Rate Mortgage Reviews

They have made a single mother and 4 girls face homelessness because they neglected to do their due diligence and underwrite the file properly. Christoper Jacob ** is a seriously liar. He told me he had my part time income and it was considered. That was a lie because I never gave them that information. Mary had it out for me in the beginning as she is a racist bigot. She was determined to see this loan denied. I am following up legally because they should not be allowed to get away with this. After just settling a lawsuit for 15K one would think they would be more careful with how they treat their customers, not write high cost loans, and have qualified DE underwriters. My goal is to strip each and every one of their certifications, and to make sure the loan originator is not able to write bogus loans in the future. If they had any integrity at all, they would resolve the issue and relook at the information and request the proper information.

From 6/22 to 7/20 I sent emails with no response whatsoever - one email asking that someone PLEASE respond with the status of this refinance. On 7/20 I received an email apologizing, and saying "I'm rushing the updated closing disclosures and will be sending those over to you shortly". I actually expected that "shortly" meant that day. Nothing. 7/22 sent email with no response. On 7/26 sent email with no response. 7/29 I was asked for my pay stub (this was the 3rd pay stub I had sent during this process). 8/10 I was given the numbers over the phone and asked to sign the document. I did sign, but requested this in writing, which I never did receive.

On 8/19 I sent the loan officer the above run-down, "I understand your frustration - forwarding to the production manager". Said he was working on my rate extension "tonight" for a closing 8/25 - "keep your eyes and ears out". 9/1 no totals in writing, no communication from them. Sent email. Finally on 9/8 I reached out to say that I was done. Absolutely done. I have great credit scores, sent in a total of 3 pay stubs, responded immediately to any correspondence, and I am done. What a huge waste of time. 0 stars.

When my LOs manager called me he 1. Told me I should be grateful he called because he was on vacation and 2. If I don’t like how things are going I can take my docs and go try and get approved elsewhere.... I’m not exaggerating.. Verbatim. I am at a loss. I have reached out to his manager and I am hoping he can help. To make matters worse my husband is active duty military. I can’t believe they can do this to people.... There are lenders out there that care and will make sure you close on time, communicate and will provide great service. This whole process has been a nightmare.

We frantically tried to get a hold of the loan officer who did not return our calls or emails until 9pm at which time he emailed confirming he would lower the loan by 1 point with an exception. The following day this was not honored nor was an explanation given as to why. Negligently making false representations in order to induce us into signing a document we were not comfortable with. We escalated the issue to his manager who informed us that WE were liars and that there was nothing he was willing to do to help. We copied the CEO, Victor Ciardelli who was also not responsive. Unfortunately we could not get a response from him or his manager and we needed to make a decision about purchasing the property. Now we are out $7,000 dollars because of this incompetence and neglect. We have filed a complaint with the CFPB and advice any AGAINST engaging with this company for any reason.

Overall, I was denied the loan due to being on FMLA and not having an income for 3 weeks, spite me having two jobs and a spouse that has an income as well. Also the fact that they knew MONTHS ahead of time that I would be out those 3 weeks with no pay. On top of that the lender never called and said we were not approved, we learned from the realtors via TEXT message. Negligence on top of negligence and just all around poor customer service. Unfortunately I have to give them a one star...not even deserving of. Please avoid and stay away from this company and trust the reviews!

On August 4, an email was received indicating that a payment double the amount of a monthly payment was received, though only one monthly payment was posted to my bank account. I called customer service on August 4 and was told that the payment second would not be canceled, and I would have to wait to refund the payment, which would require waiting 10 days then emailing documentation of the withdrawal to customer service. Details on the type of documentation to be sent in were not given, and I was told that it would take a minimum of 48 hours before the email would be even be opened by a customer service representative, that no notification of the email being received would be given, and that I would have to wait for a written letter if there was an issue with the information I sent. No timeline for how long this would all take was given.

On August 6, 2020, a second payment was posted to my bank account and an email was sent to customer service, for which no reply was received, and another call was made to customer service. Customer service again indicated I had no choice but to wait to apply for a refund, no exception could be made for any issues, and that any communication would be sent to me via posted mail. It is unacceptable that Guaranteed Rate be so shady in their payment posting, refund and cancellation practices.

We were supposed to only need to bring $250 to close. They sent us the email with this amount in writing and we thought we were all set. We even confirmed this number multiple times over the phone with both Eric and Maria. We submitted our paperwork, checked in a couple of times, but chose to trust the process. After all, they promised us that they LOVED first time home buyers and would “hold our hands” thought the whole thing.

Fast forward to a week before we close. The paperwork we sent in (which is exactly what they asked for) was not sufficient. They wouldn’t be able to take the earnest money and we would have to bring another 2.2k to closing if we wanted the house. That or we could get my parents (who are still listed on my bank account because I haven’t bothered to update the account that I got when I was 16) to sign a fraudulent document that they would submit to the government (because VA loan). However our realtor stepped in and that got figured out. We confirmed what we needed to bring to closing and called it a stressful day. But it was figured out and we would be fine.

THEN - on the DAY OF CLOSING- they called to tell us we needed to bring another 1k to closing. We asked why and they said that our home owners insurance was $500 more than they quoted. 1) It wasn’t. 2) How does $500 turn into 1k? 3) We were told the insurance would be paid monthly by our escrow anyway. When I was upset - citing that this was the second time we were informed of something last min (the issue with the paperwork above delayed our closing from a 9am timeslot to a 2pm timeslot which threw half our day we planned to move down the drain). Maria said (and this was an hour before closing) that it was NOT last minute. Not to mention this was 15 min before an interview that I absolutely tanked and missed out on a promotion. (I did not have to be at signing as my partner and I are not married so I couldn’t be on the VA loan.) Obviously this is correlation and not causation, but it cannot be ignored either.

Additionally, Maria touted how they spent FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS buying down our rate as if they were saints who took the money out of their own pocket to get the rate they said we qualified for. As someone who works in finance, they did not take this money out of their pocket. This “money” is from their company for them to write exceptions to keep business. It’s also interesting that 500 from the supposed markup in home owners insurance plus the 400 they supposedly spent buying down our rate is quite close to that 1k Markup in closing costs...

But we scrounge the 1k up- putting off orders for a security system and other things we had planned to purchase and install. We delayed getting the pest control out until we got paid again and my dogs were practically eaten by ants in the meantime. We weren’t happy, but we weren’t homeless. I was happy to write my three star review to warn others about the process and move on.

So why is my review 1 star? Well because they made a horrid attempt at “making it better”. I guess Maria and Eric could read how pissed my partner and I were. So they told their boss that damage control needed to be done. Said boss called us and apologized profusely and they asked us “how can I make this right” and asked what we had to put off buying because of the sudden increase in closing costs. We were honest. There was a lot. But most importantly we had to put off buying a security system (which means we have to put off taking out those horrid bushes that people in the 80s thought was a clever way to keep intruders from entering your from window). A short, awkward conversation later she said “well let me get the other side of the story and we’ll see what we can do.“

It’s been two weeks. No phone call. No email. Nothing. Nothing to make it better. If you’re not even going to try, why make the call?! If what we needed was too much, why not offer something in the middle???? The whole thing just puts a scammy taste in my mouth. When we sell for our final forever home in 5-10 years, I PROMISE we will not be going through this company.

6/19/20 she says I may not qualify w/ USDA and maybe not even FHA, and even if I could go FHA, I'd need 3.5% plus closing costs.. How did I go from being pre-qualified and locked in at 3.25% to "I might not be able to finance you?" My credit is good and better than it was when I pre-qualified, so it's not that! I held up my end of the bargain, and now I get this?!? So because of them, I could lose $2k earnest, $300 inspection, the home of my dreams, and be out of a place to live?!? What kind of business is this?!? I wish I had seen these reviews prior to getting involved with this company, bc sadly, they are an accurate reflection of this company. If you see this review..do yourself a favor and AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!

Original Review: June 19, 2020

So I was affected by the Covid-19, my employer reduced our salary by 20% for 8 weeks. I applied for the forbearance (Covid-19) but in the mix of all this going on they sold my account to another company. My application was never processed by them and they also put me being 30 days late on my credit report. My new mortgage servicer has me being delinquent on on my brand new just brought over account with them also. Guaranteed Rate, I really don't know what to think of them now.

He responded with petty insinuations that I should be happy with the rate I got, and that Guaranteed Rate even took my business at all, and that his credentials make him above question. And that they got me the close date I wanted. In short, he did not address my inquiry at all, just pushed back with passive aggressive weirdness. Thomas ** did not even begin the process of looking into whether I would qualify for a lower rate or not. (And if I didn't qualify I was fine with that, I just wanted to know either way.) He took my inquiry personally and all I got was a terse attitude.

His teammate Jeremy ** was just as unprofessional -- it was like they took my benign inquiry (about a feature that GR offers its clients) as some kind of affront, and tried to make me feel like I was being some ungrateful cheapskate. All for doing something that ANYONE would do: take them up on their OFFER to lower their rate when applicable.

Communication was terrible. We were never on the same page. They even asked to speak with my lawyer directly more than once, costing me several hundreds of dollars, because they didn't understand or believe the conditions of my divorce I had already explained. I was told on several instances that everything was complete and that I would be cleared to close but issues kept coming up. I asked several times if there was anything else outstanding in my file preventing the clear to close and was told no. I found out days later that they had been unable to verify my homeowners insurance for 3 weeks. One quick phone call and this issue could have been fixed weeks earlier. This was just one example of several communication issues.

For a company who claims to make the security of personal information a priority and have a completely secure online process, this was also a major problem. I was asked to send my personal information including bank statements to three different people via email and when I attempted to use the secure portal I was told not to. When my Dad asked to submit his personal information via a secure portal, he was told that the account was not set up for that and was requested to also send his personal information via email.

Through the whole process I never felt like a priority. They were unable to close my loan prior to the expiration of my rate lock, forcing an extension. They constantly blamed the COVID19 situation for their delays. After 4 months and a week past my anticipated closing date I returned a phone call only to be told they would call me back at end of business day because they were busy closing another client's file.

I absolutely will never use this company again and do not recommend them. If I wasn't so far into the process and wanting my divorce to just be finalized after a year long battle I would have canceled my application and gone with another lender. Unfortunately, I had to meet a deadline as a condition of my divorce or sell my home. They made it impossible for me to switch lenders so late in the game.

