Today, I officially broke up with TBI Mortgage. As you know, I've been having issues with them all along, some of which I didn't even blog about, like how they mailed me a second GFE in November AGAIN, even though I've told them to never send my sensitive documents through the mail, that I'd either pick them up from their local office or they could email them to me. Shows you how much they listen to their potential customers...

But I digress. Last Thursday, I asked about the interest rate for my loan. I had asked and been told that they would send me the interest rate applicable to my loan daily until I locked; they didn't. So, I asked. By the way, the rate was incorrect on the latest GFE they sent me in November relative to what the rate should've been at that time. In that email, the non-lo0cal loan officer  (yes, they still aren't allowing me to deal primarily with a local representative) told me

        "I'm not sure if you are working with any other lenders, but if you are             and they are giving you a better rate, please send me a Good Faith             Estimate from the other lender so I can see if I can beat it. "

To which I said

        " What do you mean " so I can see if I can beat it.  "?  Aren't you                 quoting me the best you can possibly do for my scenario already?  If you         can get me a lower interest rate with 0 points, then that's what you             should be quoting me.   {...}  I don't do counter-offer, back and forth             with anything money related, whether it's salary or loans.  If you value         my business or worth, then you offer me the absolute best you can off         the bat."

So the next day, I shopped. Despite my policy of not doing counter offers, I did send them the GFE from one of the other lenders that was offering me a better deal.  It was received with silence, and today, when I sent them an email basically saying 'Well?", they responded that their offer is unchanged.  When I told them that I would be going with the other lender (who already has all of my documentation, coordinated with the builder about the title company and has set the ball in motion for an appraisal), all TBI said was

    "I’m sorry we couldn’t do more for you! Please keep my number/email         handy just in case something goes wrong with the other lender.  We will        have all your information on file just in case. 

    Enjoy the rest of your day!"

Really, I should've broken up with TBI months ago and avoided all of the frustration.  I got a 3.5% interest rate and my new loan officer is on point. He seems enthusiastic to have secured my business, and I have a warm fuzzy feeling that I'll close on time. He responds within 10 minutes when I email him, and he's very reachable on the phone; I talked to him at 8:30pm tonight! He has taken the time to figure out how to maximize the use of my realtor's rebate and the builder's incentive money. I didn't tell him that I was using TBI when I got my initial GFE from him (he knows now of course), and he didn't know the terms TBI was offering me, so I'm confident he got me the best deal he could offer me off the bat instead of risking that someone else would beat him, which is what TBI should've done.

So a few days ago, the guy who I hate dealing with emailed me two more forms, saying that I forgot to return them - I didn't forget, they weren't included.  I didn't point this out to him, as it's not worth arguing over. The forms aren't complex, just asking for my consent to request my tax returns from previous years, so I printed them, signed them, and scanned them in and emailed them back to him yesterday.

On a much more concerning note, I found out today that the mortgage specialist I had been dealing with locally is leaving TBI as of this coming Tuesday. She told me the name of the new person who will be handling my case, but I don't know if she is local or not. I certainly hope she's detail oriented and better than the Horsham PA guy....  Why did she have to choose now to leave TBI?

So, she told me she is leaving TBI in her response to my question about using my Realtor's kickback towards closing costs. She told me that my agent's assist will count towards the seller assist limit of 3%. Well, Toll is already giving me pretty much 3%, towards closing, so with my agent's assist, I would exceed the 3% limit. New construction closing costs are so high.... They are more than 3%, so unfortunately I won't be able to have all of it covered by outside contributors. I thought my agent's assist in addition to Toll would cover closing costs completely and I'd even get a few bucks back in a check after closing from my Realtor (they say they give a non-taxable check after closing if their rebate exceeds closing costs). I've already contacted Toll to see if they'd be willing to put some of that money towards credit for options (i.e. reduces the house price) so that I can take advantage of my Realtor's full rebate and Toll's full incentives money, and Toll says they'll do that. Now, I'll have to pay about 4k in closing costs out of pocket, in exchange for a slightly lower house price, which is fine. It won't make me not able to close the loan, just that that's 4k less to have in savings, or to buy furniture with. Still, I'm not going to complain at having so much money being "given" to me that I have to shuffle it around in order to be able to use it.

So, after a lot of grief, on August 8 I was finally able to meet in person to sign the loan commitment.  The lady was very friendly, and it was nice to meet the person who I think is competent in person. She answered all of my questions and didn't rush me. She wrote down all of my concerns (see my previous post) and promised to pass them on to her management. 

