One would think that being asked by the mortgage brokers assistant if I would mind closing early is a good sign that things had been moving along to the point of completion.

One would also be lead to believe that being told multiple times that everything is in order and ready to go would assure me that putting down an additional $600 to extend a rate lock is a good move.

You might even say that after so much reassurance closing would be a sure thing to happen on time, unless you’re dealing with swamped Chase employees. I can almost hear the droid in their mortgage broker training video saying:

Step 1, Assure the customer that we are working our hardest for them.

Step 2, Proceed to duct Tape their application and all required information under a taxi seat and review when all documents have been recovered from the taxi.

At this point, I firmly believe that I cut the other bank I was working with off too early and kicking myself for not having a backup source of funds. If this deal does fall through, I hope that at the very least I can leverage emailed correspondence into getting the majority of the fees paid returned to me just before I file a complaint with the BBB.