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All Forum Posts by: Aaron Wong

Aaron Wong has started 2 posts and replied 6 times.

This is a rant about the nightmare that is getting a conventional mortgage at Chase and I'm not sure if this is the right place to do it but I want this to be a warning to any other investor that may be looking to use Chase especially on a deal that has a tight closing window. I won't use the names of the people I've interacted with as I believe this is more of a reflection on how Chase home lending conducts business than each individual person.

tldr; Use Chase home lending for a mortgage on an investment property if you want to suffer and risk losing your deal.

I got a pre-approval from Better.com. I've used Better as a lender before and they are great but thats another story. I used that to make an offer on a single family property that was accepted on 6/3. In order to get the best deal, I did some shopping around. I called a Chase branch near me and was set up with a home lending advisor. Due to the seller wanting to close by 6/30 and due to the home lending advisor being out of office, I went to a different branch that had a home lending advisor available on the morning of 6/4. 

This is where the first red flag happens. As I am speaking with the home lending advisor of this second branch, I get a passive aggressive call from the home lending advisor of the first branch. The second home lending advisor was patient with my questions and provided top notch customer service so I was keen to stay with the second home lending advisor. I made this clear on the phone call with the first lending advisor. To my surprise when I get home, the second lending advisor calls me to tell me that the first lending advisor's manager forced him to give up the loan application to the first lending advisor. (I understand the need for these rules against internal competition, but who cares about the customer experience, am I right?) I thought as long as the loan goes through without issue I don't really care who the lending advisor is so I didn't give it much thought.

The home lending advisor that I end up working with is fairly responsive and we get through all of the initial loan process fairly quickly. I am also assigned a client care specialist who as far as I can tell is the bridge between me and the underwriter of the loan. Again, this person is fairly communicative. However, as we enter the final weeks of the closing process they fall off the face of the earth. Emails from the title company that we are working with go unanswered. Whenever I call, I can only reach voicemail. In retrospect, this should have been a huge red flag and I should have started escalating. 6/30 comes and goes. Title company blames Chase for being unresponsive and Chase blames the title company for being unresponsive. The closing date gets extended to 7/2. Again on 7/2, the title company attempts to get confirmation of closing and required documents from Chase but again the Chase team falls off the face of the earth. 

On 7/6, the client care specialist reaches out to me to confirm closing on 7/9. On 7/7, the title company reaches out to me to tell me that yet again, Chase is unresponsive so at this time I start escalating the issue. I reach out to the manager of the client care specialist and am only ever graced by the sound of his voicemail. The home lending advisor's manager phone number is not even in service. I reached out to Chase home lending customer service who then redirects me to a new home lending advisor that promises to reach out to their closing department to get them to contact the title company. They also attempt to get the client care specialist's manger's manager to call me back but I never hear from her. On 7/8, the title company has still not heard anything from Chase so I again reach out to customer service who sends me to yet again another home lending advisor. This person reaches out to the closing department and then calls me back to see if the closing department reached out to me. They did not so he promises to reach out to them yet again to have them give me or the title company a call. I never hear from anyone from Chase again on 7/8. 

On the morning of 7/9, the title company again reaches out to me to tell me that Chase has not confirmed closing and that they have not received the required documents from Chase. Furthermore, my RE agent tells me that the seller at this point is considering backing out of the deal. I reach out yet again to Chase customer service who then sends me to the escalation department. It takes the escalation department to get a hold of the client care specialist's manager who finally reaches out to the title company to provide them with what they need.

I haven't yet attempted to look into the Chase mortgage guarantee of $2500 cash back if they don't close on time but I suspect they are going to use any excuse to avoid paying out. I will update this post on how that goes...


Lesson learned: I need to stay on top of the whole closing process at any sight of miscommunication. Shameless plug: I was too spoiled by Better's fine-tuned effortless loan process.
 

Post: First home in Seattle

Aaron WongPosted
  • Investor
  • Posts 6
  • Votes 4
Originally posted by @Michael Haas:

@Aaron Wong I wouldn’t steer your towards Kitsap given your situation, but there is a fast ferry (passengers, no cars) from Bremerton to downtown seattle that takes 30 minutes and a car ferry that takes 60.  You’re right that if you need to drive without the ferry it’s longer. 

