Such a PITA

Linoge and I are not the same person, but we might as well be. He and Mrs. Linoge are looking for a house, and me and Mrs wizardPC have been doing the same.
Last week, we got one. It’s a foreclosure in remarkable shape–so much so that the home inspector said he suspects the bank came to the owners and said “Here’s $2,000. Leave now, give us the keys, and we won’t come after you.” The home inspector did find one thing of concern, so we have to get a second inspector out there with some expertise in that area in order for us to have a good idea of what the repair will be.
In 2005, the home sold for X. In October, the bank took it back for .64X. We and the bank settled on a sales price of .76X and they pay closing costs. Everybody wins!
Now for the PITA part: The Mortgage Process. Specifically, the underwriter. In case you missed it, I’m not a fan of debt. As a result, we have money. Instead of 2 car payments, 6 credit card payments, a motorcyle payment, a boat payment, we take all those payments that normal folk have and deposit them into a high-yield money market.
This is apparently very unusual.
I just had to sign a letter of explanation to the underwriter who had questions about the deposits. The letter basically said “See those payroll deposits from this other account? See how we didn’t spend all of it? That’s where the money comes from.”
Being kinda sorta tangentially involved in the mortgage business (my company writes the loan origination software used by lots of banks you’ve heard of), I know why they’re asking. Underwriters have a formula that they use to determine what the “correct” savings amount is based on your income and other demographic information. If you’re off by more than a certain amount either way, they have to check it out. Too low and you might have a drug problem, too high and you might be a drug dealer.
But still, it’s kind of insulting when someone asks you where you get your money. Luckily, this is going to be the only time I’ll have to go through this process.