Your Lending Officer HORROR Stories (loan officer, interest rate, real estate, approval)

[MsFortune]

Misery loves company.

I'm so in shock, mad, and down right now. I badly want a home in my parents neighborhood just a few doors down so I can be there for them as they grow older. Its in my price range and an easy sell for an agent (no shopping around for me). The mortgage on the other hand has been heck.

The loan officer was a flake from the start. Taking forever to return my calls, then telling my agent I hadnt called when in fact I left messages, and he even once returned my phone call with an email! BUT he was giving me a 5% interest rate, and the amount I was approved for was over what I was going to offer on the home.

I was ready to make an offer, and he seemed excited for me. After running yet another credit report (which docked my FICO 3 pts) and submitting a quote on the home from the insurance company, he said all I needed was for the seller to pay some closing costs. He was to talk to my realtor about that and send a custom LSR stating only my offer and not my approval amount (approval was higher than offer but the seller doesnt need to know that).

Being a first time buyer I didnt know that an offer had to be SIGNED. So I sat here for WEEKS thinking I was waiting to hear from the seller! I'm one of those people who dont like to pester, but finally I had waited long enough and called the real estate agent.

While playing phone tag with the agent, I noticed that the price on the house I was interested in had dropped to my offer. I couldnt believe that I hadnt heard anything and here the house was dropping in price.

I called the loan officer and on his cell was a message stating that he no longer worked for that mortgage company. His cell has messages disabled, so I called the company and they dont have my file. They dont know if he took it or what!

When I finally talked to the agent he said that the last time he spoke with the lending officer he was told that I didnt have the full closing costs in my bank account and could not give an LSR. I was in shock. Thats why he said we were going to ask the sellers to pay some of the cost! The real estate agent even asked me if I was sure I had applied for a loan. I looked like a complete idiot. And yes, I did apply for a loan. Thats what the application, two credit reports, tax docs, profit and loss statements (from my business), bank statements, and everything else was for. Oh yes, and those now meaningless words "You're approved!".

Now the agent wants me to try and get in contact with the loan officer, but if I do it will only be to tell him how unprofessional he was. I need a few days to calm down so I wont say something I will regret.

Now Im back to square one and will be finding a new loan officer, with my freshly lowered FICO and an interest in a home that is now reduced and probably wont be there once I get approved.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!

[chet everett]

I am not going to share any horror story, but I will use your experience to illustrate what you SHOULD have done as a new buyer, or even an experienced buyer that may not have a "go to" relationship with a lender.

If you had contacted several lenders and this FLAKE has not returned your calls you should have DROPPED THEM from your list of people that you would consider moving forward with. Emails DO NOT COUNT, if say CALL ME, that is what they MUST DO, as it is YOUR RUMP that will get ROASTED if they do not know the difference between a FAX and an EMAIL or a PHONE CALL.

Had the incident with the "are you sure you applied for a loan?" happened after your real estate agent incredulously did not hear from the lender it would have been SUPER EASY to go with one of the other lenders you had interviewed and decided that there were OK enough to ask them to run a credit check / pre-approval on you.

You now would have had essentially TWO lenders eager to get a deal done for you instead of NONE...

To review:

Interview MULTIPLE LENDERS.

Eliminate any scammy/flakey/ uncommunicative lenders.

Get started on the process with a pre-qualification with AT LEAST two lenders.

Move forward with the BEST lender. Do NOT "throw away" your relationship with the other lenders until you are FULLY ASSURED that you will close with the lender you like best -- be prepared to go to your "back up" if the first place "drops the ball" and make sure that you get the all the preliminaries done by having your top choice lender PRE_APPROVE you well in advance of having the SIGNED AND ACCEPTED OFFER.

Good Luck!

[VictorBurek]

I would love to know how you found this loan officer? Was he/she referred to you? Did you call multiple places? How did you choose to work with this particular LO?

[Toymeister]

Look Victor, you google your car make before you bought, correct?

So why wouldn't you google your bank?

Go to a credit union, not a broker, not a mega bank. A real person at your CU would likely have avoided these problems.

[MsFortune]

Chet is right. This is my first house, and Im doing it all alone, so I've learned some things the hard way.

This guy was recommended to me by my agent. The agent is a good friend of a client.

[JustJulia]

I sympathize, Ms. F. We bought our first home last year and didn't know what was normal and expected from all the parties involved. Luckily, my sister-in-law has been in the lending business for 10 years and referred us to a great broker, who called us at least once a day with updates and reassurances. We hesitated to push for things because we were new and polite, like you, and we even got a little embarrassed when my sister-in-law would call people and insist they do this or that.

I wish we had a different real estate agent. She was terrible about returning calls and did almost nothing for us. No negotiating, no advice ... the lady was next to useless. She didn't even show up at the closing or call to explain why. We were worried and called her several times. Her office finally told us she had an emergency, but she still never contacted us. A "thanks for the commission" would have been nice. It must have been the easiest money she ever made. We just stayed with her, thinking it would have been rude to go with someone else, but I'm still irked about it. I called her office to complain and got their voice mail. Never heard back. I hope they went out of business.

[MAtheBanker]

This doesn't really qualify as a horror story, but I'll share it anyway.

I was approved for a mortgage by the bank I work for, with one employee benefit: a free appraisal.

I had close contact with my mortgage officer (we even worked in the same office), and was repeately told that just because the cost of the appraisal was listed on all my paperwork and on the good faith estimate, that at the time of closing it would be waived.

Closing day...what's on my paperwork? $350 for the appraisal.

I refused to sign the papers so the title clerk had to call my bank to see why that charge wasn't waived. I was informed at that time that because the sellers had paid my closing costs, I was no longer eligible to have a free appraisal. It was either I fought it, or signed my papers and got my keys...I reluctanly signed all the papers.

I spent the next week sending emails and leaving messages with the loan officer, who conveniently was out of town. When she came back I was told again, NO, we aren't waiving this appraisal for you...even though I was STILL an employee.

I ended up having my issue escalated to the President of Mortgage Lending...all it took was one phone call to him and he had the money deposited into my account.

Ahhh, I just love it how my own EMPLOYER tried to take me for a ride...

[MsFortune]

Originally Posted by MAtheBanker

Ahhh, I just love it how my own EMPLOYER tried to take me for a ride...

Awe... but LOL. I'm beginning to think that if someone ISNT peeing on your leg and telling you its raining... that there must be something wrong.