legal recourse I can use with TD Bank to try and force this loan through?
2. If I decide to try another lender, will the fact that I have a mortgage with Wells Fargo increase the likelihood that they'll give me an equity loan?
3. How can I get in touch with the underwriter of another lender before they run my credit to see if I'll hit the same snag?

Not sure if freeadvice legal forum is the best place to ask about this or where the best info might be, but I've received plenty of great advice in the past. Thanks in advance,
/a

 

[tranquility]

Are there any talking points or legal recourse I can use with TD Bank to try and force this loan through?

No. The bank can loan you money based on its own internal guidelines. (Unless prohibited by statute or the Constitution.) They don't have to loan it to you if they don't want to.

If I decide to try another lender, will the fact that I have a mortgage with Wells Fargo increase the likelihood that they'll give me an equity loan?

The current loan will decrease the likelihood as it increases your debt/equity ratio and the amount of debt outstanding. Your credit score may be higher because of the loan.

How can I get in touch with the underwriter of another lender before they run my credit to see if I'll hit the same snag?

Can't. They don't care about you enough. The profit on a $15K loan is not worth the time of having the borrower call up the underwriter and take some of his time up. By policy, you probably couldn't do it with a far larger loan either.

Get a mortgage broker. They tend to know the underwriting policies of local banks.

 

[nextwife]

Get a mortgage broker. They tend to know the underwriting policies of local banks.

I totally disagree about using a mortgage broker, all the sales we have problems getting closed on time are mortgage brokers.

If the legal description shows ownership as two lots, then he owns two lots, regardless of them being "combined on the deed". If my legal is "lots, 5,6,7 and 8 of Block Whatever" then what I own is each of those 4 lots. Whether acquired jointly or in seperate acquisitions, so the requirement to "split up the deed" seems odd.

Perhaps the issue is the lots are combined into one tax parcel number? If the structure stradles to lot line at all, these should not be seperated.

Personally, I'd advise he talk to a couple local brick and mortar banks, their underwriters usually have a better handle on local market issues.

 

[xylene]

This is a very small loan.

Quit bellyaching and go to another bank.

 

[ambiguator]

Thanks, tranquility and nextwife for the advice.

This is a very small loan.

My point exactly.

Quit bellyaching and go to another bank.

Unhelpful! I am trying to get advice to make sure the next bank doesn't put up the same road block, or find out if it's a legitimate road block and see how I can ameliorate it as efficiently as possible.

 

[Zigner]

Unhelpful! I am trying to get advice to make sure the next bank doesn't put up the same road block, or find out if it's a legitimate road block and see how I can ameliorate it as efficiently as possible.

Are you kidding?

Each bank will have its own policies. Your QUESTION is not answerable on this forum. The advice given was the ONLY advice that you can reasonable expect from us. Yeesh!

 

[tranquility]

Mortgage brokers get paid by the number of loans they close. Bankers get a salary. If there is an unusual situation regarding a loan a broker will know what banks are likely to fund the loan, a banker can only say if his bank will fund the loan.

Mortgage broker, or months going from bank to bank to see if this will be a problem.

 

[xylene]

Unhelpful!

You have already decided that the steps to resolving the complicating deed / parcel issue is not worth it.

Go to some other banks. Ideally one you can have a person to person relation with.

The cost in terms of the ding from running your credit is negligible and trivial, and really should not be part of your calculus relative to trying to force an unwilling bank to deviate from their reasonable policy.

 

[ambiguator]

Thanks for all the advice. I am new to this game, so I didn't know that each bank could have such drastically different policies.

I will contact my banker once more and try to persuade them to loan the money. If that fails I will hit up one or two local banks and try to find a mortgage broker who is interested in such a small loan.