When a deal starts to slip through your fingers, sometimes the best move is to make the other side realize what they stand to lose.

So, what would you do if a homebuilder suddenly pulled your promised mortgage rate weeks before closing, and expected you to accept a higher one?

Would you go along with it for your dream home?

Or would you take a chance in hopes of coming out ahead?

In the following story, one homebuyer finds himself making this exact decision and decides to beat them at their own game.

Here’s how it all went down.

Rolling The Dice on a Mortgage

A few years back, my company transferred me from TX to NJ. My wife and I found a house we liked and signed a contract on it.

At the time, mortgage rates were sky high (13%), and the builder was offering a subsidized mortgage at 10.5%.

It was a new house and was in the process of being built, and we applied for the mortgage through his bank.

About 2-3 weeks before closing, the builder’s agent called me and said they were no longer dealing with the original bank, so I would need to reapply for a mortgage with a different bank at 12.5% interest.

Huh?

The agent must’ve known the rate was not written into the contract.

I dug out my contract, and although we had been promised a 10.5% rate, it was not written into the contract.

So I was pretty much stuck.

Or was I?

The contract, as most real estate contracts are, was contingent on us qualifying for a mortgage.

So I called the agent back and advised him that we would do as he requested, except unfortunately, we were not likely to qualify for the new mortgage.

He chuckled and asked why not, the original bank said we were well qualified.

Luckily for him, the builder was also in a bad spot.

I told him that was true, based on the info they had.

But in the interim, my wife has opted not to work, so any income from her is no longer available.

And we also decided to spend a large part of our down payment on a European vacation.

So without the second income and most of the down payment, new bank’s not gonna like us so much.

As it stood, the builder would now be stuck with a fully built house that included all the “extras” we had personally picked out.

Obviously, he could try to resell the house, but who knows how long it would take to find a buyer who wanted this specific house when they could buy a new one and pick out extras and fixtures to their own taste.

Anyway, the builder must have felt the same way, as within an hour, we suddenly were told we could continue on with the original bank at the 10.5% interest rate. 👍🏼

Yikes! That could’ve gone either way for him.

Let’s see if Reddit readers have ever been in a similar situation.

They sure were.

If it’s not in the contract, it’s legal.

Great questions.

This is probably what they meant.

Good for him!

They probably didn’t expect him to go that route and stand up for himself.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.