A Goodbye to My Favorite Lender...but, Hello to a New ActiveRain Member!
Recently NC lending laws made a change that disallows lenders from working from out-of-state offices--they must have brick and mortar office space, occupied 40 hours per week within the state of North Carolina. My lender's broker is not willing to make that investment for only one of his lending staff to work out-of-state. I was devastated, to say the least!
Funny story about Brian Dover, my favorite lender of all time: I had clients a few years ago who were set up with my Bank of America lender to Close on a brand new condo in a new Uptown Charlotte complex developed by Atlanta, Georgia's Novare Corporation. We were just waiting on building completion to do our inspections and then we'd be clear to Close. Mind you, my BOA lender is all that AND a bag of chips and I never had to worry about things happening on time and she only contacted me if she had something funky arise that she needed my assistance on and that rarely happened.
About three weeks prior to Close, I got a call from her saying that she had lost my clients--they'd taken their business elsewhere! WHAT?! We're nearly ready to Close! I immediately phoned them to find out what was going on and they told me that they had been in contact with the development team that they could receive a 'discount' if they used their lender so, they went with him--Brian Dover. Needless to say, I was upset and expected the absolute worst because some of the development lenders at the time, were the worst--slack, never did anything until the last minute and you hoped your clients NEVER used them!
I then phoned Brian, who was just as nice as he could be but, I put him through the mill--tons of questions and demands on my part and he responded with far more respect than I had given him. I was upset because my neat and tidy Contract-to-Close system had been disrupted and the fear of the unknown glitches was more than I wanted to have to deal with--especially at that incredibly busy time.
So, since they were already in the throws of the loan process by that time, I had to bite my tongue and let my clients go with the unknown lender and hope and pray that all went well. My only saving grace, in my mind, was the fact that this was the developer's lender so, if something did go wrong, I could blame it on them for pushing my clients to drop their first lender and go with the developer's lender!
In ONE week, Brian had everything through underwriting and we had our preliminary HUD-1--ten days prior to Closing!! Then, I received a call from Brian to let me know that his associate would be covering for him as he was going out of the country for the holidays (we were to Close the day after Christmas) and that if we needed anything, we could contact him. Well, we already had our HUD-1 and early at that, what more could I ask for?!
All went extremely well and when Brian returned home from his trip, he phoned to follow-up and that was the beginning of a fabulous business partnership that I never imagined would ever have happened a month prior! My business partners, many of my clients and my husband and I have all used Brian since then. He is incredibly detail oriented and the last condo purchase that Ray & I made we put HIM through the mill--I was slammed and didn't have time to get everything together and he had to push me on a daily basis for items that I needed to provide but, we got it done once again!
I think the main thing that makes Brian so successful is that he not only provides amazing customer service but, he begins the process when the application is taken--he gathers all the information and documents needed immediately and gets everything to underwriting as quickly as possible. He then works with the underwriters to get what they need early in the process and always has everything together and ready for the attorney well before Closing date, well before. Brian is the consummate professional and my clients (and I) just love him!
So, Georgia agents and consumers, if you're looking for an amazing lender who is a dream to work with and gets the job done, you have to check out Brian Dover, mortgage lender extraordinaire! You're SO lucky to have him!
And, we're lucky to have him here in the Rain now! Brian took Thom Abbott and my suggestions to join ActiveRain and is now a member; visit Brian Dover's blog and give him a good old fashioned AR welcome!
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