I get my first payment slip for them and the numbers a screwed up, so I pay them and 3 days later I received another payment slip from Suntrust that bought my loan from them. I call G.R.A. To send my payment over to them and they say can’t til it’s due?? What I pay you to pay them not for you to hold my money to make interest for yourself then send it when it due. They should sent it when I want it paid. I am just trying to make sure my mortgage was paid to the right people during a national crisis. And they don’t care about you or what happened try rocket mortgage. Bottom line go to a bank cut these losers out..

Original Review: March 16, 2020

They wasted my time for 2 months and we're completely unreasonable & unprofessional. Stay away, if I could give a negative score I would. I had another lender I was working worth and trusted these guys based on the lies they told me: that was a terrible mistake. My fico is 800+ and income is fine yet they couldn't get the loan processed after months of back and forth despite me meeting all requirements and giving them everything they asked for. Don't waste your time, go with someone else and stay away from Guaranteed Rate; they are nothing but a headache. I sincerely regret giving these guys an opportunity to serve my needs. Bunch of amateurs.

It was so underhanded on Guaranteed Rate's part. The amount was small enough where you could hardly notice it was there in the midst of other fees. When I called Guaranteed Rate at closing to confront them about the purchase. The manager told me that I shouldn't be upset seeing that my loan officer had worked really hard on my loan and that If I wasn't satisfied, the closing could be stopped right then and there. I felt robbed. Even though the amount was around $250. Who buys down interest rates on a loan under $100,000. It does not make any sense because there is no real benefit in doing so.

My loan officer tried to convince me that I was saving money in the long run. He also tried to convince me that I told him to make this purchase. Which was a complete lie. He later admitted that it was his fault and that he was new to the company and the manager was shadowing the loan. Ironically, the manager was fired two weeks later. I wonder why? Apparently, it was more than just me that this was done to. Buyers beware!!!

After we finally closed they sent us to collections for nonpayment and never called until 33 days after the payment was due. I have a cancelled check to prove that we did in fact pay. They then say we haven’t paid for this month, but they sent a letter weeks ago stating that we needed to sent this month's payment to the new company that bought our mortgage. I would not recommend this company to anyone. We made several calls to HR when dealing with the loan originator and none of them were returned. They really don’t care. We didn’t have any issues the first time with Matthew's team, so kudos to them, but we won’t use this company again.

Original Review: Won’t recommend this company to anyone. Our lender failed to close on our home multiple times and called on the day of the anticipated closing day and told us he “forgot” to send us mandatory documents. I can’t stress enough on how Guaranteed Rates is not able to be sure their employees are on track. Instead they provide with the worst customer service and experience. If you choose Guaranteed Rates, be prepared to get a call telling you you will be homeless for at least two weeks until you close on your home. It was a miserable path to take with Guaranteed Rates.

Kristine has one prime concern, herself. She has no concern for your experience of what you need, only what is good for her working day. We nearly lost our house because she was waiting on information that she didn't understand herself and we had sent to her weeks earlier. If you have the misfortune of working with her, make sure it is for as simple a task as possible. But you’re best off staying well clear.

I took a day off from work to go to the courthouse to get the documentation they had emailed me that I needed pertaining to the sale of my previous home. I wanted to make absolutely sure that I was getting the right documents so I called to ask a clarifying question. Shockingly, I never got a call back. I ended up with the wrong paperwork and had to make yet another trip gather the documents.

A few weeks before my closing, I received an email stating that I would not get enough money from the sale of my home to cover the closing costs. I called in a panic because the math I did actually had me netting several thousand dollars after closing costs. Once again, couldn't get anyone on the phone. I had to review it with the secretary who then reviewed it with the mortgage person. Ultimately, the were wrong and I was correct. I understand that mistakes happen (even though it was basic math and probably something they do every day) however the lack of response was unacceptable.

I have since closed on my new home and couldn't have been happier to hear that my mortgage was transferred to Chase bank. I thought I was finally done with this company. Then I received an email saying they did not receive my first payment despite the fact that I mailed it to them on time. I am currently 23 in line on the phone to speak with someone so I can get my payment processed (there isn't any ability for me to pay it online for some reason). If I could do it all over again I would have gone with a different company. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. In fact I have never written a review before but felt the need to this time in the hopes I can spare someone else the experience I had. Buying a home is stressful enough without the added stress of a terrible company like this.

Original Review: Nov. 14, 2019

First of all this company deserves 0 star for what they did, if you still like to move forward with company please read this comments and clear with them before moving forward. I'm working with this company for my home loan refinancing. We lock the rate and knowing timeline we move forward with this loan, accepting interest rate and they committed credit during closing. I gave all the document on time and I was very communicative throughout this process. I was also checking with team if they need anything else from me to speed up the process.

My Closing date was 13th Nov, last document I sign on 1st Nov after there is no communication from company. I was following up with company where we are. Team said they are working on condo approval that is taking time. On 13th Nov, I got new document saying, "We are adding addition fees $1052," closing date was 13th Nov and they were not able to close by then. Are extending closing date with lock rate to 18th Nov and for that they are charging additional fee that is $1052.

I asked their team, "This was not my mistake if your process took time and you have to extending closing date." Still they didn't agree to do this and didn't do anything to remove. They didn't stand on their words. In my opinion what happened, they knew that rate is going up and by the time we lock this rate current rate is high than that. They know customer will not back out since current rate is higher and that why they added this extra $1052.

I put so much time in this and in the end this is what I got. I will accept this if there was any delay from my end. If they are not able to close this loan on time they should have communicated with me. So please I recommend clear this with company before move forward. There are other mortgage companies out there, this is not the only one. I'm sharing my experience, because this cheating is not accepted.

I finally find an 800 number in one of the e-mails for the servicing department. I wait on hold for over 30 minutes and immediately get hung up on. I wait on hold again and finally speak to someone who says they tried to make the tax payment and it was rejected but they have already cut a check to the new bank and it's in the mail. Now over three weeks later and I've directly called the new bank and still no money. I called today and waited on hold for almost an hour again and get another story about rejected payments and that they couldn't cut the check because they were "waiting on the funds to be returned" even though they told me the check was cut weeks ago. This company is dishonest and not trustworthy especially with your money!!!! I still can't get my $3k from them after months!!! I would definitely go elsewhere!

Before getting around to calling in order to find out what the problem was, we received a large packet in the mail dated October 9th from the Loss Mitigation Department with a notice to collect a debt and some sort of hardship application that we could submit if we were having trouble making our mortgage payments. This was obviously not the case as we had already paid our first two payments over the phone, so I called the next business day to make an inquiry as to what went wrong. The customer service representative that I spoke with told me that there was no record of having received any mortgage payments and asked for information of when I made the payments and to which office and then claimed they'd have to investigate to gather information on whether or not the payments were made. My question was "How do you not have a record of my payments when your office is still within the same company?"

After the first call to request an answer about my payments, I called the office where I made the initial payments and the representative said that they were still in the process of wiring the funds to the new servicing office. My question then was "How does the new office not know that they're waiting for the money to be wired?" Where is the communication between offices confirming that our payments have been made so they don't have to send collection notices? Apparently there isn't any at all.

Fast forward a couple of days and we receive another notice about the attempt to collect a debt which was dated October 15th and then another mortgage statement Dated October 16th claiming that we still owed almost $8,000 due to the alleged overdue payments. I called Guaranteed Rate again to follow up (which I don't believe I should have to do) and see if our funds had been received, which they hadn't. I was told to just keep calling back every day until the funds are received and applied to our account. After that call, I called customer service and filed a complaint hoping that maybe they'll change this flawed process so others don't have this issue in the future.

Several days later on the 25 of October, once again my wife and I both received individual notices in the mail dated October 15th with the same collection notice claiming that $1,231.85 in interest and late charges had been added to the original loan amount. At this point we're at the end of our rope and fed up with receiving these notices - six notices within a two-week period without so much as a courtesy email or phone call to determine if there was an issue with making the payments. How can so much effort be put into blaming the customer when the issue is right under your nose within your company?

I called one more time on October 25th and finally got confirmation that our payments had been received and that our account was current without so much as an apology or explanation as to why we were bombarded with inaccurate statements and collection notices. Even though we know that the payments were made, we shouldn't have the added stress from thinking we might owe more money and receiving collections notices when it's not even our fault. I truly hope that our experience is better from this point forward and hope that something will change so nobody else is subjected to these unnecessary business practices.

Now it’s October 4th and I have not made my mortgage payment and the old mortgage hasn’t been paid off and they owe me and additional 15k due at close. This company is horrible. Against my better judgement I did business with them. They are not to be trusted with personal info. If my issue isn’t resolved today, I’ll be calling the Ohio Attorney General's office, the local news outlet and my sister who is an attorney. This company has been a nightmare to deal with. I’ve had several mortgages in my life and I’ve never had this many issues. Russ and his team are terrible.

First came the request for additional money out of my pocket for another appraisal. Come to find out the first appraisal should never have been ordered before they looked at the title to see the home couldn't have been sold to me until after a certain waiting period. So that makes two appraisals I had to pay for. Then I was given approval but told conditions needed to be met. Fine! I met every conditional requirement. Then came the closing documents only to find out the day before closing after I had to call that the closing could not take place, due to another appraisal needing to be done at the bank's expense. Ok, fine (the appraiser took forever to even to do the appraisal). Then came the request for a document the underwriter wanted to see from the IRS that could not be generated as the IRS does not generate letters of that nature.

Explanations were written out, numerous phone calls were made and then finally that request seemed to be satisfied. Then came the sudden request that I needed a gift in a high dollar amount because of not realizing the cash deposits made between banks could not be verified. I did what was requested and then was told two days later it wasn't enough and needed to come up with an additional gift in the form of a check to the title company. This is where I had to pause. I didn't owe the title company that money and would never write a check that was not needed. I called two other banks and asked was this practice normal and they two had skepticism about all of it. All through this, it was generally me who had to reach out to the bank to find out what was going on. In the end, I could not come up with the additional gift amount and the whole thing was denied.

