| rev:text
| - Terrible, terrible, terrible!
I recently refinanced with First Financial Inc. and had the worst banking experience of my life. They prove that aggressive lenders still exist, and have added new "tricks" to the banking effort to scam its customers.
I WAS "ROPED IN" WITH PROMISES OF A SPEEDY REFINANCE AND A LENDER'S CREDIT -- BOTH PROMISES WERE NOT FULFILLED: I started the refinance process in September 2011 and I was told that the loan would be guaranteed for 2 months, but that the refinance would very likely be finished in 1 month. They also offered one of the most competitive rates at the time with a 0.875 percent lender's credit (they offered me a refund of 0.875% of the loan value, or $1,837.50), and the loan officer assured me that the Washington DC market was strong and that my home value probably remained steady, but that a $350 home appraisal would be necessary.
HOME APPRAISAL REQUIRES MORTGAGE INSURANCE!: I was required to use a home appraiser chosen by the mortgage broker, and learned that my home value came out to $230,000 (I bought the home for $280,000 and it appraised for $275,000 one year ago). Because the home value appraised much lower than it had just one year ago, I was required to purchase mortgage insurance for the first time (I haven't needed mortgage insurance in 2006 or in 2010 when I refinanced for the first time, so I was surprised about having to pay an additional $89 per month despite 6 years of pre-paying my mortgage and having an excellent credit rating -- this just seems like another money-maker for the banks).
HIDDEN FEES: In addition to the $350 I paid for the refinance, the mortgage brokers requested pay-off quotes from my previous lender four different times, even though I asked them to minimize the number of times they did this (because I was charged $30 for each request. To be fair, the mortgage brokers refunded me for two of the four requests (i.e., $60 of the $120 in fees). At this point, I had lost $410 in sunk costs. I had considered walking away, but I was hopeful that things could still be completed in a timely manner and would be marginally worth refinancing, despite the additional and unexpected $89 monthly mortgage insurance fees.
THE PROCESS DRAGGED ON FOR THREE MONTHS, AND MY LENDER'S CREDIT WAS REDUCED: For reasons unknown to me, the refinance sat idle for two more months. I called and e-mailed frequently to ask about the status of the loan, and I was just told that "it is in underwriting", "it's with the mortgage insurance company", or "federal regulations have slowed the process," etc. The mortgage brokers started reducing the amount they would provide for the lender credit, and they didn't tell me they were doing that (it just appeared on updated HUD-1 forms, so I could have easily missed it. I asked why the lender credit had been reduced by MORE THAN $800, and they told me that they are not making money on the loan, due to the process taking longer than expected, and they said that I WOULD HAVE TO ABSORB SOME OF THEIR LOSS! They blamed federal regulations for the delay in the process, and they blamed the mortgage insurance company... The only entity they did not blame was themselves.
In the end, by late December (after 3 months), I was able to refinance at the original rate, but I did not receive the lender's credit and other quotes had increased from the good faith estimate to the final HUD-1. I walked away with a feeling that the people involved were DISHONEST and/or INCOMPETENT.
I would not recommend these brokers to anyone.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)