Standing in line …
I am currently working on a home sale that is bogged down by the lender. It is now over 2 weeks late and while I suspect it will close today or tomorrow, it didn’t have to be this way.
I’m not going to call them out individually but I can tell you that any deal I have done with one of the banks that were too big to fail have ended up like this. I think the problem is the mentality of the big banks. They expect us to stand in line and wait our turn. That sounds fair but I can tell you it does not have to be that way. It’s just how ‘they’ do it..
I went to Disney World a while back and ‘standing in line’ is how they do it too but I had a different experience. I was the guest of a Disney employee and they took great care of us. We got in without a line, we got fast passes for the best rides and she even directed us to some of the best places to eat and the best times to go for a great experience. There were a few short lines to stand it but over all it was much faster and more pleasant than the usual treatment.
I got to do the same things everyone else did but I had a much better time doing it. Working with the right lender is the same thing. You get the new house and a great rate but you have a much better time doing it.
Some people think that because their loan is currently with a particular bank, they will get better treatment if they stay with them. I am sorry to say they are wrong.
See, we think we are the customer but that is not the case. Oh, the banks try really hard to make us think we’re the customer but with a home mortgage that is never true. The customer is the investor. The one who holds the promissory note. They are the customer. We are the debtor. We owe the investor money and the bank is usually the servicer. They service the loan, collect the money and send most of it to the investor after taking a small piece for their work. If something goes wrong the servicer does the dirty work of collections and ultimately foreclosure if it comes to that but always on the behalf of the investor.
Think if it as a rancher. The rancher invests in some cows and hires a worker to care for them. The worker feeds them, milks them, breeds them and is paid to do so. If the cow gets sick they try to help by some extra attention and special feed or they call the vet if it’s really bad but eventually if they don’t get better the cow heads off to the slaughter house. See, we are the cow and the milk is the payment we make to the investor. The bank is just the hired hand.
The big banks don’t have the finely tuned systems to do loan origination. They expect you to stand in line and wait your turn. So what do we do?
Well, I have several loan originators that know where the fast passes are kept, have the best systems to do the work and overall can make the experience a lot better. Eventually your loan will probably be sold to one of the ‘too big to fail’ guys for servicing and they do that pretty well. That is what they are good at but don’t go to them for a new loan.
If you want to have a better time getting a new loan then call me and I’ll connect you to one of the folks I know that will do a great job.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell
Just went 3 weeks late!! I am beyond frustrated with this one. If you need a referral to a great lender, please call me!! Whatever you do, don’t go to a big mega bank to get the loan. It’s not worth it in the end.