Since the start of this process, it was a total of seven months dealing with this. I can't even begin to explain my anxiety behind all of it and just the sheer agony of having to go through that process (medication was eventually needed). To say the least my experience was crushing. However, I wound up finding a local bank that has been more than helpful and amazing in explaining all that was needed and helping me along in the process. So in the end, my suggestion to anyone reading this is to use a local bank, one you see the person face to face and make sure they are knowledgeable in the types of loans that are out there and if not make sure they know who to call to ask questions, before they put you through the ringer only to be told, "Oops, we instructed you incorrectly."

I was sent multiple pre-approval quotes from GR over the course of about a couple months, all with different amounts, interest rates, etc... Partially due to the houses I liked ended up having contracts on them already and things having to be re-worked. However, multiple times they had been re-worked due to some "new program that just came out"... Or so that's what I was told.

Finally, I received a rate and payment I was satisfied with... which sounded almost too good to be true, considering I don't have the best credit. When I looked over the breakdown of all the fees and monthly payment, I noticed a "hazard insurance" added in which I was told was basically home owner's insurance. I called to ask if the "hazard (home owners) insurance" could be removed from my monthly payment as I chose to bundle it with my auto insurance to get a lower rate.

The most recent detailed breakdown for everything was $235,000 (purchase price) with $50,** down payment (about 21.5%) with total due at closing of $57,**. Fine! I noticed the monthly mortgage of around $1500 after taxes, insurance, and a $121 "hazard insurance (aka home owner's insurance). I called to ask for the $121 to be taken out, and to change the $235,000 to $234,000 (offer price for the home). Simple right?! Well, mathematically, one would assume that by doing that things would go DOWN, not UP. Well, this must be the NEW stupid math, because everything went up, after I got my "new" detailed statement back. My down payment increased to $53,000 and my total cash to close jumped to $64,000. How in the HELL does everything go up, when I asked to remove the $121/month AND the selling price of the house went down $1,000???

Apparently numbers were changed, without my knowledge OR permission to try and PUSH it through the computer so it would get approved. I was told something about the computer flagging it for non-approval at only 20% down and that's whey she increased the amount... again, without my knowledge or permission. Ummm... Last I checked, $50,000 is more than 20% of 234,000. Doesn't take a mathematician to figure that out. Was then told by the lady I was working with, that she didn't know why it wouldn't go through and was sent over to her loan officer for investigation to see what they could do. I went back to my original lender, of which now I trust none of them, so I hope he comes through since I'm supposed to close Sept 12.

This company came recommended and I am truly wondering how anyone could recommend this company. The underwriters tell you everything is a go then they drop it like a hot potato. I have purchased 7 homes over the years and never ever have I had these issues. I'm left wondering, what the hell will happen next. These are people's lives they are toying with and they just don't care. Our world has been shattered. What do we do now, now that they have our money and we still don't have a settlement date. On either loan. Unbelievable. Buyer beware.

Instead of advising me that I needed to pay some things off in order to get where I needed to be he insisted that I sign up for credit repair that was $80 a month and also for a trade line to boost my score up so that I would qualify for first time home buyer grants. They had me find a home, but down an earnest deposit (that I lost), and I moved in with family for 4 months in an attempt to save money. Run don't walk away from this company and make as much noise as you can in your community. They are predatory lenders. I am not stopping here either. I have written my county commissioner as well. You ought to be ashamed!!!!

I had to upload my documents several times to their online system. I don't think they even look at or acknowledge your paperwork until the last minute, and then they are in a rush to get their act together to make the closing date. I had no issues with my loan and they still were not ready for closing until one hour before we sat at the table. It was extremely frustrating to work with them. The office staff does not answer the phone. You are on your own here. I called and I left messages that went unanswered. This happened so much that I was ready to drop this company and go with another mortgage company but we were too late in the process and I would likely have been penalized. In the end, I had to call Brian Griffin and get him to tell his staff to answer the phone. That happened once, then the same behavior continued.

Next, I did not want my loan to be in escrow. No need for it with the amount we put down. Brian Griffin stated that I probably had a better rate having the escrow, then stated "just wait a month or two after closing and call and take your mortgage out of escrow...no problem." Well that won't happen for two years and I'm stuck with this loan configuration because 2 years is the company standard. You would think that Brian Griffin would know this fact - I suspect he just wanted an easy process for himself instead of serving his customer what they wanted. I'm so mad I will probably take the hit and refinance just to get away from this company. I put this partly on myself because I listened to this joker even after I started seeing through his charade.

Next - we get to the settlement table and the deed is wrong. We "finished strong" right Brian? We wait while the lawyer calls Brian Griffin and his office and of course they don't answer and they don't call back. We had to do a quit claim deed at the settlement table because of these clowns. I refused to pay for it - the lawyer stepped up and paid for it out of his pocket. I'll add that doing day to day business with this company is no fun either. If you go with them Good Luck to you. I wouldn't, I would run the other way.

Perhaps they can create a paper trail to cover themselves legally; or cite a stretch of 11th hour scrambles to suggest a good faith effort to figure it all out. But the facts that matter remain unchanged and unaffected: they told us to sell our home and move cross country with the assurance of sealing the deal—telling me to pick an early closing date—and left us high and dry at the last minute—fully aware that there were little children involved who now have no place to call ‘home.’ And then to add insult to injury, they offered us an opportunity through one of their employees to rent a home that was available through their family member!

Let that sink in: you cause our family to give up our existing home, then we lose the home you assured that you could get us, even though we can bring 10% in down payment for a VA loan where 90% of borrowers bring nothing for a down payment, you continue causing us to lose thousands of dollars in storage of trucks of household items and the emotional distress of having to figure out how to settle down with many little children holed up in hotels after enduring a 6-state drive—and after relying on your misrepresentations, you think that family would want to RENT and pay someone else’s mortgage who has personal ties to your team members upon your recommendation?! It’s offensive; and exposes how out of touch this company is, and at the very least, how it would be well served by incorporating some cultural competency training into its team members’ professional development services.

Their conduct was the most unconscionable and egregious violation of basic human decency that transcends the formalities of professional ethical or legal obligations. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting. And it merits the public backlash that may inspire good people, better people who want to truly help and work with couples who want nothing more than to provide for their children and be upright citizens that contribute to the well being of our society. They are truly worthy of their preferred moniker of being “Disruptors” because the disruption they have caused our family is unparalleled—my wife and I will never forget the tears and wails of our children holed up in hotels after enduring a cross country drive through six states to be left without a home to live in.

There is no formal statement that your marketing or PR folks can craft, or rewriting of history that your legal counsel may conjure, or other gratuitous effort that can right this wrong—If you did not tell us to move and prepare for a closing by a specific date that you cited with the assurance of sealing the deal, none of us would be in this predicament. This company has no qualms about slapping its name on a baseball stadium, but doesn’t have the courage to go to bat for the people who served and make up the fabric of this nation.

Apologize to the sellers and own up to your mistakes. Apologize to the veteran who deserves to be treated with basic human dignity and respect after serving this nation. Apologize to the children who you have left without a home. Apologize to the public for not living up to your values. And after you have concluded your apology tour, regroup and prepare for the formalities of forthcoming investigations of violations of professional ethics by the appropriate federal or state governing bodies, reports to IFDHR, possible action for mortgage lending fraud, and any other forums where other victims may find solace in taking measures to ensure that this never happens again to another veteran or family.

Original: We sold our house to a preapproved buyer with guaranteed rate on April 12, 2019. We have had 6 closing dates and now yesterday they denied the buyers loan. We sold it as is but did some of the repairs the bank wanted. Beware of this company! Gives you promises but never goes through with them. As a seller this has cost us money and now at the end of the selling market, we have to put it up for sale again! This was in Peoria, IL.

Our mortgage CD was not even completed the day we showed up to sign with the lawyers. When they (GR) finally sent the CD over to the lawyers the day of the signing the figures didn't even match what was previously discussed. This was an ongoing issue the entire time might I add. I'm pretty sure that your mortgagee CD is supposed to be completed and ready for signature 3 days prior to the day of your signing. Our signing which I left work early for took over 3 hours to complete because of this error. While we were waiting at the lawyers office for the documents we called the agent (KC) along with lawyer to discuss the discrepancies and he (KC) then proceeded to scream and cuss at me over the phone in front of everyone in the office. Which was a total embarrassment and he is super lucky I did not hop in my car and drive to his office afterwards to discuss his lack of professionalism.

I'm still not really sure why he was yelling at me. If they all would have gotten their acts together and the communication between them would have been better none of these issues would have occurred or even been issues to begin with. It’s your responsibility to get your team and your doings in order not mine in case you missed that responsibility in your list of job requirements. The whole process was a nightmare!! I have been in touch with a lawyer since regarding all of these issues as the whole process did not sit right with me. Let's just say that what we were told and what was actually done were two totally different things. I won't go into the legalities but there are several legal issues with how our loan was handled and processed.

Normally I would not bad mouth anyone but I'm doing this solely for AWARENESS and so this does not happen to someone else. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere and do not trust this company nor the location in Myrtle Beach, SC. They only want to close the deal and take your money!! They don’t care what happens to you nor that they are potentially committing fraud. Don’t get caught up in the empty promises and lies like we did!! If I wouldn’t have wanted the house so bad, I would have left the day of signing and never looked back!!

They went so far as to contact my insurance company and have them list them as the mortgagee even though we are not through with the refinance. They said they were "verifying" insurance and that it was standard practice even though we provided them with all the insurance documents weeks ago. They treat you like you are a moron and continue to talk over you. Great customer service is a joke. No one EVER follows through with anything. You are not a priority. If it weren't for the money already spent and what they would try to get from us I would go elsewhere.

I abandoned my previous preapproval and connected with Tanya at Guaranteed Rate Affinity in Atlanta Ga. Once a home was found, offer submitted and contract signed I was asked to pay appraisal fee and application fee as my file was being submitted to underwriting. I expressed my concern of paying for appraisal and app fee before a true approval and once again I was told that the preapproval was very strong and my worries fell on deaf ears. I paid $385 for an inspection, and $610 for the appraisal and application fee. 2 days later Tanya the loan officer calls and informs me that underwriting sent my file back regarding my dept to income ratio. She suggested that I pay off a balance of 9K to reduce the dti. I was appalled and it was extremely disheartening that after requesting appraisal and other fees I was now basically being DENIED for DTI which should have been confirmed before sending to underwriting.

