At the beginning of August 2017, my wife and I finally decided to do something about the steadily increasing LIBOR rates that affected the ARM we had taken out when purchasing our first home in 2004. I went on to a few financial boards to see what companies were offering the best rates, lender credits, and customer service. Garden State Home Loans was one of a handful of companies mentioned often, in addition to a couple online banks and brokers. I filled out my initial contact and financial information into a few of them, and also with my bank of 30 years, and the first response I got back was from GSHL, from Anthony Casa, the president of the company.
One day later, I had an initial quote from GSHL that looked about as good as I had hoped for. Since the quote was based on an actual application, my GSHL advisor, "Max" Kelly, provided me several refi options with different amounts of cash due at closing. This was all done via email, and whenever I had questions, they were always answered within an hour or so, even late at night, by either Max or Anthony.
I will say my local bank of 30 years suggested to me there was no way GSHL was going to be able to come in at the price they initially quoted. They expected that I would most likely have to come up with an additional $2K or so of closing costs when all was said and done, and they also said there was no way we would close as quickly as GSHL said we would. I brought these concerns to Max and Anthony, and they both assured me there would be no surprises, and that they stood by their initial quote. Because of all the stellar reviews and their record with the BBB, I decided to take a leap of faith and go with GSHL even after being given a talking to from the rep at my bank.
I'm glad I did. My monthly payment for a 20 year mortgage was about $35 less per month (and $1500 less in closing out-of-pocket) than my bank quoted, and my final closing costs were exactly what GSHL said they would be when I chose one of the options that Max had offered. I put my application in on August 3rd, and we closed on August 28th. The entire document exchange process was done online using GSHL's easy-to-use system. At no point did I actually speak to anyone at GSHL (I don't like talking on the phone, so email was perfect for me). Any time I had a question, I always got a response to my email from Max or Anthony VERY quickly, probably 90% of the time within the hour, sometimes within a few minutes. I'm sure if I had preferred to call them instead, I would have received a similarly excellent response. The closing was done at my kitchen table with reps from the title agency and the mortgage company.
So all in all, five stars well deserved for their easy to use document submit and exchange system, excellent response times and customer service, reassuring me during times of anxiety (thanks, guys), amazingly fast time from application to closing, and basically doing everything they said they would from start to finish. Couldn't have been a better experience. Thank you Max and Anthony for getting me out of my ARM and for making the process as easy and as transparent as it could be! read more