WHY IS THERE NO OPTION FOR ZERO STARS?!?! Predatory lenders do not deserve any stars!
My Step-Mother chose Hometown Mortgage to secure financing for her purchase of my father's home from me, following his passing. We both worked closely with Dave's team and, for the most part, his Team was just exceptional (Tina especially). Dave, himself, however was a very different experience. Our initial meeting with Dave was very pleasant and he was able to secure very fair financing for my Step-Mother. That's where the positivity in this story ends. Dave was late to each of our meetings, he was inattentive to phone calls and emails and we discovered several instances where exuberant 'hidden fees' popped up that made my Step-Mothers closing costs skyrocket thousands beyond his initial estimates.
Although we were a For Sale By Owner transaction, he somehow charged my Step-Mother as a Real Estate Agent to represent the transaction. This $500 fee for 'representation' was never discussed ahead of the Final Closing Disclosure and he then indicated it was the original $500 'deposit check' he'd represented as being a deposit against closing costs - however, in the final disclosure, that $500 did not reduce closing costs and it came to light that this was an additional fee he was charging that we were never told about.
Though I understand we are all human, Dave's conversation with me regarding this hidden fee was incredibly heated and professionalism (on both our parts I suppose) went out the door! As a 'customer' finding this fee in a final disclosure (and at the risk of losing the transaction altogether in the 11th hour), I expressed my irritation and would not stand down to his screaming and accusatory attitude, his continuous return to "I do not work for free" (even-though his commission for the services we contracted him to perform were paid for by the Lender).
Ultimately, Dave's errors and undisclosed fees cost me well over a thousand dollars in proceeds and my Step-Mother's out of pocket to close was FAR higher than initially discussed and agreed to. It was only out of desperation that we both 'ate' our prospective losses and proceeded to closing.
Lastly, when closing day arrived, not a single person from Dave's office attended the closing and I, myself, had to go to Dave's office to 'courier' documents to the closing. The fact that Dave was paid BOTH as a Mortgage Broker AND as a Real Estate Agent....and STILL couldn't be bothered to attend the closing was dismissive to us as his clients and disrespectful on many, many levels.
In short, I would STRONGLY encourage any friend, family member or stranger for that matter, to seek out any possible option for financing other than this deceptive company. My wife and I purchased a house costing 5x the price of the property discussed above and we had a significantly less stressful, more professional and seamless transaction with our mortgage broker. I cannot express enough how dissatisfied we are with this company (less the support staff who saved this transaction). read more
