We started the refinancing process back in November. The loan officer seemed nice and professional, and we hand delivered all the required documents by December 17. We received an email from loan processor A on December 22 introducing herself to us, and on December 30 she confirmed she had everything she needed – and we never heard from her again.
On Jan 20 – a whole month later – I emailed loan processor A to find out the status of our refinance application. I received a reply that she would be out of the office until Jan 10 – ten days earlier. Her out-of-office email indicated loan processor B as an alternate contact. I contacted loan processor B and received another out-of-office email – this time loan processor B was going to be out of office for THREE MONTHS beginning Jan 18, and her alternate contact was – guess who – loan processor A.
We called the branch office and spoke with the assistant branch manager – and it turns out that our loan officer had LEFT Bank of America – and the next point of contact was her assistant. At this point we had already paid $495 for credit check and appraisal and had the appraisal done – and they asked us where the appraisal was.
After yet another week of the assistant and loan processor C (yes, a third one) fumbling around with our application, they go back and forth about the fact that our loan was an FHA loan and where is our FHA condo approval – and they find out our condo is not yet FHA approved.
Feb 15 I get an email from loan processor C that FHA never received a reply from our condo association (we didn’t even know they would be contacting the association) and that the “condo project” was canceled. I can only assume that it referred to our refinance application.
So now we’re trying to get hold of SOME supervisor to just get our money back and forget refinancing with them – and of course all we get is their voicemail.
update March 3 2011:
Because of the $495 deposit we put down and the fact that interest rates have gone up, we tried to power through the idiocy. Despite being informed by some friends who also work in Bank of America that they contacted the loan processor C – Terry Jordan’s boss and they would contact us – we received nothing except more communication from Mr. Jordan.
The next hurdle was FHA condo approval, and we received a whole list of documents they needed from the condo association. Since ours is a very small condo with a very informal board, we tried to help compile the documents on the list. Which included a FEMA flood map and a Title Report.
We didn’t know then that these documents are typically taken care of by the loan processor – why they asked US for them, I have no idea. They even included a convoluted instruction sheet on how to create the flood map document from the FEMA web site.
Here is a perfect example of the sort of moronic response we get:
Our condo secretary:
Please confirm that the attached addresses your concern number 2600. Once I receive confirmation that it’s completed to your satisfaction I will submit a signed copy.
2600. HOA Cert- HOA representative to complete all sections and resubmit; Project Name as appears on the Declaration must be entered. #2, if N/A, please check N/A; #10 Please give the breakdown of units. Please differentiate between the Commercial and Residential Units.
In response to 2810, there is no management agreement as the HOA is in fact self managed.
And Terry Jordan’s response?
Yes the below is the address
[insert our condo building address here]
So STAY AWAY FROM BANK OF AMERICA.
update 2011-03-20:
We got them to agree to a refund – only after pointing out that two units in our condo were being listed at a value lower than our loan amount, and that they would save themselves an appraisal fee if they just cut things off now instead of wait until our loan gets denied and then give us the refund.
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