Past the point of ridiculous

There are so many people in this nation trying to figure out what is going wrong with the economy and how to dig us out of this mortgage crisis. They're supposed to be highly intelligent individuals being paid large sums of money. Well put me on the payroll because I can help them out with the solution . . . common sense.

We have watched the pendulum of lending go from one extreme to the next over the last three years. It went from lending to anyone and everyone with a pulse to lending to almost nobody.

I received a phone call today from one of my clients. She is representing the sellers on a property that we are supposed to be closing in a week. She called to tell me that the lender had a condition that they wanted filled before they would approve the buyers loan and wanted to see if I could help out. Because she was giggling the whole time she was telling me this I knew it was going to be something crazy.

She said, "Brenda they want the contract signed by all the parties listed on vesting on title."

Now this is a very normal condition, actually it wouldn't be a completely legal contract without that exact thing done. As the title company and as the real estate agent, we were both very aware of that and always follow those legal stipulations. However, there is an exception to that rule . . . . death.

The signature that they wanted was of the deceased spouse of the seller. Yes both were still on title, BUT a death certificate is plenty of proof that we won't need signatures from all parties listed as owning the property.

Evidently it isn't enough proof for the lender. They are still insisting that all parties on title sign the contract or they won't lend on the property. My agent called me (laughing) to ask if I could help her get that taken care of. I told her that unfortunately I don't see dead people and I don't know the first thing about conducting a seance. She told me that she completely understood and that she would explain to the lender that the title company also couldn't come up with a way to get him to sign the contract and that is was up to them.

And they wonder why things are still struggling. Really? Because I could fill them in a little.