In my previous home searches, other mortgage companies were thorough in my meeting the dti before submitting to underwriting and informed me of whether I met before requesting fees. Now I am out of $985 that I should not have paid if the preapproval process was as thorough and solid as advertised. I requested a refund but of course that have fell on deaf ears as well as I am still out of my hard earned money that could have went to a more reputable, thorough company. BUYERS BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY. DO not pay your money for an appraisal and inspection with this company as your lender. THEY DO NOT GIVE SOLID PREAPPROVALS!! SINCERELY, A TOTALLY DISAPPOINTED BUYER AND SCAMMED BUYER.

Also they do not send all the required documents on time to you. So make sure you call Chuck because we had 3 documents that were never sent with a month to go, so closing would have been held up. They also tell you that they will get back to you later in the day and never do. You have to blow up their phones and annoy the crap out of them to get them to do their jobs.... Michelle especially!!!! Next home we will DEFINITELY NOT be going with this company and steering people away from them.

Original Review: June 1, 2019

Started loan online on April 12 2019. I had my credit pulled and assured things looked good. Close date May 17th. Uploaded everything they needed on their to do list day 1. Conditional approval comes house isn't FHA compliant. Ok we fix it. Really not ours to fix since seller listed it as FHA compliant but did it anyways so could speed this along and close on time. 2nd speed bump I got a unsecured personal loan few months before applying for mtg. Didnt think anything of it but they saw the deposit and asked. I advised husband makes the payment on it but in my name and therefore they asked for the docs on the loan. I sent them immediately this in 1 week.

Before orig close I was assured by my processor dti etc still good. No worries..received closing disclosure to sign. Thought was fine, wrong. 3 days before closing I was told they hadnt put my file through their UW system yes 3 days before closing after signing my final closing disclosure. They informed my DTI is too high and I MUST have 2 months mtg payments in reserves in my account in order to close. Ok. Got a gift. Went through all the patriot bull having to prove my gift provider isnt a drug dealer or whatever but got it done same day..file goes back to UW and my mtg team went "silent". Not a word closing day 1 comes and goes no one told me the process despite asking numerous times.Then on a Monday again told everything looks good. No worries. Still in underwriting. Ok. Should close that Wed. Great. UW comes back saying they see loan is an unsecured loan. Wth.

Yes I sent you the disclosure showing it's unsecured but that we still look good just gonna have to pay off a few small cards at closing to get my dti down. Goes back to UW all the while I'm having to call the vp text and email my mtg team and the attitude I got was like I was just supposed to know UW has 3 days to review. No sense of urgency whatsoever. Closing date 2 missed. Cancelled my utility move for 2nd time. 3rd date given. We will make it. We are doing everything we can but no accountability at all from the people who since day 1 knew UW takes 3 days to review but didnt tell me 'til after my 2nd closing of this.

They knew I had an unsecured loan because I sent the docs to them weeks before orig closing and I'm sure they knew they should put a file through the UW system period before they sent a final CD for me to sign but no, no apologies. Only email stating they have kept me up to date every day sometimes which was a lie. So 3rd closing date approaching UW comes back cant use any funds from loan for the home. No problem. Here is proof I've gotten paid, gotten gift and paying bills. Boom I did it in ten minutes showing proof loan was gone. All money for closing including the 2 mtg payments are from my wages. Took them 2 days to do same thing I did in minutes and still big NO even though within time frame of starting loan. I had almost 9k in wages and verifiable gift I cant use like 1500 in my acct because trying to say it's from the loan complete bull but ok. What now.

1 day before 3rd closing required to pay off 5 credit cards. 1500 total and I will do it "if I want to close they will not go back to the UW w/ my proof I just paid another 1k in bills out of the loan. I had already provided proof that the entire loan was already gone" so I paid the 5 cards off and now I'm waiting for the 4th and hopefully final closing date. Zero stars is my rating but I just need to get this done.

I'm not a high risk. I've just been screwed. Had a garnishment coming out of my wages for 6 months for a debt that cant even be verified as mine from 10 years ago. This garnishment will be gone before I even get to make my first mtg payment. Got screwed by wells Fargo on my first home during the crash of 2008 and I let my 1st house go..not even showing as a foreclosure on my credit but the most heartbreaking experience of my life because I bought that house in in my early 20s and I wasn't given any opportunity to save it despite having 100k in equity in the home. I went through great depression because of that but paid all my bills on time including 2 car payments. Kept my credit up. Not perfect. I like to shop so balances are high but not horrible because I'm smart and human and would never put my family through what I went through w/ Wells Fargo and losing our home being forced to rent paying other peoples mortgages for 7 years.

GR has really stressed me and my family out because to them I seem to be just a number and not a very high one either because the house is under 100k. I would've been happy with an apology and a sense of urgency been given to my file after the 1st missed closing date mishap. Now it's just too late. I'm lucky the sellers are understanding and my realtor has done her best but feel that GR could've reduced their fees given a credit. I dont know but I'm really not happy and would never recommend this lender to anyone who has ever had any struggles w/ mortgage lenders in the past. You will surely feel played again.

We sat in the closing office for five hours waiting for the wire transfer so we could close on our new home. The funds transfer never happened due to the inefficiency of GR. GR had the wiring instructions for one month and did nothing until 24 April. They had a third party that was supposed to "vet" the attorney that was to receive the wired funds. They had to "vet" a third generation legal firm that is owned by a sixth generation area family. Now we are on our second day of waiting and nothing is happening. My wife is a basketcase and I'm missing my kidney dialysis because of GR. Do not use this company.

We also consulted with a couple of other lenders simultaneously but they both said they would need more than 3% down and the other lenders were not knowledgeable of the grant that Cathy talked us into. We moved forward with applying for a loan online through the website Cathy sent us to. We uploaded all our documents. There was 1 new line of credit loan that we had applied for with Wells Fargo 1 week prior to applying with Guaranteed Rate Affinity. We made sure to mention to Cathy that we had this line and make sure this was not a problem with Cathy in moving forward in purchasing our home and in the price she stated we were qualified for. She assured us that there was no problem with this. With Cathy ** sending us a Loan Summarization form by email shortly after with our total closing being around $3000, we were very happy they had lower fees than the other two lenders.

We were told to pay off some of our debts which totaled $5800 (stated on our loan summarization form) prior to closing We moved forward with looking at homes in the price range that Cathy said we were pre approved and prequalified for. This was $230,000. We found the home of our dreams after 2 weeks of searching. We put down our earnest money and started the process of the loan which included paying down the debts requested prior to closing (per the request of Cathy to pay outside of escrow). It took a total of 3 weeks for an appraisal to be completed which was promised to be completed within 10 days due to Cathy being out of town. This should have been our first sign with Guaranteed Rate Affinity and their false promises. At this time, we requested a manager or other person we can contact if we had problems or questions and she stated she does not have a manager.

We paid a total of $400 for appraisal and $200 for a rush fee along with the initial application fee of $150 immediately upon moving forward with the loan process. When the appraisal was ordered we received our first Lending Estimate. It had a fee of $25,222 as the cash to close. We were in shock, we emailed and called along with texted Cathy ** to ask about the extremely high fees that were over triple and some quadruple the costs sent over to us in the initial Loan Summarization Form back in early October. We were told repeatedly that these are just estimates and not to worry that the fees will be fixed and adjusted back to the original loan summarization form but it may have to be switched to 5% down instead but we were told not to worry because we have the grant to cover it and that to leave her be and let her do her job.

December 13th, we were told by Cathy ** that she is not able to clear the flags on her screen for the loan in order to finish up for the closing of this loan, which was set for the 21st of December. This was brand new information and we had no idea what this meant. We called and emailed for 2 straight days including texts of what does this mean with no reply back from Cathy **. We were told by Cathy to leave her alone that she is trying to figure it out and to not contact her and that she will get back to us. You could imagine the frustration at this point of shelling out all this money and being 1 week to the scheduled closing that we could not get answers regarding our loan process. Each and every time we were asked to provide information on our part, we were very prompt in providing it. Many times we provided back the information within minutes! So for us to receive way less than respectable service back was frustrating.

We needed answers and we needed them now. This is where we called around to find out if there was someone higher up in charge than Cathy. We reached Curt **. He was very prompt to answer and called another manager named David **. He asked David if he is able to take care of this and he said he had no problem. He took over the loan process December 15th. He assured us left and right that he can handle this. He stated the loan scored just fine and isn’t sure why there were issues on the loan. He stated that he has access to underwriting directly along with ways to get this approved for us and not to worry. We were sent a second “corrected” lending estimate of over $10,000 for our cash to close on closing morning which did not include our down payment on the day we were supposed to close.

He stated that he needs to remove the grant to get this loan closed but that he could do it to close the loan. He told us to let him do his job and he will close this loan for us. Friday the 21st, closing day, we get a call from Curt ** stating that they can’t do the loan for us unless we put 5% down and pay full closing costs on top of this. He stated that for him to do this, he will need more time to close. This was the same as the other lenders. We feel we were bait and switched by Guaranteed Rate along with they intentionally allowed the clock to run out so we could not use another lender. Each time we brought up our loan process we were told it is being worked on when in reality it was not. In the end we are left with lost time and money to now re-coup along with no home for our family to live in because of this referral. Sincerely, Very Disappointed and Frustrated

First-time home buyers beware! ANY-time home buyers beware! Stay away from Leslie ** and her team. Some people forget that we are all on the same playing field regardless of how much money we make and everyone deserves decency and respect. Very sad experience. Maybe others in this mortgage lender company are kind, but she is not. Very cold. Very unfriendly. It would do her well to take a class in customer service, etiquette, empathy, and respect

Here's the kicker... The condo cost $411k, I had +$1.5mil in liquid assets, 50% being cash. Then I was told to add a co-signer which increased my assets to ~$2.5mil. Friday they come back and said I need to have more! Really!?! for a $410k condo. I went all the way up to 75% down payment, they said I need to show +$3mil in liquid assets. What's the point of a mortgage. So the following Monday I came in with cash. Sucked I couldn't get a mortgage so as to use leverage for other business investments. Loved how they waited throughout whole process up until the Friday before a Monday closing to say I needed +$3mil in liquid assets to purchase a $410k condo. Thanks GR! Will never do business with GR again, and adamantly tell people to avoid them at all costs. Not worth the hassle. Much better lenders out there that won't jerk you around.

