Need someone sooner" is HR for "we hate vacations." Learned that one the hard way too.

Wait, is paying upfront for broker pre-approval actually the norm now? I used to think it was just a way to show sellers you were serious, so I never questioned the fee. But hearing your story makes me realize how messed up that is when the bank's free one would've at least been honest about the timeline. I mean, $400 for a piece of paper that fell apart in 3 days is basically paying to get ghosted by an underwriter. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather wait the two weeks and know the approval is solid than throw cash at a broker who's just trying to close a deal fast.

The fuzzy top layer on pasta isn't just mold you scrape off, that stuff sends roots through the whole container. Rice is worse, it can give you nasty food poisoning even when it looks totally fine, so 3 weeks is playing with fire.