Alphonso Gill (Wells Fargo)
I got a recommendation from this site for Alphonso Gill from WF, I have to say the initial feedback is not very good and I have not even taken out a loan yet. He has not been responsive and seems IMO hell bent on charging as much in “hidden” costs as he can – he…
I got a recommendation from this site for Alphonso Gill from WF, I have to say the initial feedback is not very good and I have not even taken out a loan yet.
He has not been responsive and seems IMO hell bent on charging as much in “hidden” costs as he can – he has this 3 card Monte trick he does with Origination and Discount fees that assumes you are dumb. I know the above is standard fare for most brokers but still rankles. If I have been unfair in my feedback, I promise to further update this forum.
I got in touch with another broker at Washington Mutual for comparison – Duane Harden – who so far seems very upfront and transparent though their rates are higher than WF, but my eyes are peeled for a bait and switch and I will update the site on this too.
I just read the long explanation of a borrower. His complaint seems to be that the appraised value of his property went down. A bank has no control over the value of a home in the marketplace. This is a venter’s forum. Mr. Gill is one of the top pros in the business, Renovation loans and construction loans are very different from normal purchase loans.
Anybody who is involved with a renovation loan with Wells Fargo and particularly with Alphonso Gill, PLEASE. PLEASE read about what happened to us…
When I first met with Alphonso Gill in June of 2005 and told him about the mixed-use property that we were trying to close on he had exactly the kind of “can do†confidence that I was hoping for. I explained to him that we were planning on converting the property to a 3 family and that we did not have the 30% down payment that some banks seemed to require for mixed use properties because we needed part of our savings to convert the ground floor into a residential space where we would live. I explained to Mr. Gill that this would be our home for a long time and that we were looking for a residential loan and could accept nothing less than the security of a 30 year fixed loan. This was what we could afford—both my wife and I have devoted our lives working for non-profit organizations–and it only made sense to us to get a 30 year fixed loan in the climate of “record low†interest rates of 2005. Mr. Gill told me that it was not a problem, and explained that if we put 20% down that the bank would finance part of our loan as a 30-year fixed and the other part would be a home equity loan with a variable rate that we could refinance when we were done with the renovation. He assured me that everything would be okay and that we would have no problem refinancing the home equity portion of the loan once the renovations were over.
A year later when we were done with our renovation and began the process of refinancing the home equity portion of our loan things became equally frustrating with Wells Fargo and Mr. Gill. He almost never returned our phone calls and emails. When he finally got around to having a post renovation appraisal done the value came in at $600,000 less than the original appraisal he had done over a year earlier, in July 2005, when we bought the building. I was shocked that anybody could even take such an appraisal seriously, however it proved to be an obstacle in refinancing our home equity line of credit. We were particularly distraught to learn about this appraisal since we had just devoted a year or our lives and well over $100,000 toward renovating our building. We protested that the appraiser must have made a mistake, but apparently even after taking into account “new information provided by the owners and real estate professionals,†the amended appraisal still came in $500,000 short of the $1,400,000 appraisal that Wells Fargo used when we bought the building.
So, Wells Fargo ordered another appraisal, which came in at 1.4 million, (still short of the $1,500,000 we would have expected with the additional value of the renovation we had completed.) However, this appraisal was still not good enough to refinance our loan since it is apparently the practice of Wells Fargo to take the average of two appraisals, which left us with an appraised value of $1,150,000, and an LTV that was still not high enough to refinance.
At this point, July 5th, 2006, Mr. Gill said he could no longer refinance our home equity line of credit with Wells Fargo Home Equity and the alternative would be to refinance our entire loan with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. However, this would require paying $50,000 worth of closing costs, which we had already paid less than a year ago, including almost $20,000 in discount and origination fees.
It has now been over a year since we began the process of refinancing our loan and we are still sitting with a huge variable rate home equity loan. I cannot emphasize enough our deep disappointment with Wells Fargo and the way they handled our entire loan. We chose Wells Fargo to finance our home because we wanted the security of dealing with a well-established firm, with professional, trained agents who we could trust and upon whose advice we could rely. We did not want to have to face bait and switch tactics or other unsavory methods from the institution to which we were about to entrust our entire life savings of over $300,000. But that is exactly what we have suffered. Our experience with Wells Fargo has been a nightmare riddled with false promises, poor communication and shocking disavowals of responsibility.
I only hope that some other people on this forum can learn from our mistakes and naiveté.
I received several emails over the last 2 days about the your post on brownstoner.com. I’m not using your name, but I’m going to address a few things you wrote.
