When I used Quicken on my original home purchase 4.5 years ago, I had a good experience, finding them to be competitive, straightforward, and efficient. So I called them back earlier this year when I wanted to re-fi. Something appears to have changed with they do business.
Initially, my banker quoted me a reasonable rate on a 30 yr fixed mortgage, with about a half point in origination fees. Reasonable. So I put down a $400 deposit with them to initiate the appraisal. Appraisal came in at $4,000 less than the assumption we based the first GFE on, which just meant I had to come up with $3200 more at close, no big deal. But in the meantime, the wife and I decided that a 5/1 ARM would better suit our situation, so I asked my banker what he could do for me in that product, and he quoted me a rate that was reasonable, but higher than the national average.
So a week goes by, and I log into the quicken website to update some bank/funding info for them, and I notice that it says it is waiting for confirmation of funds to close in an amount significantly higher than the first GFE plus the extra $3200 in principal buy-down. And there is no updated GFE. So I ask him about this, and he sends me a new GFE, and lo and behold, the new GFE on the 5/1 ARM contains an extra point ($2K) in origination costs compared with the initial quote. Let me stress that he NEVER mentioned he was doing this when he quoted me the rate on the 5/1 ARM — he just said that my closing costs would be higher (due to the lower appraisal and extra money to get to 80% loan-to-value). So at this point I smell classic bait-and-switch. I call my banker about it, and he mumbles something about not realizing he had put in a "discount" fee to get the rate he quoted me, and that he thought he could probably still get the rate he quoted without the extra $2K in origination — he just had to "talk to his manager". What, am I buying a used car here? Of course, he never got back to me on that, apparently just hoping I'd ride things out since I'd already put down a deposit with them. The whole thing sat very wrong with me, so I found another lender to give me a significantly better rate, at significantly lower cost, and most of all somebody that I feel is being honest with me.
I asked my new lender about using the appraisal Quicken commissioned, so that I wouldn't have to take a complete loss on the $400 deposit. His response was rather telling. He said he would rather just order a new one and pay for it himself, since they had several issues with Quicken transferring appraisals in the past, and with them doing everything they could to sabotage deals after they had lost them. That sounds like par for the course with Quicken Loans these days.
Perhaps this is about one banker's underhanded tactics, and other bankers at Quicken are honest and reputable. But I sure wouldn't want to take that chance.
After telling Quicken how I felt about all of this, I ended up speaking at some length with someone fairly high up in their organization. For the sake of fairness, I will tell you what Quicken's explanation is. They say that when they switched my "product" after the appraisal, the "good" past-customer pricing didn't automatically carry over, that it requires some sort of supervisor approval. So, their story goes, he quoted me the rate he knew he could get me, entering it with a discount fee, fully intending to back that out later after getting supervisor approval for the "good" pricing. The problem with that explanation, as I see it, is that a week after he switched my product, and I put him on notice that there seemed to be an issue with the "funds to close" amount and asked for documentation (new GFE), he took about a day and a half to respond to my request, and when he did he sent me a GFE that included the extra $2K origination. Now if it was something waiting on some clerical approval that he fully intended to remove, that certainly would have been the time to remove it. The fact that he left it in there is telling. My firm opinion is that they were ready to pull out that extra origination if I squwaked, but the hope was that they could slide it by and sort of hide it behind the extra principle amount needed to close.
To sum it up: they quoted me good pricing to get me to put down a deposit, then they switched me to garbage pricing when I changed what I was asking for, and then they were going to put me back in the good pricing if I complained (blaming some clerical oversight), but leave me in the garbage pricing if they could. It's not so much actively dishonest and predatory, it's just typical cheap sales tactics. I believe there are lots of lenders out there who do not operate this way, so for that reason I would recommend staying far clear of Quicken Loans.
0 comments