At this point, we already realized he's not the sharpest tool in the shed and emailed his co-worker to confirm the problem was fixed only to find out it wasn't. Our lawyer also reported a similar experience of this guy being unresponsive and failing to deliver on time. Overall, dealing with Andrew and having to fix the problems he created was a frustrating experience. We will give credit to his manager, Shaunt who was apologetic when we spoke to him and helped clean up Andrew's mess.

Now, the most recent loan was actually kept with GR, who is now the loan servicer. First time I’ve had them as a servicer. Our loan is a joint account and my other half keyed in his checking account number wrong for autopay. We weren’t notified by the system AT ALL that the payment was rejected. I didn’t know until I got an email saying the payment was late. So, I have an email for autodraft set up, an email for autodraft payment initiated, then 10 days later an email notifying me that no payment has been made. Soooo... the system seems to have the ability to generate emails - why no email for a rejected payment? So, the late payment email came after our grace period and now we have a fee, a stained borrowing relationship and potentially a ding on our credit reports.

Shame on us for keying in the info wrong, but why no notification that the payment failed?! Even the online payment system didn’t show anything rejected or have an alert - it just said next autodraft in X days. I called in to the number on the missed payment email and was treated like an animal. Like I am the scum of the earth, a delinquent borrower.

You see, this issue could have been easily corrected if I had proper notification via an email, phone call, or alert when I log in. I didn’t have a fair opportunity to fix my mistake. The CSR told me they can’t call about rejected payments (huh?) and that I can’t set up alerts. Feels like dirty business to me. She told me she’d apply my one time fee waiver. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Why should I use my only fee waiver for something that could have been prevented by normal and reasonable customer service. Then I remembered - my originator & our relationship.

Sent him an email detailing the issue & he waived the fee no questions, I still have my one time fee waiver, and most important - I got an apology. The only reason I’m not spending thousands to refinance to get out of GR is because of my amazing relationship with my originator. He is my only contact going forward as far as I’m concerned. So, make sure you build a relationship with your loan officers/originators. They know what customer service is & will take care of you.

They have completely RUINED the experience of buying our first home. I've had to cancel a family vacation, paying utilities in a home we can't even live in because we don't want the pipes to freeze before we move in. Every person I've explained the constant headaches to tell me how sorry they are for me. It's just downright embarrassing at this point. I trusted them to help us, new, first time homebuyers, and have been let down time and time again.

Then, as they did in our case, find that they made a “mistake” and have to withdraw the loan, even after everything was approved, and re-originate the loan. Then you have to sign more documents, produce more statements, and take yet another hit on your FICO score because they initiate another hard inquiry into your credit. Then they have the unmitigated gall to make you sign another form explaining why there was another credit inquiry. They told us the fee for the appraisal would be $550.00, and they had to have that up front (not charged at closing) which we paid, then charged us another $350.00 for the appraisal fee again, without explanation. It wasn’t until I asked why we were being charged twice that they told me “that’s what the appraiser charges”. Did they not know this beforehand? And then the $900.00 charge for the appraisal was included on our fees at closing, so we’d essentially be paying it twice.

I caught them on it, and they told me I’d get a credit for the $900.00. That is just BS as far as I’m concerned. And really… $900.00 for an appraisal? Appraisals don’t take more than 30-40 minutes usually, and a little bit of paperwork on a standardized form. $900.00 is excessive by any standards I’ve heard of, after talking with numerous people involved in real estate procedures. Perhaps Guaranteed Rate should find new appraisers if that is the norm for them.

The interest rate eventually went up .75% higher than what we were quoted originally, and by this time we had almost $1300.00 invested in non-refundable charges (that includes the ridiculous appraisal fee), and if we backed out we’d lose all that, and possibly the house too, and have to start all over. Guaranteed Rate knows this, of course, and takes advantage of us because of it. So I would NOT recommend Guaranteed Rate for anyone. Please stay away from this company any way you can! You would be better off going directly to the lending company and skipping the mortgage broker altogether if this is the way they work.

Now I'm being told loan was not transferred until November 16th. Now they cannot find the check and to stop payment on it and issue a new one or make payment online. So now I have stopped payment which cost me $30 dollars, and feel Guaranteed Rate should reimburse me for it as the direction in their initial email was incorrect. I have purchased several homes and have never experienced such a nightmare transition. Current lender said they should of stated not to send payment until loan transfer was complete and in system. But again all it said was if November payment has not been made to send it to new company.

They had no way of applying payment as Guaranteed Rate did not transfer until November 16th. I did try to locate email that was sent and called Guaranteed Rate to discuss issue and request copy of email. And was told they could not locate it and it must of said December 1st (felt like I was being called a liar). I was able to locate the email and it clearly states November 1st. The email also states I will receive additional info from them and a welcome letter from the new company. I still have received nothing from either of them. Stay Away from Guaranteed Rate!

Finally after everything had processed, what started as a simple refinancing became anything but simple. 90 days had passed due to Guaranteed Rate in about to process the loan, and the loan had changed to the point where the terms and conditions were unacceptable. I would not recommend Guaranteed Rate, there are too many mortgage bankers, wholesale lenders, mortgage brokers, credit unions, and banks out there, that will deal with you in an open, honest, and execute your mortgage properly, than to deal with a larger yet ineffective company like Guaranteed Rate. My advice is this, if you do try Guaranteed Rate because they are cheap, remember to go to another option the second they don't execute on what they've promised. Be careful, they approved us quickly but didn't execute. They might be fine on easy government guaranteed loans, but my experience with them is that they will approve you, but not execute properly after the approval.

After investigating I found that they deal mostly with mortgages in default and are essentially a collection agency. I have perfect credit and could have gotten a mortgage anywhere. There is no one who knows anything when you call their office. I deal with an issue every other month that needs to be addressed and no one can help me. I cannot understand why Guaranteed Rate would do business with a company of such little quality. I blame all of this on Guaranteed Rate because they willingly sold my mortgage to this incompetent company.

After closing of both homes guaranteed rate sent us a letter once again ASSURING the recasting of the loan and providing a wire number to use to send the monies from the condo sale to. Once we wired them over 200,000$ they called to say they would NOT recast the loan as promised. Now they took our money and we face to lose almost 10,000$ with the inflated mortgage. We can not afford this mortgage payment as it is above what we make monthly. It is putting our family in jeopardy as we watch our money disappear. We now face possibly selling our home because we can not afford this loan. Guaranteed rate lied and after we gave them 200,000$ refused to provide the service they stated they would. Stay far away - not a good company at all in my opinion.

I had submitted all my paperwork and was told they could order the appraisal immediately after that. After being given the runaround for 2 weeks after that (5 weeks in) it was finally ordered. I was nervous but told it should only take 9 days and we had plenty of time to close. I found out 7 days later (6 weeks in) from the SELLER that the appraiser had asked what kind of appraisal they needed (because they didn’t tell him) and that they had never responded and he had put the appraisal on hold.

I contacted my processor and was given the run around for 2 days before they finally responded that they had answered his questions and I was promised that the appraisal would still come in on the same day. That day came and I found out that my processor (the same one who hadn't bothered to answer questions for 9 days) was on vacation for the next 4 days! I contacted her boss who told me the appraisal had also been delayed for 4 days (big surprise). At that point it was going to be down the wire but still potentially salvageable.

Yesterday was the day they claimed the appraisal was due (would be week 7). I emailed and got no response. At this point I was sick and tired of this and called the appraiser directly. I found out that at the earliest the appraisal would come in 5 days before I had to close. I knew at that point I would lose my good faith deposit as it was part of the contract that I forfeit it at 60 days if I hadn't closed. I only agreed to this term from the seller because I was assured repeatedly that this would close in 45 days. I did everything, turned in every form, had all my contractors do all their stuff. Repeatedly asked if there was anything else I needed to do. I spoke to my appraiser again today and it came out that after waiting 9 days for answers from my processor she had told him all the wrong answers! He is now totally confused as to what he is supposed to be doing and requested to speak to my mortgage company directly to clear it up.

He is also talking about handing off this appraisal to someone else because he is more than frustrated. There is now 0 chance of my loan closing on time. I am losing my good faith deposit because of just complete ineptitude. There was MORE than enough time for this all to go through just fine if the processor had just answered the questions in a reasonable time and correctly. If the appraiser passes this off to someone else it resets the appraisal time to another 10 days and the seller has made it clear if I don't close on or near the 28th that they will completely back out, at which point I am out the inspectors fees I paid, the appraisal fees I paid, and my good faith deposit.

I don't even know how this company makes any money if they never close any loans! To top it all off despite the fact that this whole thing is on the verge of collapse. No one is responding to me, I haven't even been slightly rude to anyone or complained. I have done my best to not harass them and only emailed when things were due to see if they arrived. But now the appraiser NEEDS TO TALK TO THEM and even though they have said they will speak to him, they have not, and they won't respond to me when I ask if they contacted him and if it's been resolved. Don't use this company, ever.

My credit score has dropped WASTING MY TIME with these stupid people. They are unprofessional and don't seem to know wtf they are doing. It took nearly a week for a decision after a few months on improving my debt because every time I talked to someone there was always some excuse such as their system wasn't working blah blah blah. If you need a smaller loan do not waste your time with them go to a local bank. I was pre approved somewhere else within the same day. It just went so easy.

Once it was denied due to the income requirement (which is a major requirement for a USDA loan and should have been caught by Jesse and his team immediately), they suggested we take the FHA route. After looking back at my paperwork, I noticed our home cost was $180,900 but Guaranteed had us financing over $182,000 for some reason and our closing costs estimated at $11,000.

Now with the FHA loan we would need to put 3.5% down on top of that so we were looking at around $17,000 to close. I called Jesse about this because it didn't sound right, seeing as how a family member of mine just closed a month ago in the same general area on a much more expensive home and her closing costs were $6,000. While on the phone Jesse became rude, disrespectful and unprofessional because I was questioning his closing costs numbers and told him I was considering changing lenders.

