Refi with a Big Bank

[Steven Holiday]

Hello BP! I have an issue I could use some advice on. Smart money about a year ago was that the rates were going anywhere but down. So about September of last year, my wife and I refi'ed our Single Family Rental at 6%. In August of this year, when the rates were roughly half that, I spent about 90 minutes with our current big bank lender. The guys who took the call assured me that he could probably get me like 60oo savings per month (the property appraised at 205k a year ago). He wanted a 500oo non-refundable deposit to begin the process but assured me that cash would go into the loan unless we backed out. After months of delays, errors on their part, the appraisal came back last week at 205k (the exact number from last year). With those numbers, he says that if we put thousands on the back end of the loan, he might be able to get us 10oo a month savings. Now the fine print on the contracts say something like, not accepting their offer will forfeit the deposit. So my question is, are they proceeding in fair practice? Is there any recourse for me? Am I just conned out of the 500oo and the wasted wait time? If I just swallow the 500oo bait n’ switch, am I wasting my time looking into another lender? Sorry in advance for the confusing write up. I hope someone can make sense of it. This isn't my day job! Thanks everybody.

[Kevin Romines]

I would assume the $500.00 was to cover the cost of the appraisal. Appraisal costs are not refunded as they are your expense to prove to the lender, what the value of the property is? However, you own that appraisal and can transfer that appraisal to any other lender that you may want?

This is not intended as a blanket statement, but most big banks don't handle mortgages very well. Your loan request goes into a call center and the loan officers there are not very well trained or experienced. They take those jobs, because there is a guaranteed salary plus bonus or commissions. 

That said, My advice would be to call a couple of the local title companies, tell them the type of loan your are wanting to get done, then ask them who are the better companies and loan officers to work with on this? They will know, they close the loans for all companies.

If you need a referral, I can send you a PM for a loan officer in your area. 

I hope this helps?