Mortgage Advice Worth Every Penny

by Patty
(Rock Island, Illinois)

“If you don’t buy this house, you will have to continue living with your dad, maybe for the rest of your life.” In the mid 1990’s, I was a loan closer in a small city in western Illinois. One Friday afternoon, I was preparing the closing papers for a young man who was tickled pink that he was about to purchase his first home.

His protective father attended the closing to make sure his son didn’t get ripped off. Before the closing began, the father went on and on about closing a loan “in his day”. He looked at the stack of papers in front of me, knowing his son had to sign them all and said when he bought his first house, he went to the bank, signed two papers, shook hands with the banker and he was done. And of course it didn’t stop there. He continued on and on about the prices of everything.

I could tell that the son may be having second thoughts after listening to his father so I took him out in the hall and said “If you don’t buy this house, you will have to continue living with your dad, maybe for the rest of your life.”

We returned to the closing room, he signed the papers and winked at me as he left.

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