My realtor called to talk to Jesse about what was going on and he lied and told her I didn't send him all of my income information, despite him just reassuring me that it would go through with no problem because him and his team went over it back and forth. After dealing with Jesse my decision on whether or not to switch had been made due to the way he spoke to me and due to the fact that I KNOW the amount he had listed wasn't correct. After starting over with a new lender I now have a loan set up with closing costs TOTAL, escrow, fees, cash to close... everything at $6,000. Exactly as I knew it should be. Also, when my new lender requested Guaranteed Rate to transfer my appraisal, Jeff ** at Guaranteed, would give a different reason as to why they couldn't transfer it. First they could, then they couldn't because a USDA loan is considered a conventional loan so the appraisal could not be used on an FHA loan.

Once my new lender and I decided to go conventional I called Jeff back to let him know what we were going conventional so he could send the appraisal now. He then lied and told me it was against company policy to transfer any appraisals outside of government jobs. I asked him why wasn't that the reason he gave me 10 minutes ago when we were on the phone if that's the case and he couldn't stumble over his words fast enough to cover his lie. I can't speak for the whole company but I can say from my experience with these two guys, Jesse ** and Jeff **, I will never ever do business with Guaranteed Rate again and I will make sure everyone I know knows not to as well. They are slimeballs and crooks.

Original Review: May 30, 2018

My wife & I were excited to be buying an investment property in Myrtle Beach, SC. We have purchased several homes in the past & have always used our personal bank but this time we chose to try Guaranteed Rate. Out of the gate everything was great. Our broker was a great salesman & made the process seem effortless & easy. He made many promises & said he’d be there for us to make it go smooth.

Shortly after the process began we recognized this to be different than any of our previous experiences with our normal lender. We have excellent credit & excellent income but they struggled to understand how to read our tax returns. Then they started requesting info that we had never heard of only to later learn, these items did not exist for our circumstance. One person would request info & we would send it, then another rep would contact us asking for the same info we had previously sent. The request got more & more ridiculous the further we went. The further we went into it the less we were hearing from our broker. Their famous words are “hang in there we’re almost there.”

Then closing day came but we hadn’t heard from them. We went past our closing day & 2 days past & they hadn’t uttered a word to us. My wife finally contacted our broker and he said they were hoping to receive a clear to close that week, the week after we were supposed to close. Then we received an email hoping it would say we’re soon to close but instead asked for MORE DOCUMENTS. Every time we’d try to back out to go to our bank they’d say hang in there, “we’ve worked too hard for your leave us now.” They tried to make us believe that we were holding up closing by a letter we needed to provide & also did the same with our insurance agent. In fact, our insurance agent said Guaranteed Rate reps were making impossible request from them & were making them feel as though the insurance co was holding up closing. Once these items were addressed they started requesting info that had been submitted twice before.

To really push our buttons, they sent us new disclosures to sign & when I asked why we were signing them again we were told because we missed the closing date they had to charge a $500.00 rate lock ext fee. We finally decided enough was enough. This “lender” costed us thousands of dollars & we wouldn’t allow them to cost us anymore. We lost the house we were purchasing & have moved forward to purchase something using our bank this time.

Beware & enter in with this company at your own risk. Beware of the great salesmanship & their eagerness to do business with you because once they feel you’re on the hook the nightmare begins. I encourage anyone planning to use this company to research them & read the reviews. It’s amazing how everyone has the same horrible experiences. Very unprofessional, extremely lacking knowledge & every time you think you’re over a hurdle they go back & present another. THE WORST BANKING EXPERIENCE EVER!!! Extremely upset that we are forced to give them a 1 star.

This was not my first time buying a house and getting a loan. The experience with Guaranteed Rate took more than months whereas my first experience with a different lender was a piece of cake and basically done in a couple days. When I would ask about closing, I kept being told "oh maybe just another week or two or maybe a few more days". After this went on for weeks and weeks, I was then told by Dave that they were missing a document or piece of paper by someone else but not by me. He said it was something to do with the developer, but was very vague and would not get me give me specifics on what was going on. I was so frustrated I was ready to pull out even a week before the closing date came.

All the unanswered questions and calls to him and his office staff that took days to get an answer and then it was very vague or they didn't know it would have to get back to me but they wouldn't so I would have to call back. This company is a major headache, poor communication and poor customer service and I also feel being dishonest during the process. I would never ever ever use Guaranteed Rate again and anybody that I know I've also told, "Don't waste your time!" I encourage everybody I know to stay away from Guaranteed Rate and go with a smaller lender or bank where you actually get personal service.

I am very frustrated even though this was a year-and-a-half ago already and it still makes me very angry even when I just hear the name Guaranteed Rate. One of the biggest regrets in my life. Building a condo should have been a fun and exciting time in my life but Guaranteed Rate stressed me out so much that it was not an enjoyable experience and I was ready to back out of the whole deal, even building, because of Guaranteed Rate.

He shared that if I had the repairs done, they would reimburse me the money. I had the repairs done and paid out of pocket thinking I was going to get my money back. Well, I was dead wrong. I realized that Guaranteed Rate pushed to have the repairs done so they could sell my mortgage, as they do with all their loans. Once the repairs were made, I never heard from the Loan Officer again or received my money back. Not sure what happened to the escrow money. I called, sent emails and event text messages with no return call. He never followed up about the additional money I had to bring to closing.

By the way, I also used a Realtor he recommended and no response from him either. I am happy with my new home but feel like I was manipulated by the loan officer. I felt like I was taken advantage of. I will not refer or use Guaranteed Rate again. They are great sales people who just want to close a deal and will tell you anything to get the deal closed!!!

The day that we’re supposed to close 04/12/18 (Thursday) we still have not heard ANYTHING. David did not contact my realtor, the seller or I. Until we called about 3x, he finally answered and asked my realtor for an extension until 04/16/2018 (Monday). Good thing my realtor was smart enough to extend it until 04/19/2018 (Thursday). So we are one week out of contract already and David/Colleen does not contact us until FRIDAY, to say that we did not get appoved, mind you this is WAY after our original closing date. Now our EMD 5000$ is in trouble, and we may not get back because David, went way out of our contract date and the seller could very well keep it.

The reason for our loan denial was they stated was because I had a “job gap” in 2016 but I went to school in Aug-Dec and got a diploma for it. He wrote us an email that the first underwriter who looked at our loan application SHOULD NOT have approved our loan to begin with. So now we WASTED 2 months and our EMD is on the line. And now we have to pay the sellers FEES for the home because we are now beyond late. We are going to a different lender and he is trying to save the deal for us, which he’ll be able to close for us in about 10 business days.

LAST THING, David did not even try to do anything to try and save this. I had to be the one contacting other lenders to try and see if there is something they can do. So if you guys are interested in going with this lender, PLEASE do your research. Being a first time home buyer was already stressful enough, but if you want a lender who does NOT communicate well or at all with you, which makes thing 100x worst than it's supposed to be, definitely go with David ** and his team.

The "appraiser" was supposed to be contacted to reduce the services, but we were told there is nothing they can do. We were offered a HUD loan with $13,000 in closing costs as an alternative, pushing my loan to above and beyond what is able to be borrowed as well as an additional appraisal fee to be charged by the same fake "appraiser" that may or may not provide any real results. So as a result I am out $450 for a loan that could not be processed and no options. After numerous conversations with managers, customer service and senior management the company said they are sorry but better luck next time. We were scammed out of $450 in services that resulted in nothing. I am currently in the process of reporting this to the attorney general and the 3rd party credit card company that the payment was processed with.

Today I spoke to a rude person named Ruben, I asked him to stop calling and he just kept going with his sales pitch. I told him I would NEVER do business with a company that won't comply with my request to stop calling, he kept going with his sales pitch. I said take me off your list and never call me again and he said NO and kept going with his sales pitch. There's hundreds of Mortgage lenders out there, DO NOT GIVE YOUR INFO TO THIS ONE unless you enjoy rude people calling you ten times a day!

Things went downhill once the process landed in the hands of a woman named Christy. She was unresponsive to voicemail messages and barely responsive to multiple emails - all of this due to our needing to understand exactly what it was she asked us to send and then waiting to find out if what we did send was in fact, correct. We were responsive immediately to all her requests for information - I actually missed almost 2 quarters of a basketball game we were attending so we could read and sign things she sent us from the bleachers. It was coming down to the wire time-wise and we were beginning to really worry if we'd close, let alone get confirmation that everything was in order. When Christy FINALLY sent everything to the underwriter things didn't improve.

The day we were supposed to close at 11am we get a call after noon asking for ANOTHER document never requested prior. We bought in a state 600 miles from our current home and were already in that state to close so it was a miracle we actually had this document with us. Had we not checked the mail the morning we left, we wouldn't have had what they asked for. The requests for things we had already provided (some multiple times) was another frustration. Our closing was supposed to occur at 11am. We made it to the table around 3:30 in the afternoon after changing the time twice because the closing attorney was STILL waiting on the documents from GRM necessary to begin.

The amount of stress we went through wondering if we would close at all, let alone on the day we had planned for was emotionally exhausting. The lack of response from Christy was unacceptable. The multiple requests for the same documents was unacceptable. The request for a document AFTER our scheduled closing time was unacceptable. The necessary documents being sent to the closing attorney WELL AFTER our scheduled closing time was MORE THAN UNACCEPTABLE.

Going through the mortgage process is never fun but this was by far the WORST mortgage experience I have ever endured having bought 2 homes prior to this one. As I stated at the beginning of this review, at least we did close and now we have our home. This isn't the last property we are going to purchase but it IS the last one that will have anything to do with Guaranteed Rate Mortgage.

Guaranteed Rate has been nothing but offensive during what should be the happiest time in one's life to the worst experience ever! And they discriminate against single women as their rep stated that more is required from single females than married females. Apparently we still live in the caveman era where women don't account for any contributions to society. And when you tell the lender, "Forget it. I'll switch to someone else" they hound you to just give up all your personal information as well as others that have absolutely have nothing to do with the house. If you don't put the money for the house (down payment and closing costs) and don't withdrawal not 1 penny for 60 days. Otherwise you will have to explain every withdrawal every deposit that you have made for the past 60 days!!! So if you're like most working class citizen and don't believe in putting all your money in the bank then PLEASE DO NOT GO THROUGH GUARANTEED RATE!!!

