Quicken Loans, come to your own conclusion...

Amen Paul! I never understand why anyone charges an "application fee" or money upfront for the purpose of the appraisal..I always have the appraisal paid at the door directly to the appraiser. Hopefully, people will get wise to all of this and stay away from them and realize that just because a company does alot of advertising/marketing, that it does not mean they will get good service and deal with a professional.

Ken - That new advertising banner nearly blinded me when I signed on this morning...

To me they are in the same boat as Lie-tech, Ameriquest etc... have picked up the broken pieces from QL messes a few times.

Agreed - Having the appraisal paid for at the door is the best way...removes any speculation that the mortgage company is in cahoots with the appraiser to "hit the number needed for value"

I am pretty surprised that QL is still kicking.

Dude, Ameriquest had to be the worst! I have actually had borrowers back out of refis because they got ripped off so bad by Ameriquest that they were completely gun shy about doing any business with anyone. And this after I drive out to the house, spend 2 hours go through the paperwork and guarantee what they see is what they get..

Its an absolute shame that people feel that way and it pains me to read those stories you posted. But I cant say I blame anyone for being angry and bitter, I cant even imagine being in that position.

Luckily for me, I have had the best loan officer in the world for all of my real estate transactions!!!

 I knew people that worked for Ameriquest and Quicken, the management there would pound them to do the ugly stuff they did. It was that way in many loan shops a few years back, tons of pressure to submit loans at any cost... "how many you got in your pipeline? what's your lender credit gonna be this month?"

Those tactics were self defeating though because they led to BIG Loan File fallout, hence wasted time, money and energy. It can be equated as such: If an auto repair shop works on ten cars in one day, and only gets paid to fix three, it will cause financial turmoil, cause them to charge the three people they get paid by 'more $' to compensate for the others... I don't miss those insane quota days of throwing loan submissions against the wall and hoping they stuck, don't miss the bullying emails, being made to come into the office on Saturdays/Sundays, etc. when the submission quota was not met... this type of mentality is what caused much of the mortgage mess to occur

Ken ... thanks for the compliment ... we'll close on your newest loan as well! 

Paul, beyond picking up the pieces, the good LO's suffer the rath of the borrower's frustrations.

PM & KK,

Quicken, Frickin' & Nod is not much different than any other marketing loan giant.  It is not possible to have "qualified" professional personnel with the consumer's best interests at heart in their respective local areas.  It's not really their fault.  Mounting pressure to convert leads, quotas, those inspirational Blacklight posters you showcased on another thread.  It's like that actor from the GLASS HOUSE of Ditech... recommending another GM product ... This time FIXED.. "Uh, why yes sir, thank you for calling GMLitech... I understand your household bills have gone up a tad with the recent 0.99% ARM product we placed you in 3 years ago that allowed you to purchase one of our safest vehicles, The HUMMER H-8, coincidentally, the 2nd number is the MPG...  So now what we can do for you is be transparent today and advise you to go FIXED and get a GEO.."   They Boiler room sell what they are fed.  We can scrap with the best of the steamers and their product lines which I choose not to as it is simply a business model of production, but if you desire to go down that road, I usually have company + 3 cups of coffee, so lighten up there Francis (BOILER ROOM BROKERS)...  You guys (PM & KK) are the good guys so take back your towns!!!

  MW...you have your rocket pack cranked up high for sure
It was a gut twisting week in the trenches but I woke up today refreshed and ready to save the world...was looking for a villain to take out and BAM saw that QL banner... (which is gone now... would like to think it was made 'quick' work of...but it will be back)

Hard to imagine what will become of all those hummers, maybe they should dump them off the coast of so cal to be used as artificial reefs...that mentality is trendy these days ya know?

You are  lucky Paul! Only objective is to save the world...I have this damned "honey do" list to tackle while wife is out of town for the weekend.

Wayne T - I hear ya... when I was a kid, for a bit ,we had horses in the country, every year when deer hunting season came around we would outfit them with bright orange bridals... to keep them from being mistaken for bambi and friends...

not as clear a solution for us, we can only do what is right every day

Ken - I would take the HD list for an occassional weekend of solitude I think... speaking of which... time to go to Home Depot

Have fun

I knew a kid that worked at Ameriquest portfolio retention in Sacramento - friends with my son. Lots of pressure there but they did a LOT of loans. His biggest month in revenue was 256000.00 with 6 million in volume - over 104 pricing average.

With research and questions home buyers and home owners can avoid this HIGH RATE, HIGH FEE companies that give the entire industry a bad name.  I encourage consumers to do your research and insist on talking to 1-2 recent previously closed borrowers.

