I remain completely unimpressed and appalled by almost every out of state lender we encounter. We have a deal closing this coming Thursday the 15th (in 4 days) and have been unable at any time to get any sort of response at all from the lender. This time it’s a Bank of America loan person in California.
I thus had to send the following email this morning:
Dear {lender name},
Unless we hear from you immediately that you will be able to complete the loan for {client name} at {client address} – Loan # {loan#}, we’re switching him to a local Austin lender.
You have not responded to Sylvia’s emails (at least 2) or voice messages (at least 3) regarding this, and have had 45 days to get the loan done. It now appears no action has been taken by BOA to complete this loan, and this is unacceptable. You called the Title Company this morning looking for the Title work which was sent to you on Feb 15, 2007. I wonder if the appraisal has even been ordered.
Please respond immediately and let us know why you’ve dropped the ball and let me know why I should now trust you to stay on and complete this deal for my buyer, given the poor performance thus far. If you think you can get the ball rolling, I need a promise that you can indeed have all loan docs to the Title Company in time to close this coming Thursday the 15th, otherwise we’ll be moving to a more capable lender.
Sincerely,
Steve Crossland
I also left a similar but more succinct voice message. Unfortunately, this is very common with these California lenders. They apparently think the closing date is an approximate date to shoot for, and that it’s ok to close a few days late. I’ve had to tell more than one that, in Texas, we close our deals on time.
A Seller has no obligation whatsoever to extend a closing date if the Buyer’s lender doesn’t get the loan done on time. Most Sellers in fact will, but a buyer risks having a seller have second thoughts about selling if the closing date is not met, and the Seller can simply refuse to close and terminate the contract.
If you’re buying in Austin, use an Austin lender. There is no upside whatsoever to using an out of state lender.
I have my own gripes with BOA, and this is another to add to the list. Thank you for posting. Have you seen these sorts of problems with other out of state lenders, or has this been mostly BOA?
I actually just purchased a couple of lots using BOA and couldn’t have been happier with how it went. When there are problems, BOA is so big, it’s hard to say it’s the institution itself that causes the propblems. It’s really the individual loan officers who either know what they’re doing or not. And I’ve found that the local people have the connections, know the appraisers, etc. that enable them to take better care of the deal.
Steve
Steve,
Can you define what is “local” lender? A lot of banks such as Washington Mutual, BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo are all having banking centers locally. They do take a big chunk of business locally.
Can you give me a couple examples of local lenders? Who is your favorite local lender so far?
Steve,
I’ve been through this nightmare scenario a few times recently and it’s got me extra charged up to stay on top of the lenders I don’t know to make sure they are processing the loan to close on time. I think the mortgage companies and realtors need to have an agreement that if they don’t get their work in on time they forfeit their fees. Let’s make them pay for their lack of service by hitting their pocketbook.