About two months ago my spouse and I were deciding whether we would buy a place or continue to rent, so my sister who had worked with Perl Mortgage in the past and had a good experience, recommended that I reach out to this company. After doing some research, I came across Pam Harambasic's name on the internet and decided to reach out to her to ask some questions and to find out whether we (as potential first time buyers) would qualify for a loan. Since we had not gone through this process before, my spouse and I were unsure of what to ask or even how to get started. When we initially spoke to Pam over the phone the first things that stood out was that she was very personable and knowledgeable, which put us at ease and help to guide us towards our decision to buy rather than continue to rent. Pam met with us for coffee in our neighborhood and walked us through the details of the process for home buying. What my spouse and I enjoyed, was that she not only dealt with the business of applying for a home loan, but she also took the time to get to know us and to allow us to know a little bit about her, which helped build trust and made us confident that we had partnered with the right person to take us through this process. My spouse and I found a place that we wanted to buy two days after our face to face meeting with Pam. Throughout the entire process in applying for a home loan, Pam kept us informed, answered all of our questions, was incredibility responsive, transparent, professional and reassuring. The whole time along, we felt lucky to be working with someone who helped ensure that the process for us was smooth and relatively stress free. We are now in our new home and absolutely love it! We really appreciate Pam and happily recommend her to others. Should we need her services in the future, we would not hesitate to reach out to her. We could not have asked for a better experience or more outstanding Mortgage Advisor. read more

incredible! Closed in two week. how do they do it ? fast reliable. proffesional HONEST i could not imagine a better expierence. read more

Alex is the best in Chicago got everything done quick and fast like we wanted when I'm referring everyone i know to him and when it's time to refi I'll definitely be back to work with him read more

I cannot speak for entire Perl Mortgage but I can speak to my lender, Daniel Chookaszian, who might fall under one of the worst people I have ever done business with. In my opinion, Dan was probably good at his job at some point or he wouldn't have been able to build a team around him, but hes clearly been in the game for way too long and has gotten lazy. He lives off of referrals and really doesn't care about who he represents anymore once they sign the dotted line. It's pretty pathetic. I should have known to not to go with him when he was over 30 minutes late to our first and second meeting. He had several excuses each time which I let go because I am also in sales and understand things come up. He was SUPER salesy! He talked and talked about how "I want to be your lender" "What lender sits with you for an hour one on one (really 1/2 hour because he was late both times)" Then asks over and over "I'm not salesy am i?" "I want to give you that personal experience". He seems very in-genuine from the start but I really didn't have a choice because I'd already found a place and needed to move forward, this is my only regret through this process. After we decided my dad was going to be on the loan, Dan called me up to tell me that my dad has a lot of money. It was SO weird and tacky and quite frankly, it's not my business what my dad makes. Is this what Dan does all day instead of work? Look at everyone's income? It was so awkward and made me feel incredibly uncomfortable, as well as my dad, when I shared that with him. Not only did Dan fall off the face of the earth after we signed our loan documents, he consistently over promised and under delivered with deadlines. He would say he'd have something done, not get it done, then fall off the face of the earth, get it to us several days later and act like a hero for doing it, like we should be proud. He told us he has a 4 hour time response window for emails. Our emails went sometimes up to a week being ignored, even with 4-5 follow up emails. Him and his team asked us for things two days before the CLC was due. (which we extended 3 times because they couldn't get it together on time) Why couldn't they have asked us a month and a half ago when they knew we needed them? Dan and his team didn't make just little mistakes, they were large and could have cost us the entire deal. Dan has the tendency to blame every single person around him but himself. He went out of the country the day our CLC letter was due and told no one besides my realtor because he asked. Thank god my realtor was so great or this would have never closed. They told us we could write a cashiers check or wire money. They said wiring money is easier but we can do both (I have proof because Dan continues to deny the truth). When we decided to go with cashiers checks, we emailed Dan and his team letting them know, there was about 8 people on the email and we received no response. The next day at 9pm (the night before closing at 9:00 am the next morning) my lawyer calls me in a panic saying why would the lender let you do that?! You cant do cashiers check for over 50k. Once again, Dan and his team blew it. When I called Dan he said it "is no big deal and people make exceptions all the time and he'll get back to me." I had to pester him several times to even get a response to which he later says "this will be a problem with you, we advised you to wire" This made me so upset. They told us we could do both, then we emailed them two days prior letting them know we have cashiers checks in hand and they said nothing! Once again, he is blaming others and the others are now the clients! Dan has no idea how to just admit he was at fault. When I told him hes insulting me, he replied "my team made a mistake" blaming his TEAM not him and still not apologizing! I honestly could go on and on and on about everything he did wrong or didn't do at all. Happy to provide documents to his boss, as I'm sure once he reads this he will blame others and deny it but I saved every single piece of communication because I am not a liar. In my opinion, I think Dan didn't like us because we made him work and asked tough questions that most people don't, which he's not used to doing, and that he tried to sabotage the entire thing. Dan was well aware that we were closing at 9am friday and needed the docs to the condo management by 2p friday so I could move in (with the movers already scheduled) Saturday. Yet, he didn't care. He delayed our closing so much that the Title Company gave us the docs without the money wire because he felt so bad for us! Dan managed to turn something that should be fun and joyful to one of the worst experiences in my entire life. He caused me so much lost sleep and anxiety. I will be contacting his boss. Here's my advice: STAY AWAY! Oh and they sold my loan before i even got to closing ha read more

