RPM Mortgage
Loan Process
I will admit I didn’t do my normal due diligence when starting the mortgage process here with RPM Mortgage.
I though my friend who is a mortgage broker couldn’t mess things up too badly, well from the beginning is a rough road.
Gave them 3 months to get it right, after 3 expired locks and numerous loan changes, I looked for another lender.
Even after starting 3 months later, my new lender (Guaranteed Rate) was able to get me approved and closed before RPM was….
From the beginning with RPM I had to go back and forth on rates, terms pricing, fees, just everything seemed more expensive than it should be.
But it was ok as long as I was able to get a loan.
THey kept telling me how difficult my case was, and how all of these delays were my fault.
I’m very organized and got them all of the documents, all of the multiple times they asked for them.
Poor communication, disorganization, caused me so much stress during this process I almost gave up and just kept my dramatically higher rate on my existing mortgage.
It didn’t need to be this way. Literally 4 months of going back and forth, sending and resending the most mundane of pieces of info.
IE what is deposit that says “paycheck” on it…….Me: like the other 8 months of banks statements you have thats my paycheck it comes every 2 weeks and says paycheck.
At once point I was even told I was approved and wired a 6 figure amount from my investments (taking a huge capital gain in the process) to be ready to close on time…….several days later of course there was a problem and we would have to look for another lend.
This was prob the 3rd time something like this had happened.
I don’t like having my money or time wasted. So looked for another lender.
WHo told me that I’d be the easiest case the would be closing this year. (I have equity and income…….and cash to play with points, loan amounts etc.)
Breezed though with new lender, I paid about 20% of the fees I was going to have to pay with RPM, and was able to qualify and close on a loan that was $100,000 larger than RPM was having trouble getting me qualified for.
I know different lender have different underwriting guidelines, but apparently I had applications with the same lender.
Guaranteed rate had no problem getting me approved for $870,000, where RPM couldn’t get me approved on a much smaller loan.
Only hiccup I had with new lender was when we were funding, I had to jump through some hoops to prove I wasn’t taking the loan with RPM, because they apparently didn’t close out my rate lock appropriately.
If you want the best rate, best terms, and a easy loan process look elsewhere.
Never again
I have been doing Escrow a long time and all kinds from Refi, REO and Purchase Escrow. I have dealt with many lenders over the years and I can tell you that Dean Wong and his team over at RPM Mortgage are top notch.
The communication level of him and his team was next level!! Sometimes I have the hardest time trying to get a hold of a lender to handle business but not with RPM Mortgage!! I like to get my work done and move to the next file and Dean’s team enabled me to do just that!
Some legal issues also arose.
Some legal issues also arose. We were required to sign the bottom of a form with a large blank area above; a request even the dumbest lawyer would refuse. The language of a will that created a brokerage trust account was not understood. Unfortunately, the norm in California is not to use a lawyer in a real estate purchase. If I had it to do again, I would have absolutely hired a lawyer to look out for my interests.
Michael reported credit scores for both my wife and I above 800. Our liquid assets are in excess of eight times the purchase price of the new condo. Our gross annual income is nearly as much as the mortgage we were seeking. Yet Michael could only obtain a mortgage rate .375 points above the current rate.
Would I recommend Michael and RPM? Even though our situation might not have been very simple and I know Michael works within rules he had no hand in creating, I cannot recommend him or RPM to handle the process of obtaining a mortgage. Their error filled work and gross ignorance can only lead one to conclude that RPM is a very substandard mortgage broker.
We were told, "Not all banks found your income to be acceptable."
We were told, “Not all banks found your income to be acceptable.” This was relating to “how the income was received and documented on your bank statements, tax returns, etc.”
This kind of double talk persisted for most of the time RPM was attempting to secure our mortgage. Had employees of RPM bothered to review more carefully information supplied, they would have noted that the bulk of our income is generated from tax-free municipal bonds and reported properly on our 1040 tax return. Other sources of income included Social Security and a NYC teacher’s pension.
Why a bank found these types of income unacceptable boggles the mind. Michael’s final response on this issue was “Therefore, I had to find a bank that would be ok with the way you structured the income trail to be satisfactory to conventional loan guidelines and not all banks were the same.” More double-talk?
Our brokerage account activity was provided as requested. The data clearly showed interest income well in excess of the withdrawal made for the down payment. How much more simple could this ‘income trail’ have been? Also questioned was the ability of the New York City Teacher Retirement System to make at least three years of payments.
This after a current certified accountant’s statement was provided; indicating assets in excess of 44 Billion dollars! RPM mortgage personnel did not know the difference between a co-op and a condo. There was even a question regarding our primary residence. Here is a quote that is positively unbelievable!
“Everybody has tried pulling a property profile for your co-op unit and we can’t find anything to show this address even exists, so that was part of the problem why the underwriter is asking for this paperwork.” Obviously, these people have less than basic internet search skills.
BUYER (of a second home) BEWARE
If you are planning to purchase a second home in California and your full-time residence is in another state (like New York) be prepared for a very rough ride. I do not know if the requirements we faced were unique to an out of state purchaser, resulted from the fact that this was a second home purchase or reflect new rules created by the very banks that brought our country to the brink of financial disaster through their own shoddy stewardship.
In any event, I discovered the current overzealous rules are mind-boggling. Another discovery I made involved the mortgage broker I used, RPM Mortgage. Their lack of basic financial and legal knowledge would mystify even the most uneducated person.
Let me begin by saying that Michael Abram, the agent we used, is nothing if not thorough. Several factors during the loan process led to confusion that could have easily been avoided had we been provided with a detailed schedule.
The lack of competent personal at RPM was apparent when they were unable to read and understand much of the documentation they requested. Questions were asked that were already answered within the supplied papers. Our experience was made more difficult due to the fact that after we provided all the documentation requested while in New York, we were asked for more information after flying to California.