And to top it off they don't tell you the requirements up front. Oh no. They wait until the week before closing and threaten to push the closing date further out! Apparently we can take whatever day off they tell us we need too. This company DOES NOT LOOK OUT FOR THE CUSTOMER! Even with a FHA loan you know the one that is backed by the government meaning they would still get their money make it harder than giving birth!!! All of this is because of lenders who ripped consumers off during the time buying a home was at an all time high and because of their backdoor antics made the housing market crash thus leaving us to be treating us like a felony or criminal!!! It's because of their greed that the consumer now pays for their stupidity!!! And yes once again the working class citizens are the ones it hurts the most! I ended up canceling with them 2 days before closing! So all that work the lender did for the last month was for nothing!!!

Nor did they get paid for all that work!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT USE GUARANTEED RATE!!! There are sooo many other lending companies that will give you the best interest rate and won't treat you like you are a low life!!! If you still choose to use them be prepared to spend hours running around and you have to literally with an explanation letter for credit inquires, where the money came from in your accounts, your 401k even though you can't touch it unless you end the employment with an employer, or if you took a loan from it be prepared not only to show them you took a loan but they want your balance before you took it and once it's been taken and give a full written explanation to why you took that loan even if was from 1 year ago as they think you took it for criminal activities!

Never have I've been insulted as GUARANTEED RATE has!!! There is no guarantee with them. The company name should be GUARANTEED to make your house buying a horrible experience and if you want to know how a felony or criminals get treated then by all means GUARANTEED RATE will be more than happy to provide that service to you! And if you think about it with all that unnecessary information makes you start to wonder if they are selling your identity to others!!!

Based on what Guaranteed Rate's Mortgage Specialist told me, I proceeded with the loan process, which included paying the $500.00 appraisal fee. Once it went to their underwriting, Justin and his team informed me that I would be approved for the loan but I had to get a "modified divorce decree". I checked with our local court where I got divorced, I checked with 2 attorneys and 2 mortgage lenders here in my town and all of them told me that I cannot modify my divorce decree for the property. They all told me that the legal method of handling this would be for my ex-wife to sign a "Quit Claim Deed" and the property is mine. Even the court system here stated that it's up to me and my ex how we wanted to handle it and if she was willing to sign a Quit Claim Deed, then that's all that is legally required.

I shared with Justin and his team that there are no ways for me to modify my divorce decree and I also reminded him that he told me this would not be a problem before I applied for the loan. Justin replied and said that Guaranteed Rate's request stands for a modified decree and that I would have problems with any other lender on this. So I applied for a loan through BBMC Mortgage out of California and they pre-checked with their underwriters and came back and said they would not require a modified decreae but would ask that I have my ex sign a document stating she was okay with me not selling the home and that she did not expect any equity out of the home. I also applied with another mortgage lender here in Lincoln, NE (Pinnacle Bank) and they checked on this before I applied and stated that all I would need is a Quit Claim Deed.

So I proceeded to apply with Pinnacle Bank and the loan went through underwriting and they were extremely honest, the only thing I will need is to have my ex sign over a Quit Claim Deed and that's all there was to it. Unfortunately, based on the false information Justin ** with Guaranteed Rate provided me and getting me to apply for the loan through Guaranteed Rate, I lost $500.00 on my appraisal fee. I had to pay another $500.00 for a new appraisal because most lenders will not allow you to utilize the same appraisal. Guaranteed Rate's response to this was that I agreed to a "no refund" on the appraisal and they felt they owe nothing to me despite the fact that their Mortgage Specialist misled me in order to get me to move forward applying for the loan and despite the fact that Guaranteed Rate was requesting something from me that simply cannot be done in modifying my decree.

They would not accept other legal methods of handling this. I strongly encourage anyone applying for a loan to seriously think twice before going through these online mortgage companies and if you do, DO NOT use Guaranteed Rate. There are way too many other mortgage lenders out there and you don't want to be misled just because someone gets commissions from selling loans. Most of the online lenders simply want to sell as many high volume loans as they can and they don't care if you lose your upfront fees, there is no risk to them to get you to apply. Use a local lender, I found that they offer much better rates and in my case, they even discounted my closing cost by $1,000.00 to help me out because of the $500.00 I lost with Guaranteed Rate.

This is not even close to what we discussed in the beginning of this process. Now, at this point I am already $2000 invested in earnest money and inspection fees, and I have a moving truck paid for and ready to move my belongings the next day! Had I known from the beginning that my debt to income ratio was too high, I would have simply rented for a while. But no, they get me into this deal to a point that I cannot back out...the day of closing...and spring this information on me. In the meantime, I accepted a transfer and had to start work. This left no time to locate a rental, really backed me into a corner. They did rework the loan and get cash to close down to $12,500. So now, it is Monday morning and I arrive promptly at 8:00 to sign closing docs, again. The title company says the lender has not sent the paperwork yet.

Our file went to underwriting without error, which made the underwriting process painless. Yes, we had to provide bank docs, all investment accounts, tax returns, pay stubs, practically our firstborn child, but you have to be prepared to do that when applying for a mortgage. It's just part of the deal. Because of their quick work and attention to detail, we are set to close a week before our original date. This is my third home purchase and I've never had an easier, or more pleasurable, experience. I joke with Phillip that I will actually miss emailing him every day! Could not give Phillip's office a higher recommendation. Thanks to the entire team!

The new bank harassed us from day 1 about our June payment, we continually called Guaranteed Rate regarding it and they just could not send it to the new lender our June payment in a timely manner...48 days to be exact before we threatened them with legal action by email. Then they wired it within a few hours. Every person we spoke with assured us it was gonna happen right then, yet never did, including my original contact regarding the loan, who was condescending in his reply to me. The new lender was a bank we would not have wanted to do business with based on their reviews, and now they are harassing us for late fees. Be prepared to have Guaranteed Rate sell your mortgage and send you to a lender that you may not want to be associated with. They are a nightmare, and I would run away from them!!!

To add insult to injury, my card was charged 4 days after I signed my release forms. He told me on 5/11/17 that it would be billed. As soon as my RE agent let Damien know that I was no longer interested in his services. He finally emailed me the electronic bill to sign after my release form was signed. I never signed it or responded to it and they still charged my card without my signature. Just to cover his butt because he would just let my paperwork sit for weeks at a time. To make a long story short... ask for an agenda, how much money for anything and everything. Interview your lending agent. Get everything in writing upfront. I called the corporate office. They said that they will not refund my money.

No faith in they know what they were doing... They would ask the same questions to the wrong people within my team. My real estate agent was ask to get item the lawyer would traditionally answer. No one ever kept me in the loop when they were asking for an extension. The closing was a hard deadline. And everyone knew it. Just very stressful and inexperienced people doing their job poorly. Go elsewhere... you don't need the stress!

Then after about a year, they stopped returning phone calls & dropped the whole thing without any response or call or email. I have excellent income & excellent credit (800). They just kept dragging this thing wasting my time, energy & money. I spent $600 on getting an appraisal through their company & they kept dragging everything along for a year & then suddenly dropped everything. They are a joke!! My local bank was able to close my loan within 30 days & gave me a better rate than Guaranteed Rate AKA Guaranteed Rage... Yeah... after working with them for awhile you will be in a great rage, wondering why you worked with these bozos in the first place. They do promise these awesome rates, but, they don't deliver. You will wind up with headaches & a lot of frustration. They don't do good business, don't return phone calls. I wonder why they're in this business in the first place. SAD!! SAD!! SAD!! Save yourself time & aggravation & look elsewhere!

Well, the 1st of December has come and gone, and still no responses from them. Her assistant ** told me it was because she was out having surgery and would be back in the office almost 2 weeks ago now. He also told me he was talking to the management about it. Still, no response, no reply, no acknowledgement whatsoever. This company is an abomination and should be investigated.

If you love talking (or swearing) on the phone for hours to people you hope you will never meet or see again, look no further than GRI. Eventually, you will be on an email only basis anyway because then they can really draaaawwwwww this out. Also, if you ever want to feel the scramble of having to rearrange your life at least four times because of changes in escrow dates, then this is the underwriting team of your dreams!! Here's your loan pre-approval, oh, and "Congratulations, your loan has been approved", and escrow will close next Friday!! Oh, just kidding. Let's see if we can get your loan lock to come off twice now by asking for additional stuff that doesn't matter so we can justify our jobs and just irritate everyone involved.

If you have never met a credit card you didn't like, they will perhaps loan you the bank. But if you only buy what you can afford with a debit card, prepare to pitch a tent with your millions in a homeless shelter. Yes, and if time is no concern, and if you find people running around with their pants on fire, (liar liars), then this is the company for you!! Would you like your 21 day escrow to last at least 60 days... Here you go! Guaranteed Rate is great if you ever want a reminder on what a migraine feels like, what it's like to have high blood pressure, insomnia, and let's throw in a few heart palpitation reminders for good measure. Number 8?

Seriously, with this type of customer service, I'm surprised GRI is still in existence. Even with the home office coordinator's "help", NOTHING! She disappeared off the radar as well. Thanks for literally nothing!!! We are getting ready to cash out the house and will delay financing until after we move in. The emotional distress of continuing to deal with this lender has pushed us to our break point.

Ryan attributed to a rookie mistake in the sales process. I explained to several different people including Ryan that there was additional income that could be utilized. No that was not needed I was told. Instead they flipped me and the seller numerous times to the point where I almost lost the deal. On top of that Ryan was considerably rude. He cussed at me several times and said "when I tell you to 'Execute' you do just that and don't ask questions." I think people internal to Rate should be asking the questions as to the business practices and mistakes that were made. It was ridiculous.

Updated 1/25/2017 - This is in follow-up to my original posting, for the past month I have been waiting for GR to follow-up and respond. They contacted me with their Customer Service group and said they would get back to me within a week with a resolution to my situation. Three weeks later, no response and no word. The saga with GR and Ryan ** continue, at this point I would recommend as many people stay away from this firm as possible. They are a disgrace as a mortgage company, would recommend Quicken Loans over them any day. Wish I would have stayed with them from the beginning.