Seriously a pathetic outfit. We dealt with Tom Rashka and he didn't even return phone calls. after getting no help no answers for weeks, we finally went in, got our paperwork and went somewhere else, like a recommend everyone and anyone who even considers this operation to do. Now we get an email saying what a great time to refinance with them..umm, you're kidding right? just sad. walk, don't run away from this place. We went somewhere else where we were teated like a valued customer and closed on our refinance in a shorter time than we waited for these people to simply call us..Go somewhere else. read more

Pamela Condon is a miracle worker and amazing Mortgage Advisor for PERL Mortgage. She worked endlessly on getting our mortgage, even after hitting a plethora of snares with the property we wanted. She tirelessly researched, searched, and then some more for the best deal. She was always available to answer questions and to keep us updated. I would highly recommend her and would definitely use her again. read more

I was introduced to Alex Filin for a property I located and had some initial questions, etc as I began the process. The stark difference I felt between Alex and the other lenders I was quoting, was the non-salesy, forthright and genuinely nice guy he was (seemed to have my best interest versus the others). Alex politely waited for me to make a decision, and when I chose PERL he helped me through a couple of panic moments in the process (once, stepping out of a meeting to answer my urgent call). Alex was at the closing, brought a welcome package and I expect to stay in touch! The reason for the 4 stars is that while Alex answered my questions, made me feel comfortable, and got the ball rolling, members of his staff/branch were not so easy to work with. Expectations were not appropriately set, multiple requests for information I had already sent, longer delays/time frame than I would have expected between steps/completion. Fortunately we closed just in the knick of time and Alex's team remained flexible on that day and saw it through, but a lot of pain could have been saved if the process was more polished. Bottom line, I would recommend PERL and Alex. They are a preferred lender in Chicago and offered me lowest cost product/rate versus 4 major lenders I quoted. read more

I have worked with John Dedes at Perl on a refinance for my condo and in purchasing a new home. Both times he has been extremely helpful and prompt and I probably could not have closed the deals as quickly and easily without John. He is always available to talk or give advice and is very thorough in covering every detail. read more

Alex Margulis from Perl Mortgage helped us to solve a refinancing puzzle and as a result we picked him and his firm to do the work....The closing process was smooth and straightforward. Both My husband and I enjoyed doing business with you. I was a little nervous about the appraisal process and I'm glad that we had you to guide us through the process and provided us with your leadership and expertise. Thank you read more

Russell from Perl was wonderful: he always returned our calls quickly, explained everything (I emailed him constantly), and really had our backs when we needed him to. We used him for our first home and I would highly recommend! read more

We used Pamela Harambasic for our most recent home purchase and had a very positive experience with her. We are first time home buyers and were pretty nervous about the whole process, and Pamela was incredibly knowledgeable, organized, and most importantly- responsive from the beginning. She was available pretty much around the clock and did a great job of keeping us on track and the process moving fluidly. She really took care of us, and I would very easily recommend her to anyone needing assistance on their mortgage. read more

Russell Martin was great to work with. He was able to answer all my questions and made the process extremely smooth. I had a very complex transaction and I was truly impressed with Russell's ability to provide an acceptable solution. He and his assistant Karen Kawa were very responsive (weekends/nights) and we would not have closed the transaction as quickly as we did without their full attention. I could not have asked for a better experience. I would HIGHLY recommend using Russell Martin and his team. read more

Christina Ewing of PERL Mortgage was the reason for one of the most horrible experiences I've had in my life. For over two years CHRISTINA ensured my husband and I that we are eligible for a mortgage. We searched for property after property. Over fifty properties. Each time Christina would issue a letter of credit to be submitted with the offer. Finally, one of our offers was accepted. Christina called to say, I cannot finance you and hung up the phone. There was nothing that had changed with our credit. I could understand if there was a problem whereas we could not be financed. Then Christina could have told us that at the beginning of us meeting and requesting our finances. After two years of searching for properties, she continued to issue letters of credit while cheering us on to continue to look for properties. Christina never called to follow-up to explain what happened or why we were not able to be financed. Since this awful experience, we found another loan officer, Mark RAFF of IMORTGAGE who financed us with no problem. There was no change in our finances. Thank God for people like Mark RAFF at IMORTGAGE. He does exactly what he promises and in a timely Manner; Unlike Christina. My husband and I are happy and continuing on with our lives. read more