She explained to me that I needed to correct the mistakes on the original forms, and initial the corrections and sign those original forms and that she would then enter the corrections into the computer, and print new copies of the forms and have me sign those right then. Apparently, if I had insisted on not signing forms with incorrect data, as was my intention, they would've had to have started all over and entered the data from scratch because  their system doesn't allow them to bypass the original forms without having had them signed. So now I have two copies of the forms, one set the error laden set that was sent to me in the mail, and the other the corrected set, both signed and dated on the same day.  

She commended me on my good credit score, and didn't make me feel like the world's biggest bitch for insisting on doing this in person. All in all, if we had been able to skip to this in-person meeting, both sides could've saved a few hours of time and frustration.

The purchase agreement states that you will submit an application with TBI within 14 days. While Toll doesn't require you to use TBI, they want to know  that their in house lender can give you a mortgage should you fail to go out and get one. So, when after 12 days after signing the purchase agreement I hadn't heard from the local mortgage specialist, I reached out and contacted her.  She apologized for not having gotten in touch, but she told the builder my case was pretty strong, so there wasn't any delay on getting the ball rolling on the permits end. She also sent me the list of documentation that she needed from me.  I sent all of it her way within 48 hours.

About a week later, I was contacted by the same guy in Horsham PA who I could never get in touch with before I signed the purchase agreement. He wanted 4 more documents. (1 of which I had already sent the local mortgage specialist. I don't know if she just didn't forward it to him, or if he missed it - my money is now betting that he missed it given other mistakes he makes. Keep reading)  I sent him the documentation he was was requiring, and I made it known at that time (on Jul 17) that I did not want to deal with him; that I wanted someone local to handle my case. 

His response sent Jul 18:

I did not respond to his question.Whether or not he was out of the office is irrelevant  NO ONE from his office responded to me for ever a week, and I left messages on various voice-mails.

Then, I didn't hear from anyone, local or PA based until I received the loan commitment documentation in a UPS package. Now, I didn't have to sign for this package, and it was just sitting in the mail room of my building. Since I wasn't expecting a package, and packages aren't stuffed into the mail box, but rather placed on a nearby table, it was only by luck that I got it.  It clearly said "mortgage" on the outside of it.  I was livid. Anyone knows that a package labeled 'mortgage" contains everything needed to steal an identity, i.e. SSN, birthday, addresses and previous addresses and since I wasn't told to expect that package, I wouldn't have known if it had gone missing until TBI contacted me about not having returned it. The only notes or instructions that the package contained was Sign and return by Aug 3" - this was Aug 1st at 10pm that I got this package.  I immediately sat down and wrote the following email.

His response which came on August 2: 

My last response over email - sent later that same day.

He sent a response that addresses the "glaring inaccuracy", which was the interest rate being nearly double what the good faith estimate stated that the local mortgage specialist had given me. At a time when interest rates are at historic lows, how could the loan officer not notice of all things an incorrect interest rate?  That's just negligent.  Anyways, despite my saying that I wouldn't be able to answer my phone, this guy's boss calls me at 16:55pm. It just so happens that I was able to answer my phone. He tried to convince me to cross out the incorrect things and write the correct things in. (There was so much incorrect data on them, that the forms would be more pen ink than printed ink...)  He also said I could call or email him to ask my questions. I reiterated to him that since they have representatives local to me, that I would do neither of those things and that if he couldn't accommodate that, I'd take my business elsewhere.  (Not to mention, I'm not about to send my personal information through the mail again when that's the number one way identity theft occurs.)  Finally, he said he's have the same local representative I had been dealing with get back in contact with me.

The local representative did get in contact with me via email about5 minutes after the end of my phone conversation.   I now have an appointment on Wednesday to do things in person. Call me old fashioned, but I'm security conscious, and don't want to sign things I may not understand 100% and that has wrong information.  It's just a shame that with an email footer/signigture block that reads like the following that I had to request someone local 3 times and threaten to take my business elsewhere twice before getting results.

Like I said in "The Backstory" post, I scoped out TBI mortgage before I even signed the purchase agreement. I got the run around when I was dealing with their Horsham PA office. If I hadn't been put in contact with a mortgage specialist in the same county and state as myself, I would've opted to use a 3rd party lender since Toll doesn't penalize you for doing so. (Though, they do have a form that says doing so may delay closing, not that that would be a deterrent if I was going to get better mortgage terms somewhere else). While dealing with a local representative, I got my pre-approval and Good Faith Estimate in a timely manner.