One- I am a banker I am not a broker and I remember you asking me this when we first spoke somehow it appears like much of our conversation fell on deaf ears.
Two- it concerns me that you never seem to understand the difference between a renovation loan and a straight conforming or non conforming loan.
I do not know if it was because I was not telling you what you wanted to hear or what.
Three- a bait and switch in terms of a mortgage is when someone quotes or promises you a rate and or fees and you go to closing and you get a different rate and higher fees.
You had two options with the discount and without, I was very clear about that and it was your option to choose which one.
You and I talked about mortgage options for 2 “what if’s” or “mortgage amounts you where comfortable with using the rental income to quailfy” and more than that the options were based on you getting a seller’s concession to pay for your closing cost because you did not qualify for option 2 without the seller’s concession. However you still wanted to talk about rates from a week ago when I told you that you had the option to talk in “real time” using today’s rates. I explained to you that rates change daily and since you were in the beginning of this process(1 to 6 months) you could not lock in a your rate(without being in contract). So how in the world could you express that someone could possible bait and switch you when you do not have a loan?
Four- I sent you 2 different good faith estimates one with all fees included and you requested that I send you a good faith estimate without the discount point. (I have the email) so were you confused with your request? Is that a bait and switch? You ask me for something different and in your mind that was a bait and switch? I am really trying to understand here.
Five- I encouraged you to shop our renovation loan program with other lenders but as I told you, “compare a apple to a apple meaning compare the renovation loan program, fees and rates with another lenders renovation program, rate and fees.” this does not mean compare this program to a different program such as a buyer purchasing a house or property that does not need renovating. That is something you seem to be hell bent on, despite the numerous times I told you “that if you were purchasing a house that did not need work your closing cost would be about 2% less.” You felt that because you have a high credit score all else did not play a factor in your rate and fees. Regardless of where you go, the type of program that you select, the risk of the loan will always pay a factor unless you pay cash.
Six- finally the mortgage tax and title bill fees you seem to have an issue with. Again those are third party charges and not bank fees.
Good luck on your search.
Alphonso L. Gill
Private Mortgage Banking
Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist
Renovation Specialist
C/PA Specialist
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Mac:N2652-151
530 Fifth Avenue,15th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Ph: 212-805-1654
Fax: 212-805-1652
Efax: 718-504-3980
Alphonso.gill@wellsfargo.com
https://www.wfhm.com/wfhm/alphonso-gill/
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wow there are some uninformed people posting here. Do you people really go out and get mortgages? You must be taken advantage of left and right.
I talked with Mr. Gill about a possible loan, but didn’t get a great vibe from him. After a lot of research, I went with the Bank of NY. However, BNY just closed their mortgage servicing department and are now doing only reverse mortgages. They guy I was working with at BNY, however, stayed with me even though he went to a different company and nothing about my loan changed: Good rates, low fees. The mortage representative I have been dealing with is professional, responsive, hard working and a nice person. We’ve been working to close on this property now for about 6-months (it is an Estate deal) and he has been really patient throughout the entire process. I recommend him without hesitation. Tell him Suzy referred you (we’re on a first name basis like that at this point). He is:
Christopher P. Albanese
Mortgage Representative
Eastern American Mortgage Company
201 Lower Notch Road
Little Falls, N.J. 07424
Tel: (973) 953-0923
Fax:(973) 404-8518
c.albanese@eamco.com
banks sell off the loans anyway, so what risk are they being compensated for?
It’s more to do with incentives. Profitability of a loan to a bank is if you are paying higher (either in rates or/and fees) than adequately compensates the bank for the credit risk you pose.
If the broker is paid based on a metric that includes this profitability measure then the broker is incentivised to rip you off by getting you to accept a crap rate (either explicitly or through expensive points) or tacking on fees.
This is good business if you are only ripped off moderately i.e. so long as there is a cap that prevents the broker from significantly ripping you off and harming the long term profitability of the bank through lost sales.
When mtg brokers get a fee does that really hurt the borrower? I honestly don’t know but have been told the bank pays the broker and that this cost is not transferred to the borrower in any way. Any insight into this???
I have also been in touch with Mr Gill based on a rec here and I understand what you mean by the responsiveness and the transparency on fees. But I think the WF reno product is pretty good, which is the product I am interested in as well. With all brokers, rules of buyer beware apply and you negotiate yourself a decent deal. They after all are compensated through the fees and the profitability to the bank of the loans they make and that profit comes from your pocket.