I chose Austin First Mortgage (AFM) because they had the best rate and lowest closing costs. However, upon further review, this was not a good reason for choosing a mortgage broker. According to their website, they were also listed in the April of Texas Monthly as one of the 10 most reliable mortgage brokers in Texas. (This has got to be a HUGE ERROR!)
I don't know where to start with this company. Don't deal with them because they offer a good rate. If you speak to them for more than 5 minutes you will find that the person you are talking to cannot speak or write in English at least in a way that is clear. It is impossible to speak to them on the phone and their written communications often have double meanings because of the poor language.
In regards to closing costs, they did not include their $375 application fee in the GFE, furthermore, they did not include a $400 survey. These things were mentioned (on the side or in parenthesis) but not included in the total, raising the actual closing costs by $775, back in-line with the other mortgage broker's costs. Hmmm. This is deceitful. When I asked about this, there was never any response.
Additionally, they were unable to process the loan in time and get it to the title company in time to close before the 30 day lock-in expired. They say they will pay any additional fee to extend the lock-in if it is their fault, however, they argue that nothing is their fault. Furthermore, after the 30 days had expired, they are now unable to meet the 45 day deadline imposed by HUD, and so the home is lost unless an extension is filed with HUD. You guessed it, they would pay if it is their fault, but this is not their fault. So there is another extension that has to be paid and again this is my fault somehow even though I gave them all requested paperwork back within the same day, every time, and I and my wife have credit scores of 789 and 794, plus we are putting down 25% on the home and have almost enough cash on hand to pay for it without a loan. How can we not get a loan quickly and on time when we do all these things?
The delays in fact were due to their incompetence, some examples of which follow below.
This company uses an "online" application. This was filled out by me and I was initially glad because I felt it would eliminate errors. Yet somehow, they have someone else go in and REFILL the application! They made numerous errors and forgot to even include my wife on the loan. Then when they added her, they said that I owned her company. Finally, after the third time, I quit dealing with the loan processor and just filled the application out by hand, scratching out their errors, and writing in the correct information. This was unbelievable as it was just a simple matter of filling out a form for the application.
Next they would ask me for documentation, such as taxes from 2006 & 2007. I supplied al of their information in pdf format, via email, within hours of being asked. (I work from home and was able to do that) I asked them to confirm receipt, however they did not, so then I called them and found that they had received it, they just did not respond to the email! So they had the information, and used some of it, however, about a week later, they asked me for my taxes again. So I forwarded the information to them, along with the email receipt from last time. Would you believe that they asked again, a third time, about a week after that?
There were other documents that they requested 3 times as well, such as proof of insurance on the lot we were going to buy I sent it three times, then about 3 weeks later, they asked for an actual application for insurance and I had to fill out an application with the insurance company and send it to them.
Further delays: The initial person we dealt with had such bad writing and communication skills that I often could not understand what the request was. I complained to the management and found that the person's boss as well as the owner had equal or worse communication skills, but I was given a person who had semi-good written English. However, this person normally responded to me, only at night. I would get communications and emails from them during the hours of 8PM till 1AM. I rarely got communications during they day. If this means they are working in a foreign time-zone or are just handling mortgages as a second income at night, I do not know, but delays are caused whenever you can only deal with someone at night because the rest of the business world is closed and requests and information are delayed until the next day. This happened a lot.
As a side note, I did find out that this company had hired my neighbor's son at one point. His only job was to correct their English in their correspondence. He though this might amount to something more, but eventually quit because he felt the job was going nowhere.
Currently, I am investigating whether they are really listed in Texas Monthly as one of the 10 most dependable mortgage brokers in Austin. I can't believe they would get by any amount of due diligence, no matter how small, without raising a red flag.
I am EXTREMELY disappointed in this company. PLEASE AVOID THEM as it is not worth the savings they promise on your loan. My wife and I are likely to loose the HUD home that we had successfully bid and I hope others can avoid this experience.
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