Wells Fargo..........What can I say?!?!?!?

I am having an issue with Wells Fargo. I do not know if it is entirely their fault as the same problem seems to arise with whatever lender I happen to be dealing with.

Here is how most lending processes go: Your first interaction is with a loan officer. They are the customer service individual who blows lots of sunshine your direction to make sure you do not choose the competition. I liken to compare them to Best Buy. You know how the customer service reps try so hard to sell you the extended warranty. They use the oldest marketing technique in the world to frighten you about the "What If". If you have ever returned anything to Best Buy you know that the two departments are night and day. Well the same thing with mortgage companies.

Once you find a home (and get an offer accepted after multiple bids) your file is now transferred to a loan processor. The loan processor is in charge of verifying all the things you claimed on the credit application and gathering all additional information to prepare the file for the next person. Forget it if you told the loan officer anything on your file. Most likely they never told the loan processor.

Once every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed the file moves to final underwriting. This is the big kahuna of the loan process. This person can either kill the deal, make your life (and your clients) living Hell, or ride smooth like butter (rarely happens). I guarantee that your file and all underwriting guidelines have changed dramatically by the time you originally talked with the loan officer.

My complaint. Total and utter lack of attention and communication within this loan process. These lenders have no accountability to the purchase contract as a legally binding document. They move when they want, they call when they want, they do as they please when they want because it isn't costing them anything.

I recently had a file where the seller wrote in the addendum's to the accepted purchase offer that they would charge a $100 per diem for every day the file did not close over the contract close of escrow date. This is not new in itself as the sellers (banks) have been writing that in for the last couple of years but they never follow through. Kind of like those parents who are constantly threatening their children to do something if they do not behave but never follow through with the punishment.

Well I had a file where the seller is enforcing this per diem charge. Not only that but they are charging ME $300 to request a close of escrow extension. From day one, knowing how the lending process works, I have been in contact with my buyers lender making sure that every person in the journey knew about the charges. Never an acknowledgment like "Yes, we value Ms. "X"'s as a client and will do everything in our power to close this early just in case the unforeseen happens at the last minute (which always occur). Nope, none of that, no communication. They just him/haw along as business as usual totally ignoring my cautions and warnings.

So here is close of escrow and the seller is charging my buyers the $100 a day. I emailed the lender and ask them how much longer they needed so I could inform their "valued" customer how much they were going to have to pay at $100 a day due to Wells Fargo's lack of attention to the file.

Of course, the finger pointing started (non productive) and a varied list of excuses now graced my ears all of which could have been taken care of with proper communication. I even had the loan officer email me and say "As A Broker, You should understand the market we are in". Whatever,... I told him complacency was a short cut to the unemployment line. Furthermore, Lenders and Realtors are a dime a dozen. It is all about customer service and professionalism none of which they have shown their "valued" customer of 30+ years. Yet today I received ANOTHER condition to the final approval of the 3 that have already been requested. It would be to efficient to give them to me all at the same time so "our" client can work on them all. Nope, one at a time because what is another day to them. It is not their $100 a day they have to pay.

So tonight I am in Cabo San Lucas Mexico on vacation and having to deal with an incompetent/arrogant lender who could care less about their "valued" customer.

Buyer Beware.

ipad review

I must be the only person on earth that does not understand Apple's new Ipad. The wireless card on my laptop crashed. After several hours to no avail my I.T guy said it was a lost cause. It just so happened that day I attended an awards conference coordinated by WEMAR (West Maricopa Regional Assoc. of Realtors). Low and behold I saw a familiar face. This familiar face had an Ipad. Everyone wanted to see it. I am not an Apple fan AND I wanted to see it. So for the duration of the conference I googled over his ipad.

Netbook or Ipad. Netbook $269, ipad $499. I justified the extra money as maybe I would not have to upgrade my computer in a couple years. Since I have never heard an Apple owner complain of their computer crashing over a driver failure or virus, I considered this foreign being. So I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find a store that had one. Best Buy, no. Apple store, yes! But....I was told to hurry because they were going quick. Never tell a women to hurry because they are going quick. You wonder who those crazy people are driving on the freeway. Its a women driving because someone told her something was on sale and they were going quick!

I was leaving the next morning on vacation and thought what an opportunity to learn this new technology. I drove the 45 minutes to the Apple store. It was packed. Everyone was playing on the demo ipads. The associate informed me they had one more left. Feeling kind of special, I paraded through the store with it. As he did his thing on the computer for me to purchase it I informed him I needed the wireless keyboard. He said sure. I asked him if the usb jack is in the box or do I need to buy it separately. I could tell this was going to be a nickel and dime thing. As he typed on the computer to ring me up he informed me that it is not in the box and it is not coming out for another 6 months. sigh of disappointment.

I admit. I did not do my research on this thing. I just figured since it was such a hot commodity, there had to be a reason. So as I looked at him very dumbfounded, I asked well how do I sync my blackberry? (you can laugh at my expense) He said I couldn't. I think the utter look of a deer in headlights must have been the expression on my face.

I started thinking of all the things I use a USB port for. My camera, magicjack, my printer, portable drives....
Again I asked him what about all of these things just in case I missed something again. It was not getting any better. He informed me that the ipad is not meant to be a computer. Huh?!?!?!? So I asked him what am I paying $500 for and what can I do with it. He took me to a demo and showed me a nifty calendar and all it could do. Wow, I was impressed now.................(not).

I told him I meet clients on the fly, I need them to sign docs electronically through the computer, I have to do analysis on the fly, cma's, write up offers, addendums, counters.......so how do I do all that on this? He said I can not download anything but Apple Apps. I can not download sharper agent (my flyer creator), toolkitcma (my cma and buyer presentation program), justsnooping (my virtual tour provider), or any of the other websites I use to advertise on that need a program download. I am a pdf creator/merger/extractor fanatic. The only pdf function I can do is open a pdf. I can not even dowload it. Seriously beyond confusion. I look around the other demo's to see what people are doing on them. Playing games. I had to ask. Are people paying $500 to play games on this?

So either I got a really bad Apple associate or this ipad is not for Real Estate agents. They promote their mobility. Who is more mobile then a Realtor? I did not see one function that could possible make my life more efficient or effective. I could not believe that something that is so marketed toward mobile business professionals and all it really was is another version of the iphone on steriods.

So with major disappointment (mad at myself for following the crowd and not researching it first) I handed the ipad back to the associate. He took it back with great pride. I went to Best Buy and purchased a netbook. Best part, Best buy gave me a $45 gift certificate so total was $230 and some change. I even got 3 usb ports!