 Kat,
Whew...6 mil, that is cranking... I bet he got to keep at least $5000 for himself, jk

Ameriquest was notorious for sliding in a prepay at the very tail end of the deal...poor folks didn't even know it was there much of the time, so many times I heard..."huh, I have a prepayment penalty?" 

 You were up late last night quoting aay.... you certainly work hard I will give you that Kat

He was actually the highest revenue producing LO for Ameriquest in the nation. There was one other kid there that did, and this is NOT a typo, 40 loans at over 9 million in volume in one month, but his execution was low and didn't break the revenue record. Apparently used to sleep under his desk at the office and wake up first thing to start working again. I used to hear all the news of that place. The figures are true though - I have talked with multiple people that worked with the guys. They were notorious for the 2/28's with the 3 year prepays.

Yeah was up quoting late last night - not much else to do :)

IMHO , Quicken loans modelled themselves off the Ameriquest model.

Its a chop shop, where you hire 20 year olds with a clip on tie, market yourself as a 'direct lender' with your CML licence (much like Ditech).

You then 'nail down ' the client by insisting they cough up an application fee of hundreds of dollars right over the phone on the first contact. This way they wont shop the mortgage around.

They 'claim' to give back or credit the fee to the appraisal, but there have been thousands of complaints over the years where the clip on tie loan officer tried to save the loan by denying the request.

The loan officers dont get the thousands of profit per loan. They get peanuts. Salary plus bonus based on quota fees per month. They have supervisors pacing back and forth telling them all to 'dial for dollars' . Cmon people!! Smile and Dial !!!

lol......

Ok.....no Im not the biggest fan of Quicken. Nor Ditech, Nor Ameriquest or the dozens of other sweatshops.

Let's Not Forget the Famous Jingle written for such empires of Financelery:

"Shocked with my ARM and you're to blame..

Darlin, You Give Loans A Bad Name"

Coyne, couple questions regarding your profile..

I specialize in helping homeowners and perspective home buyers with quick and professional service. I have been recognized as one of the leading mortgage providers in 2008 for the Baltimore Area! I also take pride in our company's Green Intiative to go paperless, recycle and be involved in our communities.

1. Who recognized you as one of the leading mortgage providers in Baltimore?

2. If your company is paperless, does the borrower receive/ sign RESPA discloures and do they sign loan docs and receive copies of everything they sign?

MC - Welcome to ZMM

Kat - Do you remember So cal 'Instafi', the stories I heard coming out of that shop were right up there with Scarface

Tom - you always know how to put things into perspective...a true gift.

a long those same lines...

MW - That is one of your best riffs ever...got me cracking up, still grinning from ear to ear.

...amazed that the blinking QL banner is still gone...

off to watch jr play bskball

EMC,

Welcome to the hood.  Most folks will not speak with previous customers or AmeriQuickTech would not be in business at all.  The thought is noble, though.. Link to the site... drop the s from your hyperlink. Bring excellence without pandering and you'll be just fine.  Personally, I never can understand representing A through D- credit, but then again, I'm old school and prefer specialization.  Maybe I'll try taking my old (and it's a '98 everyone) BMW to the YUGO dealer for service or my dentist can perform a heart transplant for me.  Just pickin' at the shtick because we are the only profession that specializes in Mobile Homes in Foreclosure ACORN assistance Modification loans and "A" paper.  It is just a funny about it, but I never seem to see the foreclosure victims at the same dinner parties.  Welcome aboard and keep it real and help some in need.

Martin, bad things do happen to good people and the credit score is not representative of what type of person the borrower is. I have met plenty of 720+ borrowers that I would prefer not to help with a loan b/c they were such a$$holes.

Packaging a loan whether it be for a 560 borrower with mortgage lates or 810 borrower who walks on water is really not analogy for going to the dentist for a heart transplant.

I know you are kidding around but you know you will always hit a sore spot with me on that as I pride myself in being a mortgage consultant who can handle almost any type of loan with any type of borrower.

Don't get sore about that. Higher scores can be higher air inhalers... understood fully.  I really like them simply because I have one less variable to deal with (approval on their behalf). You know who I am targeting in my commentary.. It is simply the person who never did do an "A" paper loan until all the rungs on the ladder burned off.  I am direct so don't put yourself in that category just because you can handle numerous lending scenarios.  You know I think more highly of you than that and would not take a public forum to tussle with you about different ideals.  It's all good.  Finally, you know I have praised many in all facets of lending as there were some great subprime lenders/brokers just as much as "A".  Good and bad in every part. For clarity, it was aimed at the larger shops with 500 lenders and cures with minimal experience that's all. Keep rockin'.

Folks love quoting high balance loans and high fico folks.

That hasnt changed since the invention of the fico.

