I recently refinaned a loan for a client of mine. It was a rather easy deal until the end when we ordered the payoff. When we ordered the payoff, we were told it would take up to 72 hours and was avialable by mail or fax (we chose the fax option). That was fine becuase we ordered it 2 weeks before the closing. When we never received the payoff after 4 days we called (we now have 10 days to close).
We were told that they had faxed it already and we should have it. When we asked what fax number they sent it to, they told us and we had no idea whose number that was. We figure no problem, if you have the wrong fax number we give you the correct number ba da boom ba da bing and all is well. That is when things started getting out of control.
We were told that it would take another 72 hours! How could this be? You said the payoff is done why can't you just fax it to the right number? It is our policy blah, blah, blah. While we were waiting the additional 72 hours (we are now down to 6 days to closing), the company we orderd the payoff from was calling the client and trying to get them to refinance with them instead!!! For those of you who are not aware, this getting to be a more common practice. A mortgage company aquires a credit report for a client and the holder of the existing mortgage gets notification and tries to get the client to refinance with them.
Well wouldn't you know it 72 hours came and went and we still had no payoff. I called the company again. I'll be darned they told us they STILL had the wrong fax number. They would be glad to update records with our NEW fax number. But unfortunately it was the company policy that it would take 72 hours to receive the payoff via fax (now we are down to 1 day to close). I asked to speak to a supervisor but was never able to. I was finally told they would be faxing the payoff "tomorrow" the day of the closing. It never came. Once the borrower called and talked to a manager stating that there was "no chance in hell" he would refinance with that company we finally got the payoff. We closed the loan but it was 1 day later and my rate lock expired costing me approximately $350.00
I understand that companies do this. My beef is this: if the client actually meant something to the servicing company THEY would have "originated" the loan and not wait until I did my job "originating" just so they could cherry pick and try to keep the loan. This is a big problem in our industry and I think it should be stopped. Am I off my rocker on this issue? Does anyone else have a problem with this?
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