Comments on: Adventures in Refinancing

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:43:26 +0000

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. Looks like I might actually sign this week and close next week. Starting to get really frustrating. Oh well, at least I locked before rates went up.

By: Andy Borgmann

Andy Borgmann — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:41:54 +0000

I am surprised you are having a hard time with Wells (beyond the snarky guy). From everyone I have talked to – and within my own experience for my mortgage – Wells has had fantastic customer service.

Although admittedly, my 160k mortgage on a 30-year fixed is a lot simpler of a situation than what I am sure you are experiencing ;)

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:11:03 +0000

We’re doing a re-fi now, not sure how its going to work out but we have a good relationship with a mortgage officer, Katherine Keller, at Guarantee Mortgage downtown. She has done our original mortgage and one refi and has done 2 for friends. Everyone has been happy (even one done recently). She shops around for a good rate – you tell her what you want – and handles all the interface and paperwork. She is also quite frank and could tell you what is going on with these banks in particular.

Shannon

By: Cara

Cara — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:48:57 +0000

Doh! What a doof. Now I really want to know what his snarky comments were though. I sent my loan officer a spreadsheet one time too when I was trying to wrap my head around some of the loan options he was giving me. He completely ignored my email. Now I wonder if he forwarded it to some of his buddies and laughed me!

By: Daryn

Daryn — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:44:09 +0000

Hey Mike,

I recently worked with a guy named Brian Thielicke over at Cobalt Mortgage, and he was great. Obviously more paperwork is required these days than a year or two ago, but Brian was great to work with, honest, and presented us with all the information and options we needed to make the best decision about out re-fi.

http://blog.daryn.net/post/84036408/thank-you-brian-thielicke

Brian’s #: 206.631.2215

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:07:43 +0000

This sounds really familiar. I recently did a refi myself and was run through the wringer by the bank which wanted compensation letters from my HR department as well, including written confirmation of a corporate acquisition which had affected my job over the previous X years (apparently press releases weren’t sufficient “proof,” which really irritated me). My house easily appraised at nearly twice what I was borrowing, and my borrowed amount was not much more than a year’s salary. I got really testy with with the loan people, but there wasn’t much I could do. It ultimately worked out, but I can’t imagine how ordinary home buyers can possibly get a loan these days. It was such a rotten ordeal for me, I’ll try to never do that again.