They’re still not ready to issue the closing disclosure. I had a phone conversation with them today, and they assured me that Quicken’s policy is that so long as signing takes place before the lock expiration, it doesn’t matter if funding happens after lock expiration. This sounds a little fishy to me, but I am willing to take them at their word since I’ll be signing docs that clearly outline the terms and conditions.
A couple other things worried me about that phone call. They told me earlier in the week to pay my property taxes to avoid needing to bring cash to closing. I went ahead and did that; I provided them the receipt, but they got confused today because they got new paperwork from Quicken showing the taxes as paid. Of course they are paid, you asked me to pay them earlier in the week .
I also asked them to roll the few hundred bucks in closing costs into the loan amount, to which they said, no problem… but they apparently forgot because they were quoting loan amounts and cash to close figures that didn’t include that.
Again, none of this is a really big deal, but it’s a lack of attention to detail and I think that’s what separates the fly-by-nighters from established brokers that have been doing this for years. Judging from the NMLS license, I suspect this is one of the first loans my LO has worked on. The industry is crazy busy now which could be another factor.
As always, I will go over all the docs with a fine toothed comb to ensure nothing is wrong with the figures. I’m usually not worried about errors, but this time, I think there are decent odds that something ends up needing to be fixed.
What are folks seeing for bank account requests? 60 days? 90? A year? I’ve read varying reports. Moved a bunch of money around recently and we are in the market. Thinking it’s best to just wait until everything is seasoned for 60+ days before bothering with a preapproval request to avoid a bunch of extra document gathering.
60 days for my in-progress refi. It depends on the lender, someone like Provident will be more stringent about this kind of thing as opposed to your average discount broker or correspondent.
Pretty sure these rules are set by Fannie/Freddie and I think 60 days is standard. I’ve never been asked for anything else. They only need to see the money you’re using in the transaction, such as a down payment and fees for a purchase or fees in a non-free refi. The money needs to be “traced”, so if you move your down payment from one account to another, they’ll need to see both accounts. And all accounts better be in your name, else you’ll be dealing with additional documentation to justify gifts or whatever.
If you’re doing a cash-out refi and you’re qualified based on income alone (vs assets), they don’t even need your statements. They might ask if they don’t know what they are doing because it’s part of their SOP to ask for way more than they actually need, such as “please send us the last two statements for ALL OF YOUR BANK AND RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS”. AFAIK they have no need for it if you don’t owe them money and they’re not using your assets to qualify you for the loan.
File this in the “you get what you pay for” department.
So, Blue Sky Financial, the fly by night broker with the low rate/fee. Our lock busts in about an hour and a half from now. We were supposed to sign at 6pm but the closing agent they selected wasn’t able to generate the paperwork on time, despite having 3 days to do it since we got the closing disclosure. I didn’t find this out from my broker, I found it out from the mobile notary.
I call up Blue Sky, thankfully someone is still in the office after hours. They blame the closing agent, and claim I won’t be on the hook for the lock extension fee. I have a healthy dose of skepticism about that, given that they haven’t delivered anything on time yet, but we’ll see.
To recap the timeline:
September 4: I apply and lock a loan with an expiration of October 5.
September 5: I submit all required documents.
September 7: I submit the required follow-up documents.
September 9: I pass underwriting and am conditionally approved. No actions are required on my part.
September 21: I check in and ask what’s going on. Orders are still stuck with title.
September 25: Orders are back from the title company, they are “balancing” numbers.
September 29: I ask where my closing disclosure is, they then get it to me.
October 2: They schedule signing for Monday, October 5.
October 5: Docs aren’t ready, lock supposedly extended.
Somebody dropped the ball here - they had plenty of time to work this out even with the refi crunch and someone sat on my file for way too long. This is the first time I’ve actually used a broker – usually I go through a correspondent or directly through the lender. I found through this process that I don’t like interfacing with a middle man and I would rather just manage the process myself with the lender and the title company. I felt out of the loop and at the mercy of these guys to push things along.
I am sure it will all work out in the end, but I’m not a happy camper at this point.
The rates are probably lower now than they were when you applied, so they might actually make more money on your loan, so extending the lock is as much in their interest as it is in yours.
