After 10 years in Real Estate, there has been a lot of change for the good, some not so good, and some things that may never change. One of those things that always seems to be caught in that vortex is customer service. Customer service can sometimes gets lost in a company’s growth to get them the lowest rate, the lowest costs, or the best of something. Not understanding the expense of losing the main point of a transaction, a client actually being happy about having one of those items.
Back a few years ago, agents would ask for buyers to use a different lender if they were using Bank of America. There were too many loans not closing from them. It is why the largest lender in the country had stop doing loans altogether. The breakdown that I saw was they had processors in one state, underwriters in another, originators in another and a very high turnover rate because of it. The people involved in the mortgage in Texas, never knew who they were supposed to call in Rhode Island to get something done. Or if they did get through to RI, they said we needed to call the underwriter in Florida. It was a disaster.
I see lenders today making the same mistakes that BOA made and it’s why I’m writing this. Some very big lenders out there have all of the people involved in a transaction working in different states, not really in contact with each other and it is causing major problems. They promise because of their low overhead, they are going to have the best rates and lowest costs. That’s definitely not always the case. And even so, is getting a hair off a rate worth possibly losing the house you love? Usually that’s a NO
So make sure that the lender you choose knows exactly who the people are in your loan. Make sure you can drive to see their face if you need to. Even better, make sure you can sit down with the originator, processor, underwriter, all of them at once if needed. It will make your life a lot easier and less stressful.