What Happens If My Mortgage Commitment Expires Before I Close On The House I am Buying?

I wrote this piece on Yahoo awhile back, during my home purchasing process, and I am sure a ton of folks out there have been asking the same question, so I decided to get this one out there and share it with my blogger audience as well... here is one huge question that came up during our process.

Read and find out: 

What Happens If My Mortgage Commitment Expires Before I Close On The House I am Buying?!

Buying a home for the first time is supposed to be one of the happiest times of ones life. However there are tons of pitfalls and nightmares that can occur during the long ordeal that literally turns this exciting time into one so stressful that you end up loosing sleep at night.

I am a real estate agent, buying my first house. I have sold homes extremely quickly, with clients in the same position I am now in. Only there was one ironic difference.

Instead of an easy 30 day turn around, contracts, closing, and keys, my experience was nothing but a nightmare.

During my appraisal, the appraiser noted mold in the basement. Who knew this little word could end up costing me so much money, time and stress!? Well now I know. I learn something new in this industry everyday now.

The lender of course took note of this mark the appraiser so quickly made, and required a clearance. This meant they wanted the mold tested, they wanted it remediation, and $3,5000 later they were satisfied.
Only one small problem.

Even though the work was done and complete in just 4 days total, it took the bank 2 weeks to say that it was OK. Time wasted as far as I was concerned. Why it took 2 weeks to just OK the work was beyoind me. More so considering the fact that this was a conventional loan, and not some FHA 203K loan.
After that hurdle, the survey that the owner had on hand was certified only to him, so naturally the lender decided it was not good, and they wanted a new one.

Great.
 
They tell me this literally 60 days into the process. Never will I in my career ever in my life recommend to any of my clients to use big banks to process their loan. I have ever experienced such slow underwriting, and such a gross lack of communication.

My mortgage commitment letter and interest rate are due to expire in just days now.

Great! How on earth can I make this deadline, considering the lack of time they gave me?
I pay a surveyor $800 now, to draw up the survey and have it back to me 3 days later. I am able to do this, but once the survey is given to the bank, it takes them days to review it.

Can you guess what happened?
 
Naturally my mortgage commitment letter expired, along with my interest rate lock.

So what happens now!?
 
After my mortgage commitment letter expired, I was back to sweating again. I was worried that after all of this, and money out of my pocket that the bank would decide to randomly not issue me a new letter.
Thankfully they did, but what it took was new pay stubs, new income verification letters, a new run of my credit report for any changes, and of course 2 more weeks for the morons to process this information.
Basically, when your mortgage commitment letter expires, it is rather easy to get a new one. However it will add more time to you actually meeting a closing date. It is frustrating, tedious, and annoying. It also steals away the excitement of being a home owner. Just bear with it though, the day you move in will grow closer.

Is there a way to avoid this sort of mess?

You bet. Avoid big banks. Like the plague.