However, the underwriters used the loan as a basis for determining that my debt to income ratio was too high. They insisted as attributing 100% of the expenses for the joint property to me but only 50% of the income. I provided them with my 2015 and 2016 tax returns that showed that I claimed 50% for both the income and expenses for the joint properties. I also provided them with the last two bank statements from our joint account that showed that all the income was deposited into that account and the expenses were paid from it.

However, the loan officer said that my sister would have had to pay the expenses from her own checking account. The loan officer suggested several things I could do to qualify for the loan that did not benefit me financially. For example, putting the joint property into my name only or delaying the closing until next year and changing the way my sister and I claimed the joint property. Or using retirement funds for the downpayment. It did not make sense to me to use my IRAs and automatically lose 25% to taxes. I would not have been in business for 25 years if I didn't know how to handle my finances. Obviously, this company is concerned only with their own interests and not the client.

He suggested Leo ** of Guaranteed Rate. Leo sent the application and then I was assigned to deal with Jennifer **, loan coordinator. I made application in May 19, 2016. I began to send them all the documentation they requested. I had the house appraised and it came in much higher than I expected. As a re investor, I had closed on multiple deals, latest was 2012 and the wanted the closing docs for those. Not enough. They asked for more. (I had wind damage to my roof in March and filed a claim which the insurance company paid). Underwriting wanted to know what the large check recorded in my check account. I showed them the documents for the roof repair. They asked where I got the money, I had to show them the insurance deposit.

Somewhere along the second month, they said I was the owner of the company I work for and wanted all my business records. I said I am an employee, I WORK as an EMPLOYEE. They said somewhere on the internet it said I was the owner. (I am the General Manager.) I had to have one of the employees (Since I was the GM) write a letter on company letterhead to state that I was not the owner. They called him at work to ask him if I was the owner. Not good enough! Two weeks later, they wanted documentation of the owner. I had to have the accountant of the company send them documentation that I was not the owner. Another month passed.

In July I get a closing documents to sign, closing is scheduled for July 13. It came and went. The rate lock was good for July 31st. That came and went. Then the Loan Coordinator took a week off while underwriting worked on the loan package. Jennifer returned, underwriting was behind and everything is delayed. They asked for my 2013 Tax returns (they had 2014 and 2015). Finally, It was delayed because the investors wanted some P&L and Balance Sheets of some companies that my family runs independent of our participation, but my wife is listed as part owner. That took about a week.

Our credit score is mid 700 and our income is well above average and debt to income is low 30%. No problems there. Then August 12 (FOUR MONTHS!!!) Jennifer calls and said they have bad news. The underwriter miscalculated and made an error in data enter of my documents and once they corrected the problem, my debt to income is too high to be approved. WHAT???

I know what I make, I know what I owe, there should be no problem. Jennifer confessed that they made a huge mistake by not entering the information correctly. AND because (I have good accountants who know how to LEGALLY show a lower taxable income) it made my debt to income exceed their qualifying levels. I was not approved. By saying that their underwriters are college interns would be too kind. Their underwriters are not as smart as a 5th grader! I believe they hire elementary students as underwriters. I will start all over now but not with NO Guaranteed rate. Ty, get another job!

Well, customer service was horrible. You apply online and they're claiming to get to you within the week. But, 3 months later you finally hear from them and all the info you gave them was wrong so you have to start all over. That is if you haven't been sued. You apply online, it takes months to get response. The rates are top dollar, the willingness to go out of their way for your needs is not there and you still get very little service for top money.

Mike lied multiple times about the status of my loan. For about a month he would tell me it's in underwriting. Then he would request more tedious documents from me (I was jumping through hoops left and right to get them every and any document they asked for). I kept reminding him that my lease ended May 15 and I had no other options as far as a temporary living situation (I have horses and dogs). He kept saying "we're so close", "almost there", or "it's in the final stages of underwriting". Finally, I called his manager RJ ** who told me "this is very unlike guaranteed rate" and "I'm so sorry for all of the miscommunication with Mike". I told him about Mike throwing fits and he told me from there on out he would be my contact, and I should no longer communicate with Mike.

Over the next few weeks, I kept pushing for the loan to get done by checking in every day to see if there was any additional documentation they needed from me. RJ started falling off the face of the earth, and was just as hard to get a hold of as Mike had been. Luckily for me, I had his cellphone number. So I would just call over and over again until he would finally answer (this is after he would ignore me for 4-5 business days). So the week of May 15 comes around and Mike (who ended up getting involved again) told me I should have the clear to close by tomorrow. I spoke with RJ the same day, and he said that realistically it wouldn't happen for a few more weeks, because given the lengthy process (which he admitted was no fault of my own), my credit report that they pulled was going to expire that Friday and there "isn't much we can do".

At this point, I was backed into a corner and had no option other than to re-sign the lease for my rental property. My landlord was not willing to extend my lease by anything less than 12 months. I explained this to Mike and asked him to write me a denial letter (because RJ told me word for word that my loan "will not go through"), so I would be able to get my earnest money ($1500) back from the title company.

Mike threw another fit, told me "no way", hung up on me (like the professional he is), and proceeded to CALL THE SELLERS DIRECTLY to tell them I was backing out of the loan and they should not release my earnest money to me because I had the clear to close. This was not true, and I have e-mail proof from Mike after the time of this phone call stating that I still did not have the clear to close. Mike went out of his way to attempt to screw me over when it had absolutely no effect on him whether or not my EMD was returned to me.

Not only is this just straight-up mean, but what he did is also illegal and violates my privacy, RESPA, and the clean-desk act. Mike ** (and everyone else at Guaranteed Rate that I dealt with) is a cold-hearted, whiny little child that only cares about if they get paid or not. I would not recommend Guaranteed Rate to my worst enemy.

After emailing several times someone named David emailed me and said Frank didn't work there anymore. OK, GUARANTEED RATE MORTGAGE, THIS WAS THE CHANCE FOR YOU TO REDEEM YOURSELF!!! BUT YOU DIDNT!!! So it appears to me that no one wants any business. David did not tell me if my loan was still open, who would be my next loan officer. He didn't ask if I needed help or information. Clear signs that Guaranteed Rate Mortgage not a good company to work with.

The company also charged us $811.25 for an extended rate lock guarantee. This was not discussed and closing was held up by their inadequate filing of our documents, not because of us. We had to provide more documents than our last 3 houses combined and this was a refinance on a house we purchased 7 months prior so we had just gone through a closing with another bank. They claimed this is the new standard but since we just went through this process 7 months prior we knew they were full of BS. They also harassed my wife's place of work by asking for proof of employment 4 different times (including after we had already closed on the loan). They called and emailed her boss 8 times in a course of a week (her boss was not happy).

As the closing date approached I still didn't know the final loan amount, closing costs or what I would need to bring to closing. A few hours before the closing he tells me I will need a check for almost $3,000. I originally asked to have that kind of money rolled into the loan, but the appraisal amount made that an issue. That's fine, but I should have found that out days before any closing, not 3 hours before the closing. He said a personal check would be ok and that my first payment would be June 1.

When the attorney showed up it turned out a personal check was not ok and the first payment would be May 1. We did not close and I was ready to be done. Davids manager had David sort of apologize, "sorry you misunderstood me" and they offered a 1/8 point reduction with no additional fees. It was enough to entice me back in, but the same behavior from David. Either no information or just "can you bring this much to closing?" No explanation as to why I needed this much or that much. I did not know about the issue with the appraisal amount yet. I kept asking him to roll it in.

And then again, another closing was scheduled and I hadn't seen anything that told me what exactly I was closing. 3.5 hours before the closing the attorney calls me and tells me he doesn't have the paperwork yet. I called David and there is a problem with the Title or something and we have to reschedule. It's now the first week of May. The third attempt to close is approaching and again I don't know details. I know I was told I would get a lower rate, but I haven't seen anything official.

The attorney calls me to verify the appointment and I asked him for details. The rate was not adjusted and instead of rolling in the closing costs, I now need to bring $4,000 to closing and he's never mentioned it to me at all!! I cancelled the closing and sent an email to David shutting it all down. Nothing but frustration and disappointment. His manager jumps in again to defend David and offer me the original rate with points because now the rates have gone up and they can't even offer me the original rate DUE TO THEIR INCOMPETENCE!!! A complete waste of time.

After not hearing from him for a week, I e-mailed him last Friday. He immediately e-mailed me back saying he was back in town and he will get back to me on Monday because he was off for the weekend for Easter. I contacted him on Monday (no answer), Tuesday (no answer), Wednesday - I called him and he answered, but when I told him my name, he stayed quiet and pretended that he couldn't hear me and hung up. I called him back and I got the answering machine instead.

They have this online digital mortgage down to a science. From start to finish, I was very impressed with their commitment to explaining the entire process and keeping me informed of how everything was progressing. All I had to do was follow their instructions, give them all the necessary documentation they requested and they did the rest. I'm no different than most people seeking to purchase a home. I had some credit challenges that the entire team worked with me to overcome. I can honestly say that GR went above and beyond to secure my loan. I never got to meet my team in person, so I want to say THANK YOU ALL! So if you're looking to purchase a home or to refinance, GR is the way to go! GUARANTEED!

Imagine our surprise when at closing I find out that all the documents were automatically done for a 10% down payment and 30-year mortgage. We never discussed this. Our bad for not reading over the 100s of pages of fine print. Now we are stuck paying the PMI. To put additional 10% down will need a new appraisal. Pat was a terrible communicator from the beginning and I wish we had gone with someone else. Choose a different bank.

The loan rate they initially quoted was significantly lower than the final rate with no explanation for the discrepancy, but by then it was too late to go back to a more competitive lender. I would describe everyone of the individuals we had contact with as disorganized and unprofessional. We also lodged a complaint with our realtor. We strongly recommend finding another lender who can provide the expertise, transparency, and accountability you should expect for a decision as big and complex as buying a home!

Seems Joanne had put a payment in that was only 1/2 of what the actual payment was, not what was on our credit report. Shawn **, the branch manager who was at least a little helpful told me that he had me again qualified for the house if I paid off and closed a credit card. Again forward 3 weeks and just before closing, I was told that nope, still not qualified. After talking to a different lender, I was told that no reputable company would have ever qualified me for that house. Now I am out well over $1000 dollars and now no one with Guaranteed Rate will return my calls.