Have you looked at N. Beacon Hill? It’s closer to downtown with a 10 minute light rail ride, is right off the freeway, and more walkable, more diverse, and better cashflow than Ravenna and most of north seattle. 2 of our 5 properties are there and we LOVE the neighborhood. 

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the pointer! That looks like a solid neighborhood. I will definitely start keeping an eye out for properties in this area.

Post: First home in Seattle

Aaron WongPosted
  • Investor
  • Posts 6
  • Votes 4
Originally posted by @Megan Shay:

@Aaron Wong, where will you be working? If you're downtown, you may also want to consider Kitsap County. Easy commute to downtown Seattle and WAY more affordable. Healthy Navy population with the bases at Bremerton and Bangor (not so different from UW in terms of a healthy rental market), but also lots of healthcare employees. Probably more responsible than students. ;-) I say that as a UW grad who lived in the U-District for several years post-college as well. 

Good luck, and PM me if you have Kitsap questions! I moved to Poulsbo last year from Mercer Island and we love it here. 

Hi Megan,

I will be working in downtown. I am unfamiliar with the Kitsap county area but a quick google map search shows at least a 1.5 hour commute one way. At least for now, that is not something I am willing to consider.

Post: First home in Seattle

Aaron WongPosted
  • Investor
  • Posts 6
  • Votes 4
Originally posted by @Jason Lee:

Hi Aaron (and all),

Your criteria is matches mine exactly except I am looking at a different location!  And I am working through the same dilemma as I think my out of pocket expenses will be higher if I go with buying vs. renting but part of that monthly expenses is going into the principal of the house.  Also, maybe the quality of life in a home would be better compared to renting?   From my very novice research, we may need to rely on appreciation more than cash flow in the Seattle area.  There is the opportunity cost that you sacrifice when you use your cash savings to purchase real estate vs. other investments but I'm sure that will be factored into your decision.

I'm curious as to whether you are working with an agent right now. I am just beginning my search and I think a knowledgeable agent, with experience in looking for SFH with rental potential, would be hugely beneficial. How did you start that search?

Thanks!

Hi Jason,

I do not have a realtor I am working with at the moment just yet. I have relied heavily on Zillow and my experiences living in Seattle this past summer. 

Post: First home in Seattle

Aaron WongPosted
  • Investor
  • Posts 6
  • Votes 4

@Jake Alger

Thanks for the reply. My goal is definitely to keep cost of living down. I would even like to more ambitiously have a few rental properties but I feel like not only am I increasing my spending every month by buying due to utilities/maintenance etc, I am losing out on potential returns from other sources that my down payment could have generated. I am not sure if I am thinking about this the wrong way or not...

@Dave Skow

Thanks for the ideas. I will definitely take a look to see if there are any 2 or 3 plex properties. 

Post: First home in Seattle

Aaron WongPosted
  • Investor
  • Posts 6
  • Votes 4

Hi all! 

I am a New Yorker moving out to the Seattle area and am looking to buy my first home. I have been looking at houses in the UDistrict, Ravenna area and wanted to get some feedback on my findings. I have been primarily looking at houses with 3+ beds and 2+ baths. My plan was to live in one of the bedrooms and rent out the other two.

My criteria:

  • 3 or more beds
  • 2 or more baths
  • Up to $750k

I would be using a 30 year conventional mortgage with 20% or more down. 

Assuming I could get $1k rent per room which I think might be really optimistic, I'd have to put upwards of 40% down to make this purchase cheaper than renting (assuming $1k a month rent that covers utilities, which I was able to find while I was in Seattle a few months ago). This does not even take into consideration any maintenance that I would have to do and still leaves me with negative cash flow. 

If I were to go the renting route, I'd pay ~$1k a month with all my utilities covered and I would have the $300k I would use as down payment to put into an ETF or something. With this information, my question is, does house hacking still make sense for me? Ideally I would like to put down less but that does not seem to be an option in these neighborhoods. I am pretty set on the neighborhoods due to the proximity to the university and the light rail station to downtown.