A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down.
"Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."
"Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the U. S. from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U. S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the then reigning monarch, Isabella. The good queen, being a pious woman and careful about titles,
| almost as much
as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before
she sold her jewels to fund Columbus' expedition. Now the Pope, as I'm
sure you know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And God,
it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is
safe to presume that He also made that part of the world called Louisiana.
He, therefore, would be the owner of origin. I hope you find His original
claim to be satisfactory.
Now, may we have our #$*@~ loan?" |
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I wish that I knew where this article came from. I am trying to track it down right now, but mean while it is quite funny and makes us all feel like we have gone through the same thing just trying to get a loan in the first place.
We laugh at this but there have been times in the not so distant past that we as loan officers and also borrowers that felt that this is what was literally happening to us. I have taught classes now since the early 80's on how to qualify the borrowers and how to package the files to make sure that the loan got approved. Now in this very semester I am having to change EVERYTHING I have ever taught before.