Quote:
Originally Posted by ShanetheMortgageMan
The upfront cost app fee may have been in trade for the appraisal, so if the appraisal was done and you didn't pay for the appraisal, that is likely what the app fee covered. Many mortgage companies employ really good loan officers, and really dumb loan officers. Service will mostly come down to the individual you are working with, rather than the company itself.
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That's simply not true with amerisave.
Amerisave is different than most lenders in the following regards:
1) It has a well made website with attractive rates that are updated in real time, and a lock button next to it, luring in potential customers.
2) It puts its hook in the customer gradually, first with a $35 credit check fee, then a $375 appraisal fee non-refundable. I have never dealt with any lender that forces the customer to pay those fee at the beginning of the loan process as the first step.
3) Then once you lock the rate and paid those fees, your loan application is moved to a "processor" for approval, this is where their whole system breaks down.
4) They will literally BURY you with paperwork, for example asking for written proof for every line item on your 2 month worth of bank statement (why is there a $200 fund transfer, why you need to write a $500 check to xyz) etc. But that's not the problem, where the system breaks down is when you send them the requested mountain of paper work, some are lost, others are added wrong to your loan.
5) Your only contact at this point is your processor but most times they are overloaded and worthless, never returns your calls, gets the paperwork all mixed up. And the power to approve your loan resides with the loan origination office, a different dept altogether. Which you are forbid to have any contact with directly. So you basically have no idea what exactly the actual approver needs, only way to get that info is what the processor tells you by looking at your loan on their internal system, and most times they get completely confused. For example approver wants a signed letter saying no new credit card is established, processor tells you a signed letter saying why you applied for a credit card.
6) So imagine how this works, approval dept says this loan needs 20 documents for approval and moves on to the next loan -> processor try to get that info to the customer when he get to it (most time only when you are able to catch him on the phone) -> customer faxes/emails the document back to the processor -> processor tells approval to look at the loan again -> approver comes back saying they need more document based on xyz moves on to next loan again, and so on. Add to this process a buggy system that loses your documents + incompetence at all levels + weeks delay for each cycle and you have a complete nightmare on your hand.
It is common for a loan to be held for 5+ months without a response, meanwhile your lock expires, and you pay more money to relock, and if rate goes down you still have the old higher rate, if rate goes up, you pay more again for the new higher rate. And if you have anything other than a PERFECT credit, dont even bother.
A 30 sec google on amerisave with thousands of complaints on a multitude of websites do not lie. My personal experience I am pretty well informed and it still took 4 months to close a loan with constant calling and refaxing the same documents at least 3-4 times. A first time customer without much experience has no chance.
Yes there are positive experiences with amerisave too, but those are rare than the norm, actually i would classify them as miracles if everything went according to plan.
The point is why would anyone bother? when you can easily get a local lender to match or come close to the same rate/fees, without the headache.