Happy Belated Birthday Kellaz And Here It Goes again...

I've been a very bad boy. It slipped my mind but due to the chaos I have been going through recently, I've lost track of time.

On the 22nd of October was kellaz.blogspot.com 2nd birthday. On this date, kellaz.blogspot.com was born. Which also means, I have been on therapy for two years. If you had been an avid reader from the beginning, you have seen me bloom (although that's not always the case) from the past two years. Two years have gone so fast and I just couldn't keep track of the things I have posted. Two years and 472 posts (inclusive of this post) have been written. One could have written a screenplay of a drama series out of this blog. So happy birthday kellaz.blogspot.com. I'm sorry that I missed your birthday, but I know you would understand. May 'you' bloom into greater things. To KELLAZ!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I have been busy for two main reason. In short, one reason, I have been busy kindling a new relationship and secondly, I have been busy finding funds to purchase a piece of land.

The latter reason has caused me a lot of stress, pain and heartache. And screaming on the phone too. For the past couple of days, I have been arguing with the bank officer in charged of my mortgage loan. They have been toying with me, telling me, no, I can't afford, yes, I could and at the very last minute, another no but maybe a yes with pre-conditions that they have failed to highlight in the beginning, thus causing delays. The truth be told, I have applied my loan a week before the deadline. I know it isn't enough to process the loan, but they have been the one who have misinformed me that I couldn't afford the loan in the first place. This had cause me panic and I have been spending my time 'shopping' for mortgage loans at other banks. I went to the bank three weeks before the deadline and they toyed with my decision with a yes and no for two week.

So I am going to write about my struggle of getting a mortgage loan. Perhaps this can be a learning experience for those who will be going through about purchasing a land. Over a month ago, a distant relative (which my family is close with and also a estate broker) told me that there was a very good offer of an estate where I wanted. It took me a week or two to decide but eventually considering that my youngest sister had bought my mother's land not far from where the estate I am considering to buy, I finally said "yes". After my last trip offshore (three weeks to deadline), the first thing I did was that I went to my bank (of which where I access my monthly income) to help me get a mortgage loan to purchase this land. They informed me that I couldn't afford it, as the outstanding amount of my personal loan is still a lot. And if it did, I couldn't agree to pay almost 90% of my salary to pay off both of my personal loan and mortgage loan. In panic, I went 'shopping' to other banks to see if they could help me. One bank could help, but couldn't understand why my bank couldn't help me as I had sufficient funds to cover my personal and mortgage loan. They told me to go back to my bank get a re-confirmation.

I went back to my bank, and asked a 're-confirmation' if their calculations were correct. I had 8 days left for the deadline at this point, the deadline is on the 29th October. The loan officer had made a miscalculation and found that I could actually afford the loan! I demand them to process the loan as soon as possible. A week into the deadline, I went to the bank to sign off all documents and ask them to process my loan immediately. Feeling good, I went back to the office as usual. An hour later, the bank called. Now, they were telling me I couldn't afford it!!! They told me I had to settle at least $2,500 of my personal loan to get my mortgage loan approved. Causing panic for the second time by them, I asked all immediate relatives if they could borrow me that amount, unfortunately to no avail. On that same day, I had to resort to my friends for help. And thanks to my best friend, he confirms to me that he could help. And he did. I told the bank that I have funds and I will make the deposit the day after. And things settle down.

The next day, 6 days to deadline. The bank officer called again. Asking from me, the SPA (Sale and Purchase Agreement) between the landlord and myself, and a receipt of the intended purchase, witness by a lawyer (bear in mind this was on a friday afternoon!) How on earth could I get a lawyer ask to write up a SPA in time for my deadline? I called my relative (who introduced to me this land) and she tried her best to draft a SPA document to be sign in front of a magistrate (which is still acceptable). On Saturday morning, the document was finally available. I called up the bank and ask if I could settle things in Bandar, since I wouldn't have sufficient time to drive an hour away, to the bank in Kuala Belait Branch.

The bank officer told me not to worry as he will submit everything on Monday (3 days to deadline!) I asked for a confirmation if my fund would be released on Wednesday. And now for the first time, they told me... "That's impossible and couldn't be done!" At this point, I was screaming and panicking at him on the phone. He didn't help but instead he made me furious by saying "Sorry, but I only met you this Thursday and it is impossible to release this fund by the 28th. You are putting me in a very difficult situation, this is your fault for coming to us late at this point". At this point, I just lost it, I scream on top of my lungs, "I came to you late???!!! I came to you late???!!! You are the one who misinformed me of your calculations, making me waste my time looking for other banks when I could have already did this a couple of weeks ago! You are my bank, I deal with you every time, I deal with all my finances with you, and your bank was the first bank I came to for help!!! And you blame me for coming late???!!!"

I simply lost it, and I finally hung up when he said that he couldn't talk to me anymore. The last thing I said to him was, "You don't want to talk to me??? Fine!!!" In my honest opinion, I could have made a well informed decision if they had given me the right information in the first place rather than I had wasted my time looking for other banks for help. And they are the one who came to me at the very last minute for important documents which I had no preparations of. And they blame me for coming late.

I called my relative again and she asked me to calm down... I was really upset at this point. She said, she will try to push back the deadline as long as the bank can confirm to me the draw down of the cash money. So I called the bank again, and this time I called their supervisor who I am familiar with and have handle all of my finances the first time I stepped into that bank. She told me that given that the pre-conditions being met, she finds there is no reason left for my mortgage application to be rejected. Then I ask her, "After approval, which you said, will take about a week, how long will it take to draw down the money so that I can finally make the payment for the land I am about to purchase". Her answer made me explode. She said "one and a half months or two months...". I just couldn't say anything at this point. I was absolutely furious! I was beyond furious. I decided to talk calmly because I have ran out of harsh words at this point. I told her, "I have repeated to your loan officers that I need the money by the 28th October almost a hundred of times. And you are the first person who told me that it takes more than a month for the money. Why haven't anyone said this in the first place, I could have resort to a more informed decision rather than pushing things ahead of myself and running like a headless chicken all week long". Her reply was "my officers are new and still in training".

I feel like strangling their staff and let them choke to their death. I was speechless. And there goes my chance. That's it. I couldn't meet the deadline anymore. Thanks to the bank's incompetence! So here I am, thinking about any contingencies on how to make this deadline work. It's crazy. It's simply ridiculous.

Anyway, I've decided to skip spell and grammar check this post because it is really late and I need to get some sleep... consider this post... TO BE CONTINUED....

Post Edit: I've grammar and spell check the post. (27/10/2009)