Guaranteed Rate Mortgage Co - Beware

For years we worked with a broker at Universal and then Manhattan Mortgage – the team ended up at Guaranteed Rate and we used them again and I wish we had not. I realize the mortgage landscape has changed but we foolishly thought the people who had done well by us in the past would do so again. Due to their negligence an overally sloppiness the rate changed 3 times before we were actually able to close on the loan, which we were told would be with Wells Fargo. SURPRISE! It ended up being with “Guaranteed Rate” itself who turned around and sold the loan a week later to some no name mortgage bank in Little Rock who don’t have anyone who can answer the phone, who don’t have a website and don’t have a logo, but do have someone who generates invoices for increased escrow payments within one month of our making our first payment to them. We are both self employed so we relied on this broker to navigate the landscape for us but this time around I feel like the deal was a dud. I’m trying to find out if we can get out of the escrow and do those payments on our own to avoid this nonsense. I have a feeling that buried in the fine print we cannot. I’m hugely disappointed in the mortgage broker and feel stupid for blindly trusting that he was doing right by us since we had never had problems in the past.

miss718

in Mortgage 10 years and 9 months ago

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overherhead | 10 years and 9 months ago

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I’ve used Guaranteed Rate twice now (the same team there every time), and they’ve been nothing but great. Both times they’ve gotten me very low rates (and I did my own research and got other quotes to verify that), and were very easy to work with. They sold my loans both times, but were always up front about the fact that’s what their business model is, and my loans were sold to large national banks. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you this time, but please know that the company has worked out just fine for others, so perhaps it was your specific loan officer that was the issue.

brokelin | 10 years and 9 months ago

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Not all mortgages get sold. Banks that hold onto their mortgages are called portfolio lenders, as they hold the loans in their own portfolios. I lucked out and got one of these lenders, who never sold my loan or screwed around with me. I think I got one of these because my loan – with 10% down in a four-unit coop – was not one most banks would make at that time. Given what lenders do to borrowers after the loan is made, I think I might specifically look for a portfolio lender when I take a mortgage again. And I will certainly look for one that will let me pay my own tax bill (was not an issue with the coop, as the coop paid the bill, or rather the coop’s commercial lender did.)

sethamin | 10 years and 9 months ago

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We used Manhattan Mortgage a couple years ago (right as they were acquired by Guaranteed Rate). We had some trouble closing with them because of some very old open violations, though eventually they got over it when we threatened to go to another lender who would close. That aside, our rate was competitive and the customer service was pretty good. Like you, our mortgage got sold immediately to Central Mortgage Company. And also like you, we had lots of trouble with their customer service. We switched our initial homeowners insurance to Brownstone Agency (from a much more expensive insurer), and they seemed utterly incapable of adjusting our escrow. I contacted them a half dozen times, and each time they said that it would be taken care of, and each time it was not. They just seemed incompetent. Eventually our mortgage got sold to PNC Mortgage, who has been fine.

miss718 | 10 years and 9 months ago

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I know they all sell mortgages. But they lied about who our mortgage was going to be with – we thought Wells Fargo and then….TA DA!! We got these folks instead: http://www.yelp.com/biz/central-mortgage-company-little-rock and there are a ton of complaints with the BBB as well. These guys seem particularly egregious and their practices seem bottom feeding, even in this day and age.

resident2 | 10 years and 9 months ago

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As a self employed borrower you were extremely lucky that you found a Banker / Broker that could actually get a loan closed at a reasonable rate in the amount that you were looking for in this market. That said all loans get sold on. My own mortgage on my house that I initially closed on ten years ago has been sold many times: Banker to Royal Bank of Canada, to Country Wide!!! to ING, to Bank of America to Capital One 360\. And at each change they would screw up the escrow, especially for the insurance, my Brownstone Agency policy being a three year policy, they would escrow as if the 3 year bill was the annual payment! And this happened every year! Several Banks along the way, had really bad customer service departments (abuse departments). This is just the normal way of doing business, they have you by the ….. Eventually they did allow me to stop escrowing for taxes and insurance, but do not think that will be the end of it. They now constantly send demand notices because they are not paying out for the bills. They have even paid out for the insurance when I had already paid it! And expected me to reimburse them! Just keep very good records and have your receipts of payments ready to send out to them.