First time home buyers need savvy professionals, representing all facets of the transaction, on…read moretheir team to advise them throughout the process. These trusted, and very well paid, partners also provide the peace of mind necessary to make the biggest financial decision of your life comfortably.
If you find yourself without a solid team, you simply cannot feel secure, and that's unfortunately what happened in my experience with Brian Cushing and his team. To this day, I'm still feeling extremely insecure in my decision to make this purchase through this company, and I cannot recommend anyone else do business with them either.
To be honest, my wife and I came to buy a house very quickly, and did not have time to do enough research about the loan process or choosing a lender. We trusted the recommendation of our real estate agent, and felt they would connect us to a professional mortgage group that would guide us through the process, and while this may have been the case for others, it certainly was not for us.
From the very beginning I felt that I Brian just wanted signatures in the appropriate places so the process could move along and he could get paid. I never once felt he was interested in helping us get the best rate, or cared if we understood any of the documents that needed to be signed.
It started with the credit check. Brian never offered any helpful tips on how we may quickly improve our score prior. For example, after the report he explained carrying a large balance on a card with a low limit hurts. Well, that's something that is easily and instantaneously fixed with a quick payment. While I know this may not be standard practice, it is the kind of advice you would expect from a trusted partner.
When it came time to sign documents, as was previously mentioned, Mr. Cushing has a very hurried and curt manner. We were actually warned about Mr. Cushing's style by our real estate agent's sister, who had the same problems we did. He set an appointment with us to sign papers and then rushed us through them because he had somewhere to be, which he made known. All of this resulted in fees showing up at closing that we'd never seen, and he had to pay.
He never made an attempt to be genuinely friendly either. Clearly referrals are not important.
The icing on this very sad cake came when I had questions about some specific figures on our final loan disclosures. I placed at least one phone call directly to his desk and sent two or three emails to him, which to this day, have never been responded to by Brian.
His team would respond to questions, but the responses were often unprofessional, with gross spelling errors (pre-pairing), and in a less than friendly, somewhat dismissive tone. For example, I couldn't even get an answer as to how we should prepare the checks for closing, or the fees associated with various methods of money transfer.
Keri Boston, a loan processor out of Las Vegas, was the only team member who helped explain anything, and she became my go to for information. Sad that it wasn't the Senior Loan Officer looking after his clients.
Throughout the process, the Cushing team made us feel valueless as customers, offered us no advice, and knew that we had to stick it out in order to buy the house. All they wanted was our money.
Now, just days before our first payment is due, more than 30 days after closing, I got a call from Brian. He wanted to check in, remind me that my payment is coming due, and asked for feedback.
Well, here it is...
