Denied Refi by "Profits Not Chickens" Bank!

[Jeanniejayne53]

My husband and I were recently astonished to be told, after paying over $700. of survey and lawyer costs, endless paperwork and 3 rounds of "go get us your latest pay stubs" to hear "The underwriter wants you to get rid of your chickens. And then we'll send someone out to make sure you did. If you agree to that, we'll refinance your house."

Now, we have been banking with a bank whose acronym fits, let's say, Profits Not Chickens, for many years. We like their on-line banking services, and have had no complaints before now, but that all ended when we went to them for refinancing of our home loan and found ourslelves dealing with the equivalant of Nazis.

My husband is a child psychologist, and I am am a nurse. We have had good jobs in responsible positions for many years, and have our original mortgage with this bank. We never miss a payment, and pay off our credit cards every
month. Our credit scores are in the high 700's.

We have over an acre in the country, and keep some chickens in our back yard, as is our right in our county.

They said we were "an agricultural enterprise". Somehow this is a bad thing, in the state which leads the nation in production of broilers?

Now, I find it hard to believe that a dozen chickens in a re-purposed shed in a back yard is so threatening. They are well cared-for, fed homemade yogurt, have a fan and a window in their coop, and a nice big yard full of grass and two trees. That they actually wanted to make us "get rid" of our pets is, we think, unconscionable. Three of my girls I drove three hours to get from Whitmore Farm as babies, four years ago, and, although they don't lay as often as they did, they are still in fine shape and enjoying life. The others I hatched myself, and raised in my extra bedroom. "Get rid of them, and we'll send someone out to make sure you did. "

I think not. I think we'll kiss that money goodbye and take our business eslewhere.

Maybe Costco, who also offers this service, or the company that offers banking services to ex Air Force folks, I'm pretty sure they won't have a problem.

Profits Not Chickens bank can kiss us goodbye as customers entirely, real soon.

Maybe some of you might consider doing this, too, just on principle.

 

[ChicKat]

sorry for your wasted efforts. Hopefully you find another source with less stress. Good luck.

 

[sourland]

I applaud you.

 

[debilorrah]

There is still so much ignorance out there. I consider myself incredibly lucky to rent a place where the landlords "get" chickens and I have plenty of customers for my eggs. I know others that cannot sell fresh eggs to save their lives because people think "Ew that came from a chickens butt, I'll get mine at the store".

 

[Jeanniejayne53]

Thanks, everyone, for your support.

We sent a long scathing email to the bank. I had taken some time to try to educate them about back yard chickens, and sent pics of our happy, healthy girls. Some folks just don't get it, and never will.

But my egg customers do! Once they eat a real egg, they never want to go back to the store-bought pale flabby tasteless kind. And neither do I. Yesterday I put 6 nice eggs under a broody Buff Orp, and am hoping to see my first "natural" chicken family in 3 weeks.

Life is good!

Screw Profits Not Chickens Bank. We'll find a better business partner.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

USAA is the EASIEST bank we have ever worked with for home loan/refi. On top of that we have had two car accidents this year, (first time ever) and our car insurance rates through them actually went down at renewal time! Highly recommend especially being prior military

 

[Jeanniejayne53]

Thanks SO MUCH for your reply.

Will definitely look into this one. We have car and home insurance through USAA and they are the best for those.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I second USAA. We have our mortgage through them, and we have never, ever had a problem. You can apply for the mortgage online. A huge plus these days is that USAA's mortgage company does not sell their mortgages...one owner, forever. There will be none of that messed up escrow because one bank didn't pay the other when the loan was sold, or payments going astray.

 

[Jeanniejayne53]

Thanks ever so much for your reply, Mom's Folly. We'll definitely go with USAA after reading your reply. Our PNC Refi guy told us that the problem was that if they wanted to sell our mortgage. Fannie Mae would have problems with any agricultural enterprise. One year my husband claimed our chickens as a business -- and actually we could make a (very small) profit every few years, selling eggs, and qualified, but this was what set that one underwriter off. I sent them seveal articles on how chickens were the new cool pet, how enlightened cities had coop tours, etc. And even though we said we had given this up as a business, tax-wise, that wasn't enough for Profits Not Chickens, and Fannie Mae was the reason. So USAA it will be! Thanks, BYC!!! The ability to get feedback from our friends around the country and world via these forums makes a huge difference! Without you, it would be a much, much colder world.

 

[Mattemma]

My husband just closed an account with them.In your situation I would want to get a lawyer to get the money invested thusfar,and then refi with a DECENT bank.We did a refi a few years ago,and shoot if the bank did not sell us off to freddie Mac BEFORE the ink dried on the closing papers! I found out we were Macked by mail.Best wishes!