Please beware of American Direct Lending. They do not keep their word. I inquired online about refinance mortgage rates and was given a Good Faith Estimate rate quote and terms. I dealt with a Calista Calabretta. She seemed very knowledgeable and honest. She offered me a 5.875% interest rate fixed 40 year due in 40 years. I checked out the company as best as I could through the Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce and no complaints. She told me to fill out forms to lock in the rate which I did. I shopped around to make sure I was getting a good deal and I went with American Direct Lending Inc. The other mortgage companies warned me that this rate was too good to be true. I should of listened. I supplied all my financial information. We have excellent credit Appraisel was done, great loan to value. Not once did Calista tell me there would be a problem obtaining this loan at these terms, the contrary she kept reassuring me all was fine.
Then today I received an email from her that she had found a better program. I called her and she tried selling me an interest only loan, fixed for 10 years due in 30. I told her that wasn't what we agreed upon. She told me that my loan didn't fit the requirments and this was the best she could offer. I told her that she must of known that this loan wouldn't be possible and how could she have led me on for two weeks. That this was very bad business practice. I could have used this valuable time to get a better rate somewhere else. Rates have since gone up with the other local companies I could have dealt with. I didn't lose too much money only the appraisel fee. This company draws you in with loan rates. Holds out and then thinks the consumer will be too frustrated to look for other loans and drops the ball. Stay away from this person and company. As the saying goes if its too good to be true it probably is..
We first contacted the company to refinance our home in the beginning of May, 06. My husband and I left work early to drive from Corona to Irvine (about 45 miles each way, during rush hour traffic) to sit down and talk with them. Kamrann, the original guy was very helpful. He gave us breakdowns of what we were looking at for payments based on a few different programs. Due to our Credit Scores (average scores 713), we would have no problem getting our payments lowered by $1200 a month. This was including a prepayment penalty, which we had on both loans currently as well as estimated closing costs.
A couple of weeks passed, and we contacted Kamrann to make sure we were still on track. He told us the underwriters had it and it would be done soon. A few more weeks pass, and we called Kamrann; no answer. I sent an email; no response. Finally, around the end of June, I just started punching in any extension for their office in hopes of finding someone. I finally got a hold of the Loan Manager, Brian Chaplin, who informed me Kamrann was "in an accident". Because we were already working on over month, he took over our loan.
Around the end of July, we were all anxiously hoping the loan would be closed so we could get rid of the high payments we were dealing with. I would call Brian every day, and hear the same thing every day; I'm very sorry, I don't know what's going on, the underwriters have it. He went on to say Kamrann didn't know what he was doing. He kept asking me for information that Kamrann had already received from us, such as the payoff amount for our house, bank information, etc. When a Manager has NO CLUE what's going on with your loan, that's a bad sign!!!
We didn't close in July, so in August, I decided to call Brian EVERY DAY until we knew what was happening. Every time, it was the same response; I don't know what's taking the underwriters so long. Finally, when I asked honestly what could be done to finish up our loan, he smuggly responded with "well, we can cancel your loan!!!" I acted like we were working for them, not the other way around!!! I then called and spoke with another person, requesting to speak with someone above Brian and ended up with the Branch Manager. He proceeded to tell me that he couldn't say anything without speaking to Brian and seeing our loan info, which is understandable.
When Brian called back and yelled at me that if I have questions, I don't need to go to anyone else beside him, I said "I just need an answer! What the hell is going on with our loan?" He then said he just finished talking to the underwriters and was going to give me our payment information. He told me after the prepay and closing costs, our payments would be $3,200 per month!!! When we spoke with Kamrann, and asked him estimated cost per month (INCLUDING PREPAYMENT PENALTY AND CLOSING COSTS), he stated $2,224 per month.
THREE AND A HALF MONTHS WORKING ON THIS PAINFUL SITUATION FOR HIM TO TELL ME WE'D SAVE $150 PER MONTH?!?! I casually told him to F-off and that we wanted any money back that we had put into them.
About a week and a half ago, I started speaking with another lending company, and told them this information. Their jaw dropped because they could not believe ANY company would have a hard time with our loan. With our credit scores, income and Loan to Value ratio, this should have been done in no time. We'll be done by the end of this month, smooth sailing, and saving ourselves a nice amount per month!
Please, NEVER use American Direct Lending!
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