This is an updated post that I originally wrote back in 2014. I just had another instance where a large national bank dropped the ball created endless stress and expense for my buyers.

My buyers told me they were getting financing from a large bank where they had all their accounts in the mid west. I warned them that their bank may have trouble closing on time. They said they knew the loan officer for years and he assured them he could do loans in Florida.

First the bank said they didn’t need a survey. Technically maybe they didn’t but if you don’t get a survey in Florida there is an exclusion on the title insurance noting there was no survey provided and the bank’s underwriters won’t approve a mortgage with an exclusion like that on the title insurance. Someone sat the bank should have known that. I had to tell the buyers who in turn had to almost fight the bank over something they should have known.

Secondly the bank at first said they didn’t need an appraisal. I told my buyers that was really odd and they should double check with their loan officer. Then the bank decided they did need an appraisal and it was not ordered on time. The appraisal didn’t come back until almost 2 weeks after our closing date. In Florida we set a firm closing date and need to get an extension signed by all parties to extend that date. The seller was frustrated but agreed to 2 extensions.

My buyers were rightfully frustrated. They had to live in a hotel for 2 weeks and their furniture had to be put in storage. They suffered over $3000- in expenses all because this large national bank was incompetent.

Below from a July 23 2014 post.

This isn’t some generic blog post about 10 things to look for when picking a lender. Instead I have a couple of real estate war stories about things that happened to buyers I have known.

In one instance my buyer’s daughter was a VP with a national lender. Just before closing the bank decided to question the private roads in On Top of the World a 30 year old community that bank had been granting mortgages in for all those years. Why ? Because one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.

In another instance my buyer had a house to sell and we made a contract contingent on the successful closing of his existing home. The buyer for his existing home was getting an FHA mortgage. The bank said they couldn’t close on time. After not closing on time the bank decided to ask for a water test on the home’s well. Something they should have done a month before ! This held up the closing for 10 more days. My buyer was already packed and ended up staying in a motel waiting for his house up north to finally close.

My point here is that there is more to consider when picking a lender than interest rates. Depending on your credit there shouldn’t be a big difference between one bank’s interest rates and another. There can be a big difference in service.