I hear frustration in the voice of the agent. He is on the phone with a mortgage broker a lot lately, and his confidence in that he would have the closing before the end of the month is melting away fast.
He is tired of this «tomorrow», as they never come. I ask him how he ended up with this mortgage broker. Or, his client's boyfriend insisted on using this wonderful guy. Of course, this «wonderful guy would do everything, and it starts on a very optimistic note.
Later it gets more complicated, every day there is another request, they become sometimes quite senseless, and it is always the last before you get clear to close, but then another small thing pops up.
This is classic. Every agent went through that. How many times I had customers insisting on using their mortgage guy when they were buying a condo-hotel. On the one hand I admire their loyalty. On the other I know that the guy who helped them buy a house in Lakeland most probably won't be able to help them with condo-hotel.
How many times it was a near breaking the relationship point, and I always was asking for the opportunity to talk to their guy. It usually did not take more than 2 minutes at most when they acknowledge that they have no idea of this product and have never done it before, and at that moment I would give the phone to the customer and their guy would tell them that they better use someone else.
But we did not have to deal with financing for about 3 years already and we have lost the touch with the wonderful field of mortgage brokers. Here we had Homepath financing, the customer has a great score of 800, a steady job, seasoned money on her account. Of course, there is always something you can find, but I think the problem was with the mortgage broker taking this transaction, but having no experience with Homepath.
Finally the mortgage broker gives up. We need to cancel the contract to save the deposit. Calling mortgage people around and every one of them ends up with no, they have not done a single Homepath financing, but they can try to do it... Thanks, we just had one such try already. We finally call the company that has been sending me meaningful e-mails for some time already. The guy sounded knowledgeable, and yes, he is doing these types of deals, and not one, and not two. He does not know the customer’s boyfriend, which is also a plus...
The files goes to them by e-mail, they talk to the customer and ask questions, and in an hour the guy calls me and tells me that pre-approval letter is in the e-mail, and that they can close it April 22.
The agent is putting together a new contract. Life is good.
How good? We will find out come April 22...
* Image courtesy of homesbythomas via Flickr.com under Creative Commons License
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