Wish we had better news about Perl. They were referred to us by our realtor who told us we'd get a better rate and lower closing costs. Man, are we chumps or what? We started out with Steve, who is a very nice guy. He assured us we would have no trouble getting the loan considering our high credit scores and huge down payment. Well, he was wrong. We kept getting handed off to other people and never heard from Steve again. And then we were put through the ringer. It was so frustrating that at one point, we considered scrapping the deal and renting for another year. We were asked to provide a ton of information (tax returns back to 2007? Come on) and there were times when our emails weren't received by whatever person we were working with. Up until 3 weeks before our closing, we didn't even know if we were getting our loan. And then with no communication for weeks, we show up at our closing to find out that our loan has already been sold to another bank. And not just any bank. Chase. If we had to pick the last bank on earth to have another mortgage with, it would be Chase. We had issues with them before and vowed to never have anything to do with them. So, after paying over $9,000 in closing costs, we are stuck in a very frustrating situation. Had we wanted to go with one of the big banks, we could have stuck with BofA where we have our accounts. They were begging us to get our loan through them and offering us discounts/cash back and the same rate as Perl. We never received a follow up from anyone at Perl, so I guess that's it! We are in the hospitality biz and when a client is unhappy, we go out of our way to fix it. Unfortunately, in the medical and financial fields, we just have to suck it up. The only thing we can do is spread the word. And we will. The only thing keeping us from giving one star is our initial contact with Steve. read more

Russell Martin and Karen Kawa at Perl Mortgage in River North were our mortgage pros when my wife and I recently financed and bought our first house. From beginning to end, Russell was very informative and thorough in his explanation of the various types of financing and loan options. He was never salesy, and he made it clear that it was his job to educate us and explain all the options and only to make recommendations, and never to push us toward a certain loan. The communication between he/Karen and us was always open and honest. I can be kind of a worrier and get anxious about such a major purchase, and he was never annoyed when I would as the same question five different ways. Additionally, we worked out some closing credits with the seller for some needed repairs, and he worked with us and our attorney to ensure that the terms of the deal and the terms of the closing credits would not and did not affect financing. Our loan sailed through underwriting, and that is due in large part to Russell. I will most definitely be back to work with Russell, Karen and Perl if/when we need another mortgage in the future. read more

PERL was great, I was a little disappointed the closing was 2 weeks delayed but otherwise smooth sailing. Brian, heather, Amanda and Amir are the ones I dealt with and everyone was great. Brian especially took time to explain things since this was a first home purchase for me. Will be back for a refi, thanks Perl!! read more

I have recommended Pamela Harambasic to a number of clients over many years, and she has handled each deal with skill, expertise, professionalism, and expediency. She's my mortgage guru! Many of my clients have refinanced with her over the years and have been very pleased. If you want your house to close on time with no hassle, contact Pam. I wholeheartedly recommend her! read more

Russell M was wonderful to work with for my first home purchase. I had a lot of questions and he answered them all promptly and helped me understand all the options that were available to me, and secured competitive rate. Karen and his team were very prompt and clear on all the steps involved and documents required. The whole process went smoothly all through to closing day. I would recommend Russell to family and friends. read more

Having purchased over 15 properties, I understand the process can be tedious. After reading a Terry Savage Chicago Sun Times newspaper article, we felt that Daniel Chookaszian was, if not the best, one of the best in handling the VA loan process. We had never taken advantage of the VA loan and wanted to on our next purchase. We first contacted Dan in 2010, but decided not to sale our home and proceed with a VA purchase at that time. However in 2014 we decided that the time was right to sale and buy another house. Dan was now working for PERL Mortgage. We were not as focused on the company as we were on Dan. We proceeded to do the loan application and had the preapproval (we both had excellent credit scores, steady income, and funds available) right away. When we finalized the contract with the sellers we were given a closing date of November 14, 2014. The date was agreeable, but yet close for us to be prepared for Thanksgiving guests that we had planned for the year before. As we approached the 14th, Dan advised us that we needed an extension for November 21. At the closing of the current residence we agreed to pay a daily rent through the 21st and there after a rate that was more than doubled. We were not majorly concern because we had believed that Dan was given us reasonable information. As the 21st approached we were then told that we probably would not close until the day before Thanksgiving. The actual closing did not happen until December 9, almost a month after the initial date given by Dan. Our issues: * Most of the communication was iniated by my calling. The communication was neither timely nor accurate from Dan or his team. * Supposedly there were three levels of review at PERL Mortgage. We had anticipated what documents would be required and submitted them quickly. There were several instances documents were requested that had been submitted. Dan, who supposedly knew VA loan processes did not know what VA wanted until after the file was submitted. The blame game became the norm after failing to meet the three promised closing dates. Our attorney was able to get one of the obstacles cleared in one phone call that Dan had indicated we could not get until the following week. * As a result of PERL Mortgage, Dan Chookaszian and team's ineptness, we incurred thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenses (possession expenses from our sale, storage expenses, and hotel expenses). Not one penny was offered to offset their mishandling of the file. There is no way to quantify the stress and anxiety caused by this experience. I would not recommend Dan or Perlmortgage to anyone. Over Promise and Under Deliver or just inept? Horrible Experience. The paper (loan) has been sold before the first payment. mlroyster read more