Endless forms and information to dig up.

Contacting the wrong lender.  Out of sheer ignorance for I have never applied for a land loan before.

Endless phone calls and emails.

More digging up of more information.

Total assets and total liabilities. 

I was amazed at my total assets tho, didn't realize I was worth that much money lol.  Mostly due to 401ks and my house in Arizona. 

One lender in Houston area said I could sign up, then couldn't, then could.  But the online application won't allow me to do so without either knowing someone already in their credit union, living in  certain zip codes near them or working for a list of companies they give.  None of those apply.  The loan officer is probably getting tired of my constant emails lol.  I think I'll just put my name in the related field and see if it will work.  

Meanwhile, another lender in a town about 60 miles away called and said that these types of loans are based on regions and that I was out of their region, but that he could give me the number of the lender whose region I am in.  Note that this bank asked for all kinds of information including 2020 tax return.  

I mean, I needed to do it anyway so no big deal but dang.  It took me hours of digging up info to find out - I am not even qualified to apply with them.  

I really should have started this process long ago, I had no idea land loans were so complicated and involved, they are more difficult to obtain than a house loan. 

Regardless, I called this local lender and they said okay, sent me an application.  I have all of that information now, so I just filled that in easy peasy.  

In the end, I don't even know if they'll grant me a loan, tho the amount isn't that much, at least not by lender's standards and they will see that I will easily be able to afford a less than $300 per month payment.  

So, until I exhaust all lending options that do land loans, I will keep trying.  If it all ends up in a dead end, then I will be forced to try and buy a much smaller property for cash or go to the tax lien sale and see if I can score something there in the next auction they do.  

What I am not going to do is agree to the land owner's outrageous terms having me pay close to triple monthly payments than what I can get through a bank. He can keep that land.  

I am not giving up hope, but this process is getting rather exasperating. I only have so much free time and I really don't want to have to use it all up dealing with lenders.  I guess it's the price one must pay, and I'm getting educated at least on how the process works, but another thing I have never had any experience with is credit unions.  

They give better rates but dang, they make it hard to join up with them.  

Anyway, I'm taking a break from that for I have sent in that latest application and I'll see how that goes.  I really wanted to get the pond set up today, but I also really want to find out one way or another if I can get financed for this project or switch gears and focus on other ways to get land.  

Well, the money mom sent is now in the other account.  It's an account she set up and then added me to it so she can just send me money versus sending me checks. This is yet another process, I just found out, to be able to transfer money from that account to my checking account.  That apparently will take a couple of days to set up, lol.  

I don't need that money for a down payment. It will come handy to start doing the things it will take to set up the park.  She is okay with that, in fact she said she thought it might help. Yes, yes indeed it will if I can ever get to that point in this process.  

And, if I can qualify for a loan, perhaps I can look at other properties I put on the shelf.  Higher dollar amount for the land, but a lot more property, one of them specifically comes to mind.  They want a lot more money but the ad lists it as a "motivated seller" - which usually means they are willing to take less money to unload the property.  

I thought I was taking a break but I keep getting emails. So I set up the credit union account in my name, it was the only thing I knew to do to try and open an account there. They have 10% down payment and better terms. The loan officer from that company is the one that told me I could open an account and make a donation to some charity - so that's fine as long as the minimum donation isn't terribly much and the charity is something I can actually agree with.  

Now?  I probably should get away from the desk, my goal today was to try and get the pond set up. So far, I have done nothing with it for I am here, at my desk, attempting to answer all of these questions and fill out all of these  forms, lol.  And I'm hungry, so time to eat. The day is wasting away and I suspect I will not get to the pond after all is said and done.

I also suspect I will be sent out tomorrow somewhere, I was a bit amazed they didn't send me anywhere today.  I mean, I'm glad they didn't, gives me a chance to do all of this paperwork.  I wouldn't have been able to do it on the road with my laptop, I had to print out a lot of stuff and then scan it and send it back to the lenders.  

This whole thing isn't likely to end anytime soon, lol.  Grin and bear it, there is no use getting frustrated.  

Okay I'm offa here - for now.