Saline Real Estate and Homes for Sale

Yesterday was an eventful day, proving (once again) that not all lenders are equal.  It should have been doubly joyous day, but it was partly joyous and partly sad.

Yesterday was an eventful day.  The joyous part was that a seller of a Saline home experienced a smooth and successful closing yesterday morning.  The sad part was that a buyer client ENDURED a horrible closing yesterday afternoon - and that was really sad.  A day that is supposed to be joyous for a home buyer turned out to be a grueling marathon of missed promises and bumbling incompetence by their chosen internet mortgage company.

[Aside to CM:  I felt so badly for you all afternoon yesterday.  I'm so sorry to have seen you go through all of that.]

I've written before that nothing can replace the ability to go pound on a desk.  When choosing a lender, most buyers ASSUME that the lender is competent, and will fulfill their promises.  But what if they don't?  What if the lender misses their promised contractual dates?  What if the lender changes the loan terms just days before closing?  What if the lender so badly misses (by more than 10%!) THEIR OWN good faith estimate of the cash required to close that you have to call your bank for an updated bank statement showing that you have the funds available to close?

If any of these experiences were to happen to you, and your lender was right in town, you'd drive over to that lender's office and pound on a desk!  Actually, you'd have to wait in line for me while I was pounding on the lender's desk!  No (local) lender is going to treat MY buyer client that way!

It frustrates me to no end to see a buyer client so mistreated by a monumentally incompetent internet mortgage company.  It saddens me to see a buyer leave a closing table in anger, when the closing of the purchase of your first home is supposed to be such a joyous occasion.

But that's what happens with an internet mortgage company.  You have no ability to go pound on a desk.  All you have is a cell phone to (repeatedly) call the lender for an update - internet mortgage company NEVER calls you.  And you have to chase the next person down the line (you know, the specialist whose job it is to call your employer for a verification of your employment - can you imagine doing ONLY that all day?)  You keep getting another faceless name of the next specialist down the line who is handling their (limited) responsibility for the mortgage application.  You always reach them AFTER they have passed along your file to the next station in the system.

What do local lenders do that is different from some huge internet mortgage company?

Very simply, local lenders have one (or at most, two) people who handle your file from beginning to end.  And in this marketplace these days, the only (local) lenders who still survive are those who serve their clients ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty - local lenders who UNDER-promise and OVER-deliver.  They will give you a commitment date, and then beat that date by several days.  They will cause you to say "WOW!" so many times through the process that you might begin to think that the lender is reading your mind!  Local lenders actually compete on CUSTOMER SERVICE, not on huge advertising campaigns, or on the sponsorship of sports franchises.  Frankly, in today's marketplace, that's what it takes to survive. 

But not to some huge, faceless internet mortgage company. 

Nope.  All you are to them is one of the 2000 mortgage applications they receive each day.  So what if your loan is late?  They've got thousands of other loans to process.  What does it matter to them if your promised closing date is on a Wednesday, and they call you on Tuesday to say that they can't make it by the next day - no, they actually need another full week.  When you tell them that you MUST close by Friday, they say "OK, we'll get that done."  Then, Friday morning rolls around and you have no idea whether it's going to happen or not.  You have no idea how much to make out your certified check to bring to the closing table.  All you have is your Good Faith Estimate (remember, the lender gave it to you "in good faith") - so that's the amount of the certified check you order.

Then finally, late on Friday morning, internet mortgage company says "we'll get it done by 2pm."  At 1pm, they call to say that your loan application is still in "underwriting."  At 2pm, they say that they'll get it done by 4pm.  At 3pm, they still don't have documents ready for your review, but they give you a NEW figure for your certified check - a figure more than $1000 more than your good faith estimate.  Where are you going to come up with those extra funds? Better yet, how come the amount went up so much?  They can't release any documents to you because your file is still in "underwriting, so you can't compare the new figure with your good faith estimate.  WTH?

At 4pm you arrive at the title company for the closing, only to find that internet mortgage company STILL hasn't delivered the documents (via e-mail) necessary for closing. 

Finally, at 4:30pm, the documents are ready for you to sign.

Problem is, internet mortgage company tells the title company that it's too late for them to wire the funds necessary to cover your mortgage.  Again, WTH?

The closing officer tells you that most mortgage companies routinely wire funds up to 5:30pm most days, and the title company will receive them the same day.  Internet mortgage company tells you that their policy is that they don't wire funds after 2pm on Friday.  (Why?  Easy!  Internet mortgage company can earn a few more bucks in interest on YOUR mortgage amount over the weekend.)  So what if you've made plans to move into your new home over the weekend.  If the seller can't walk away from the closing - already delayed HOURS after it was supposed to happen - with a check for their proceeds, you aren't getting the keys to your new home.  You'll get the keys on Monday, when internet mortgage company FINALLY sends the funds for your mortgage to the title company.  Hey, internet mortgage company did what they told you they would - they got you closed on Friday afternoon.  Moving into your new home?  That's your problem.  They can't be bothered by that.  Too bad, so sad.  They have other suckers applicants to process through the labyrinth.

But that's not the way a buyer is supposed to experience the closing of the purchase of their first home.

Please, folks.  Listen to your Realtor®.  When your Realtor® rolls their eyes after you announce that you got such a great deal from internet mortgage company, please reconsider your choice.  Especially when your Realtor® cites several personal examples of bad experiences with the same internet mortgage company.  Instead, go back and ask the local mortgage lender if they'll match the terms of internet mortgage company.  Most of them will.  If not, there's a good reason for the difference.  It's called "peace of mind," or the ability go pound on a desk.  Only YOU can determine how much "peace of mind" is worth to you.  If you don't mind a horrible experience on your closing day, go right ahead with internet mortgage company.  You get what you pay for.

There's no reason for you to go through what CM experienced yesterday.  No reason at all.

And there's no reason that internet mortgage company should continue to mistreat their customers in the manner that CM experienced yesterday.  If I had a magic wand, I'd erase internet mortgage company from all records - they would just go "poof", and disappear.  And good riddance!

I know, I know, you're wondering "Who is this TERRIBLE internet mortgage company?"

You'll have to call me directly to find out.  And hope that YOU don't end up working with them.

If you have questions about your specific situation, or if you're considering buying or selling any Saline real estate, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of my experience in the Saline market.  I'd be happy to meet with you!  Just give me a call at (734) 476-2063, or send an e-mail, "Vance (at) SalineMichiganRealEstate (dot) com".

You can search for homes and condos in Saline here.

Follow me on Twitter!

Related Posts