At the end of Sept. my husband and I decided to refinance our home, since interest rates were so low. I called around to to find a mortgage company and within 3 days, decided to go with Birchwood Mortgage. We were going to be dealing with the company president, Bob Hyland, which made me fell comfortable, since the guy has been in the business for 25 years.
Within the first day, we were pre-approved and began gathering up our end of the paperwork. He said he'd be in touch as soon as he was able to get everything filed and in order. He called us back not more than 2 days later, we signed the purchse agreement and were locked-in at a 6.75% interest rate.
So, He told us that we'd need an appraisal and that he had someone lined up to come and do it. I informed him that I already had someone to do the appraisal and since nothing we had signed stated that we needed to use his appraiser, that I'd be more comfortable using someone that I was familiar with. He insisted over and over that his appraiser would be guarenteed to appraise the house for at least the minimum that we needed for the loan and really would prefer us to use his guy. We gave in and agreed.
After the aprppraisal, which I paid $300 for out of my pocket, he set up a closing date of November 29. Wonderful. Well, Nov. 26 comes around and he pushes back the closing because the loan is still in underwriting.
2 weeks later the loan is STILL in underwriting. I'm calling him at least every day to see what's going on, he wouldn;t return my calls for at least 2 days, ect. Finally I'm fed up and I start calling every hour. He tells me that since the rates are so low, underwriting is swamped and that's why it's taking so long. BS, I'm thinking. It "stayed in underwriting" for 34 days.
Now its January and FINALLY he claims the loan to be set to close. We set up another closing date: Jaunuary 7, 4pm.
Jan. 7 at 3pm we get a call as we're walking out the door to the mtg. Bob says that the underwriter forgot to include $1200 on the loan amount, so could we just bring in cash or a check??? I tell him that's absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic, as most young, middle class families don't have $1200 just laying around to use when ever the situation arises. He then said he'd have to cancel the closing—go figure.
2 days later he calls and tells us that he won't be able to do the loan, as fed. Guidelines have changed and we don't meet the requirements anymore. I demanded my money back for the appraisal that he insisted on, by the company that he wanted, but he refused to refund it.
A short while later, I find out that his buddy owns the appraisal company! In addition to being out of $300, our credit ratings were lowered because he ran numerous credit reports on us. We also were unable to refinance, as rates had started to climb again and we wouldn't have been able to get close to 6.75%.
Jolleen
Forest Lake Area, Minnesota
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