Luckily, his ‘probably’ hasn’t come to pass. On both their website and Zillow, I’ve been watching rates like a hawk for our params and I haven’t seen anything lower. The current rate requires paying roughly an eighth of a point more… so I seemed to have lucked out here.
The saga continues… the notary no-showed because their system sent a reschedule that they were unable to accommodate. No one asked to reschedule, and certainly nobody told me…
So they are going to try to send a notary later tonight – I guess it’ll be 9pm at this point to make the lock. Otherwise, they are going to have to extend the lock again.
One thing I did get out of the deal - I’m not paying the settlement fee. That’s now been waived and is an additional $550 in my pocket.
They were indeed the “fly by night”, low bidder on Zillow… and I am apparently getting the service I paid for.
Thanks for the detailed updates. We just sold a house and will want to buy another one in the next couple of months. I may have to shop for a mortgage for the first time this century, and your comments have helped me prepare.
For actually buying a house, avoid the Zillow fly-by-night brokers and get someone that can reliably close on time. Save the Zillow folks for refis that don’t have an important timeline attached to them.
I had an excellent experience with LenderFi in terms of turnaround time (8 days), but that was during less busy times. They will usually post lower rates in the BankRate/CreditKarma engines as opposed to the Zillow Marketplace. I wouldn’t hesitate to go with them again if time was of the essence.
There are plenty that are reliable. I used Provident Funding for a purchase transaction a couple years ago, and while they were onerous in terms of their paperwork, they were fast. Quicken Loans’ retail side is also online-only and is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the business with the highest customer satisfaction. Going through them directly usually does not yield competitive rates, but if you find a local broker that uses them, you might be good to go.
The main things that slow down the loan process are the appraisal, the underwriting process, and the title search. Underwriting is usually the only thing that the lender directly controls. The appraiser is kind of luck of the draw due to the use of management companies (or, you might get a waiver, removing the need for it completely). On a purchase transaction, the preferred closing agent and title company are often chosen by the seller (although you can change this in your offer if you wish).
In my experience, the problems I’ve had with online loans have almost exclusively been with the title companies selected by the lenders. I had one that completely botched the escrow reserves needed, and thus the cash I needed to bring to close. I had to cut a $2k check after funding. My most recent experience with Elevated Title had the problems I described above. My purchase transaction with Provident had a terrible closing agent (a local outfit named Point Escrow) that was unresponsive and didn’t get us recording information the day we closed, although that company was selected by the seller and not by Provident.
So just keep the three big hurdles in mind (appraisal, underwriting, and title) when figuring out how to close on a house.
So interestingly, this wasn’t the case for my loan. Quicken was the investor on my recent refi until last Friday. I did a MERS search after Thanksgiving and Fannie showed up. I was curious because I noticed they hadn’t offloaded the loan and the adverse market fee deadline of 12/1 was looming.
Anyone with Amerisave refinance recently?
A relative got them to do a negative cost at their rates for normal-cost. (As an over-match to Box, which was lowest the family member could find… And Amerisave waived the appraisal too)
But I think I’ve seen some random comments online that Amerisave sometimes takes like 3 months to close…
for $155K I see 2.875% for $240 all-in (but they don’t lend in TX), so I’d say if you get about $1K back at 3% it’s a good deal. Also it should be easy to waive appraisal if LTV is low enough (I don’t know what “low enough” is, probably < 70%).
While the average rates have been inching down slowly, the best rates (in my experience) have barely moved in the last 3 months. It looks like mortgage and refi applications are still high, so I’d guess that lenders who offer the best deals might have longer wait times.
More specifically, that’s @Box, with -$2880 lender fees, or negative 1.86 points (after moving the lender attorney and credit check fees from third party to the lender fee column), which is -$319 net cost after all third party fees are added in.
(Also leaving out the 25% credit on title insurance for being over 4 years but under 5, but that’s automatic during the title co process).
I haven’t used a quote or checked with Amerisave if they could beat it. The relative said Box was the lowest rate but Amerisave gave them a lower rate with around -$1000 net costs but that was on a $250k loan. I haven’t seen their agreed estimate though (could be closer to $2000, as they said it still showed the appraisal charge and appraisal is waived. Plus there will be a 25% title insurance credit).
I’m seeing the same thing. Maybe in 6mo we’ll see another dip but I’m currently at 2.25 and won’t bother refinancing unless I can get something below 2 with no costs.
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