I've been waiting for weeks to hear back from WaMu ("Now part of Chase") about my mortgage re-finance (which was meant to close by tomorrow). I finally heard back today, and it turns out they are "running behind" (no sh*t!) and would only be able to close in another month's time.
This whole process started in early February, with me dealing with a really pleasant guy on the phone. (This was after WaMu sent me snail-mail saying I could refinance for "no cost" - turns out that means $700 in application fees.)
The pleasant guy on the phone soon made way for an incompetent local property valuator that called me to say WaMu had cancelled my application and she was therefore not doing the valuation... After spending a few days playing phone-tag with WaMu I managed to talk to someone only to find out the application was still active and they were waiting for the valuation... (WTF?) So, a week or two later and a new valuator came out to look at the house. All was well, my credit rating came back in the high 600's and it looked like all would be well.
Then my application went to underwriting for review. Dawn, my loan officer, said they were running about 3 weeks to do the review, so after waiting 3 weeks (plus a few days grace), I emailed Dawn to see what was up. Nothing for a week. So, I started calling Dawn and leaving voicemails asking her to contact me. Nothing for weeks. This week I tried calling her again and realized her voicemail message has changed: she's now "out of the office for an extended period", and requesting that no-one leave voicemails for her.
OK. Let's try the operator number she suggests I use.... It turns out that is equivalent to listening to gaping void of deep space - not even muzak to while away the time. Next I try callign the number for Dawn's manager, only to get voicemail and a message saying she has chanegd teams and I should not leave a message.
I spent some time hunting around for 800- numbers to call, and finally speak to someone that gives me the name and number of Dawn's new manager. I call and leave voicemail. Repeat for 3 days... Finally today I hear back from Juan, the manager, and while he is extremely appologetic, the gist of it is that I am up a proverbial creek with a proverbial paddle.
They will not be able to close until mid-June, and my rate-lock expires tomorrow. For $1000 I can extend the rate lock (or I guess I could let it float, but Juan didn't really seem interested in that option?) At least they offered to refun the $700 I've paid in application fees, so now I can start the whole process over again with another lender... Wish me luck!
PS: If this is how WaMu/Chase treat their customers, Heaven help them!
6 comments:
You are not alone in this misleading and fraudulent loan process. They took our money and approved our refinance early in the process, but kept coming up with reason after reason for delays. They would request more info, tell us it was in underwriting, stated signatures were expired, made sure the pay down money was in our account, made us get information from our accountant, etc. Only to tell us today that the time for the loan had laps and we now need to reapply for a much higher fee loan with Chase. The Chase officer said that the no fee loan was too good to be true and that's why WaMu went out of business. Chase did not have any intention of honoring WaMu's loan obligation and wasted our time and money in the process. I hope they have liability for their actions.
Thanks for the comment, Pete.
The day this happened I started an online application with Quicken Loans, and so far I must say I'm *very* impressed. They called me the next morning, and within a day had most of the initial paperwork done. (I like the way they let you do most of it online too). I have a valuation set for tomorrow.
So, while it's too soon to say for sure, I am optimistic that we'll have closed with Quicken in the next few weeks.
PS: Still no refund on my $750 from WaMu... I will need to call them again. I wonder if the local AG would be interested in this saga? :>
A quick update: WaMu refunded the $750 yesterday!
Woot! We are approved! On to signing!
Interesting that I ran into your posting but i an going through the exact same thing with Wamu/chase. A refi process which was advertised to be as a "streamlined process" is not 3 months in the making. I had to litterally nag to get my appraisal done and nag everytime i needed an update. Suddenly a month ago, I called and my loan processors vmail said "sorry i am no longer with Chase". Had to go through a man hunt to locate his manager and over a week later got contacted by a new loan processor who wanted me to re-submit forms I had already submitted. Now, I can't seem to get anyone to call me back and my 90 day rate lock expired yesterday. The $750 application fee i had to pay does not bother me as much. My biggest frustration is that i locked in a (now unavailable) 4.875 rate which i could have obtained with other lenders 3 months ago. I am suspicious that Wamu/Chase is going to suddenly come up with a reason not to proceed with this loan. I can't tell you how pissed I am. If you are reading this and thinking about starting a home loan process with WAMU/Chase, learn from the experience that others are going through. DONT DO IT!
I was happy to find Mark's post about his WAMU/Chase re-fi experience and hear that he got his application fee back. I've been dealing with the same problem since Feb and still trying to get my application fee back.
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