Mark has been a makeup artist in the film and television industry for more than a decade. He’s in high demand because of his reputation for his skill in the creation and application of prosthetics that can convincingly age an actor by decades or turn a person into an alien creature. His work takes him all over the country, often for only a few days at a time. But when he’s working on a film, he could be in one location for weeks at a time. When he first started out, he lived in an RV and simply moved his home to wherever his work took him. It was a great solution for someone with no family responsibilities other than the occasional trip back to his hometown in Tennessee to visit his parents. Once he paid off the loan he used to buy his secondhand RV, he had no major expenses other than gas, which the “Beast,” as he dubbed the RV, guzzled like a thirsty horse after a hard ride. He was making good money and was able to bank much of it.
Everything changed when Mark fell back in love with a high school sweetheart he reconnected with on one of his visits to his parents. Courtney was divorced, with two young children, so when they married, Mark gained an instant family.
The question that plagued the couple from the moment it became clear that they wanted to build a life together was “Where will we live?” The biggest issue was that Courtney’s shared custody of her two boys with her ex-husband.
The legal agreement was that the kids would spend every other week with their father, who lived close enough to Courtney’s apartment that the boys were able to attend the same school, no matter which parent they were living with that week. It was an arrangement that was working well, and Courtney’s ex was adamant about not changing it.
At the same time, Courtney wanted desperately to get out of the apartment she’d been living in since her divorce. It was getting too small for two growing boys, and she often got complaints from her elderly neighbors about the noise the kids made. Adding Mark to the mix would make the apartment seem even more cramped. Both Mark and Courtney agreed that they needed a house of their own, with a large backyard for the boys to play in. Given the custody agreement, that meant buying a home in the same town, which delighted Mark’s parents. Courtney accepted the fact that her new husband would have to go wherever and whenever his work took him. She was okay with that. She was used to that, in fact, as her father was a long-haul truck driver who was gone for days at a time.
Mark and Courtney found a great house just a few blocks from his parents’ home. It had the backyard they were looking for and enough bedrooms to accommodate another child or two if they chose to expand their family.
They made an offer close to the asking price and were soon under contract, with ninety days to get a mortgage commitment. They soon realized that being approved for a mortgage was going to be more difficult than they had anticipated.
Mark had enough money saved to be able to make a sizeable down payment – 35% to be exact. He thought that alone would be enough to get their mortgage application approved. He was able to show more than enough income to support the payments on a mortgage in the amount they were seeking, even without taking into account Courtney’s modest income as a freelance writer. They provided all of the documentation the bank requested, and expected a quick approval.
They were surprised when the bank’s loan officer called them in and asked why they were trying to buy a house in Tennessee when none of Mark’s income was earned in Tennessee. Not one of the W2 forms he’d received for the previous three years showed any income from working in Tennessee. And none of the 1099s Courtney received from her freelance clients originated in Tennessee.
Questions like “Why do you spend so much time in California?” and “Why do you want to buy here when you don’t work here?” made Mark feel like he was under suspicion. “It made me feel like they thought I was running drugs or something,” he said, “like I was some kind of shady character.”
There was delay after delay while Mark and Courtney tried to demonstrate that they were responsible, hard-working people, and the 90-day window for getting a mortgage commitment was running out. Finally, Mark’s parents stepped in as cosigners, and the application was approved within a matter of days.
Mark appreciated what his parents did, but he was humiliated that he needed them to cosign. “If I’d had more time, I’d have tried another lender,” he said.
“Having my parents cosign made me feel like I was a kid again… like nothing I’ve accomplished in my life mattered.”
His goal now is to pay off the mortgage early so that his parents are off the hook. “I’m adding a thousand dollars extra every time I make a mortgage payment,” he said. “If nothing else, it gives me the satisfaction of knowing I can take care of my family just fine on my own.”
← Back to Stories Sound Familiar? Contact Us