Countrywide Home Equity Loan - You Might Want To Look Elsewhere
Written: Jul 19 '07 (Updated Oct 21 '09)
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Pros: Pleasant employees; offered us the loan we wanted.
Cons: Employees too quick to try to close when paperwork was not ready.
The Bottom Line: While Countrywide provided us with the loan that we wanted, and the employees were pleasant to deal with, they seemed confused when problems arose.
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| Staceys1's Full Review: Countrywide |
My husband and I recently decided that it would be in our best financial interest to consolidate some of our debt, possibly with a home equity loan or line of credit. One evening we decided to visit www.lendingtree.com and fill out the application for a loan, to see just what we could quality for. Countrywide was one of the lenders who contacted us, and that is the company we chose to do business with.
The morning after we submitted our information online, a Countrywide representative contacted me via telephone. Little did I realize that this woman and I would become telephone buddies over the course of the following few weeks. She asked me basically the same information that we had submitted via the internet, in order to verify everything. However, I felt that I had wasted my time filling out the extensive online application, if I now had to spend thirty minutes on the telephone telling this woman the same things.
The following day I received a fax which very neatly spelling out the different items we wanted to consolidate, the rate Countrywide was offering and all of the fees and closing costs involved. Unfortunately, the numbers just did not add up. For example (using easy, made up, round numbers) we wanted to consolidate a loan for $5,000 and a credit card bill for $3,000, plus closing costs of $1,000, which equals a total of $9,000. The document we received had this amount totalling $7,500, so that all of the taxes and payments were based on an incorrect amount. We were not sure if Countrywide maybe was only offering us a loan for $7,500 or if we were missing something. After a telephone call to my representative, it was determined that there was indeed an error and a corrected loan offer of $9,000 was provided.
We attributed it to human error, and since the rate being offered was good, we decided to go ahead and begin the process of closing the loan. I called my representative on a Friday morning to tell her what we had decided and she rattled off a list of items that I needed to fax to her right away, because the sooner I could get them to her, the sooner we could close. I told her that made sense, but since my husband was at work, and unreachable, I was not sure if I could get everything to her immediately. Things like a contact name and number at my husband's place of work to verify his employment might take some time since he is a state employee so therefore "human resources" is probably not even located in the same region as we are.
During this telephone conversation she told me that she would need a credit card to bill $340 for an appraiser to come and evaluate our home. She stated that was the highest amount it could be, and if it turned out to cost less, we would be reimbursed. The appraisal actually ended up costing almost twice that since there was confusion somewhere along the way as to the type of house we have, which happens to be two-family, and very common in our area.
My representative repeatedly told me that we could close this loan within a few days, since everything looked good. Oh, but wait, she called back to say there was a problem with our credit report and there was an outstanding unpaid credit card bill from a few years ago. It ended up being another person with the same name as my husband, and it had actually been paid off and dismissed by the court, but it was up to us to make sure Countrywide received that information. Thank goodness my husband is in the legal field and knew exactly which department to contact to get this straightened out.
She called my home just as the appraiser arrived and told me that the appraisal reports are usually complete within forty-eight hours, that she would call me when she received it, and everything looked good to close within a few days. The next day, she called with another problem, and an apology. A title search on our home had two mortgages listed rather than one, and the current mortgage we had told her about was not listed. She apologized since Countrywide should have caught this earlier and if this could not be cleared up, then we could not close the loan. After digging through my old paperwork to show that we had a mortgage and taken out a line of credit, and then combined the two into one mortgage, since they were with the same company, she told me that was sufficient proof. Except that it was not, and I had to have my attorney speak to her and the title company to set everything straight. Eventually this problem was solved as well and apparently it was simply a case of things being done differently where I live than what the bank is accustomed to.
One week after I told Countrywide that we would be using their services, my representative called to tell me that the appraisal report had been received and we could schedule a time for the closing of the loan. As we had a busy week ahead of us, we set it for seven days from the time of the telephone call. Three days before the set closing we received a fax with various documents that needed to be signed and returned prior to the closing. We thought that everything was ready.
Two days prior to the closing, my representative called to apologize again, and stated that there was a problem with a statement on the appraisal report. Some wording that was used was not in line with what her underwriters would accept, and really, she was sorry because she should have caught it earlier, before the final review. At this point we did not have clearance to close, but she told me not to worry because she had a number of people working on it. Later that day, she said that I would have to contact the appraiser and ask that he re-word one sentence, since it is considered a conflict of interest if the lender and appraiser speak. We were not able to contact the appraiser until the next day (one day prior to closing), and we were told that nothing could be changed upon our request and that Countrywide would have to call. I told my representative that and she told me that she would see what she could do.
A few hours later, the closing agent called to confirm our appointment for the next evening. I asked if everything had been straightened out, and he told me that he was not aware of any problems. Based on this conversation, we believed that all was fine.
We had a 6:00 pm closing time, and at 11:00 a.m. that morning, my representative's supervisor called to say that we were still not clear to close. What??? The closing agent had told me that he had everything ready, but apparently Countrywide (and maybe other lenders?) send out packages to their closers prior to the final review, and the closers are not told that there might be a problem. I don't know how many telephone calls later, the underwriters finally agreed to accept a letter from us as homeowners clarifying the questionable statement in the appraisal, but this was now an hour after our scheduled closing - 7:00 on a Friday night.
At about 8:00 p.m. we were told (again) that we were clear to close, but now we had the problem that our rate would be expiring on Tuesday, leaving us only Monday night to get the paperwork signed. Fortunately we were available on Monday to meet with the closing agent, and finally we did get everything signed.
Overall my experience with Countrywide was frustrating. While the employees were pleasant, available for multiple telephone conversations during the course of the day, and quick to return telephone messages, I do not think that they are capable of handling anything out of the ordinary.
Had our credit report, title report and appraisal been standard with nothing out of the ordinary, all would have been well. I do not know if our Countrywide representative truly believed that all would be just fine, possibly based on our credit history, so did not bother to really read all of the documents (or pass them to the appropriate people)as she received them, or if truly, nobody else ever has a problem with any of their paperwork. Either way, the outcome was the same, which was that I was repeatedly assured that "everything looks good", when in fact, a few hours later I was in panic mode trying to get paperwork straightened out. In fact, as our representative stated, fortunately for us, my husband's job in the legal field helped us cut through red tape to get the documents and proof we needed quickly.
Since we began our quest for loan with Lending Tree, Countrywide really was soliciting us, and not the other way around. Unfortunately it seemed as if they were unfamiliar with common real estate and legal practices in our locality, and it caused me an enormous amount of stress and worry, until my husband and I were able to coordinate the solutions to various problems. Eventually, though, we did get the home equity loan that we wanted. The next time I am in need of a bank for a home loan or mortgage, however, I will not be looking to Countrywide for assistance.
Recommended:
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