The part that I don't like about it is many "Brokers" don't like "A" for the reason that it is a lower margin loan comparative to FHA and portfolio lending.  Got a call about a $350K FHA loan last week... $13K in income... Never would happen in "A" world... NEVER.  Good for  Broker.  However like moths to a flame...all walks of Broker life will quote and represent themselves to that client as a wizard of their situation and that they were put on this earth to specifically serve the client and their needs and 2 things happen in the blind quote world:  1) Client throws out the Low"ball" quote not believing it.. 2) The client thinks he/she does not need Renuzit after his/her bidet and contacts lowball jones and ends up closing at a market rate/income that any of us could write.  That's what makes this mystical mortgage business so great.

I am currently in process of refi. with Quicken, and I will tell you they are the most upfront than we have had dealing with our broker Shanna or even our current 80% loan lender(ASC-wells fargo) Yes, I named them because for one the broker put us thru hell on the back burner with over 2 months to handle a refi, and didn't. Then our lender...well they just simply decided they'd rather see us crash and burn with our mortgage than find a solution.

In a little over a week we were VHA approved, had a new appraisal, and looking to close by the end of the month. All with a very fair closing and 30 yr fixed rate. Sure, we gave them $300 for the credit and appraisal(which, we will receive the appraisal fee back after closing). So right now, I have to tell you...they have been the best to us when no one else would go the extra step because we are cookie-cutter in $$$ to them.

oops, FHA  ;)

 robandregina,
If you are 'cookie cutter scenario' it is a wonder that Shanna could not close your loan..? Was it an appraisal issue? Income? Savings? etc??? In any case, sorry to hear you have had a spun around experience trying to refi and also attempting to negotiate with your current lender.

I will tell you that neither loan agent nor consumer can rest [in any case] until after the loan has FUNDED (especially these days). Many reasons for this, but first to come to mind here is that if your previous appraisal had a value stamp higher then the new appraisal, there's always a chance that appraiser two was over zealous and that the new appraised value may be hacked down through an appraisal review...or maybe the broker would not release the first appraisal? Perhaps you are able to get to higher loan to home value now?? Hard to tell a lot, but there could be other potential issues between now and closing that maybe Shanna has already encountered(?)

So, do us a favor and come back on here after you close and receive your appraisal fee back, ...it would be great to know that you have made it through the most recent refi journey to a happy ending and that this apparent past abuser of lending ethics is straightening up it's act... hope to hear that you were not like the many others whom have been taking down the dark Quicken road

Best wishes

Why would they get the appraisal fee back? Doesn't that go to the appraiser???

 aay Velma,

I think it is more of a "you ain't going no where partner" bail bond type fee...

the consumer complaints indicates that many were not refunded the 'upfront fee' as promised.

wonder if in some of the cases if it never even makes it to the appraisal stage... free money for Quicken I guess

Apparently Quicken pays the appraiser directly, this opens the door for (as touched on above) the possibility of potential assumptions of them 'being in cahoots with the appraiser'

and if it is 'their' appraiser, ...guess there is not much chance of an appraisal review...

wow. I say soomething nice, and I get a hit.

If things went wrong, etc..money for the appraisal came back regardless. Like with our lender, we did a $350 deposit for appraial and credit check, and then when I pulled from them because I was starting to get a bad feeling(change of quote,etc) I got the $323 back.

As for Shanna. I'll tell you exactly her problem. She worried too much about her getting her own home, and thinking we had "plenty of time" to wait and move on a lender out there, that she forced us to start paying the 2 yr ARM, over 2 months later. When all I got was from her every call, 3 hrs. sitting in her office after the fact was a run around. It was finally turned over  to another person, but at this point we were going on our own. It was a matter of laziness and greed because they wanted the first appraisal to come back 10k higher. We were fine with what it did come back with. She just simply didn't do her job!!!!!!

We pay the appraiser, but as a bonus to us after closing we get that money back as a thank you gift.There are a lot of shady bad brokers/lenders/etc.. out there. Instead of shooting people down before you hear all the good things then maybe just say nothing at all. Because I guarantee I can go on the internet and find bad with just about anyone in the business.

I will be back to let you all know how it goes. Thank you for your time.

So, during the process you basically pay two appraisal fees??  One directly to the appraiser and a 2nd one to Quicken in the form of an application fee?

I would post your GFE here and make sure you are truly getting a good deal.  I have been against Quicken before (had a client who was shopping rates) and it took me about 10 minutes of speaking with the client for them to fire Quicken.  I am not saying anything bad about Quicken as a hole, but I don't believe most of their agents are really that 'up' on the market.

I am sorry to hear about the ASC-Wells issue.