There are some previous posts about Not ALL Lenders are created equally and those may be accessed at the end of this post. What I'd like to address in this post is something that happened to a customer of mine, not necessarily about the lender saying she was approved or not approved, but rather how the customer was handled and some of the differences between lenders.
Wow. A Buyer that I have worked with had this experience with her loan officer/company. I'm not saying how recent this situation is but it IS interesting and I'd like to hear how you (either as an agent, loan officer, friend, family member, etc.) would have advised a Buyer in a similar situation.
The background is: Buyer is here locally. Loan company/officer is out-of-state and was obtained by Buyer via Internet. After my first conversation with the FIRST L.O. of this particular mortgage company, the FIRST LO wasn't returning this Buyer/Borrower's calls/e-mails and wasn't returning mine. After two weeks of nothing (seriously--Neither me nor the Buyer heard "BOO!" from the company nor LO), the Buyer was able to determine that the FIRST LO was fired from her position. We found out that the FIRST LO wasn't returning any calls b/c she wasn't THERE at the company--BUT the Buyer was not notified of the fact that the LO wasn't with the company anymore. Eventually, the Buyer was re-assigned to the SECOND (we'll say the CURRENT) LO. He returned phone calls for about 2 weeks and from what I can tell did a good job of fixing most of the stuff that the FIRST LO had botched. With all out-of-town LOs, I always get their cell phone numbers, too, b/c of time zone differences and the fact that it is usually just difficult to get in touch with some of them. The Buyer and I began looking at houses again and then found a good property. The Buyer directly told the CURRENT LO that she was thinking of making an offer on the property. Then, there was another 2-week period when this new LO was incommunicado!
At that point, the Buyer decided maybe she should get a second opinion re: the largest financial decision of her life and directly asked me for contact info for another local LO, then went and met with that person. She didn't sign a new application--merely went for a second opinion. The Buyer was concerned about having already made application with the first company and the time/energy/effort of switching. She was undecided as to what she should do; stay with current loan company or switch.
Okay. Then, the CURRENT LO had a conversation with the Buyer and the Buyer let him know how unhappy she was with the service (oh, LACK of service) she was getting from his company and how it was unacceptable to let her calls and e-mails and other attempts at contact go UNANSWERED. So, miracle of miracles--he started returning calls and the Buyer made the decision to stick with him and his company. All the paperwork had already been submitted (for the most part) and the loan process was well underway.
Okay. Here's the clincher. Once everything was rolling on THE house, the CURRENT LO called to say that he was leaving the company for another position and the Buyer had been re-assigned (again) to someone from the company. Arrrghhh! The Buyer decided to stick with the current company with the new LO, mostly b/c all the loan stuff was basically complete and she only had a few weeks left until she owned the house. I didn't say anything about switching companies at that time b/c the Buyer, while frustrated, wasn't necessarily unhappy with the loan, just the chain of events she was surrounded by, plus she didn't ask my opinion about it and didn't ask to switch lenders. I did tell her to get some documentation from the new LO that the terms of the loan which she and the other LO had discussed would remain the same.
Here are a few of the points I don't have issues with in the above scenario: people changing positions, people getting fired (okay--someone is at "fault" but in the situation above it wasn't the Buyer's fault that her LO got fired and nothing can really be done to force someone to stay in a position...), Buyer making their own choice about their financer (that is definitely as it should be)
Here are a few of the points I DO have issues with: not notifying a customer immediately when a team member (whether it's an LO, agent, whatever) is leaving a position (it happened with the initial LO. Fortunately, the next LO did notify the Buyer immediately of his new position in the situation above), poor customer service, Buyer getting jerked around several times, letting a customer "fall through the cracks" once they are committed to buying a house or otherwise transacting business with you
(A point that I am still on the fence about is how I feel about local vs. non-local lenders. I won't get into it now but I am truly still 50/50 on that particular issue.)
SO--Back to the situation above-- If your friend, family member, customer, or client was in a similar situation, would you have made a suggestion about switching loan companies or loan officers? And, if so, at WHICH SPECIFIC point in the above scenario would you have said something? If you WOULDN'T have said anything, why?
For the previous posts about my thoughts regarding Not all lenders are created equally:
http://www.activerain.com/blogsview/531340/But-the-OTHER-Guy
http://www.activerain.com/blogsview/532319/But-the-Other-Guy
Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to your comments in advance.
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