NationPoint is a lender. In fact, they ended up being thee lender in our equation. We used them to purchase our house.
I've discovered that everyone sounds great before the sale goes through, once they have you under contract or with money committed to the table, things oftentimes get a little more rocky. I'm afraid that NationPoint was an example of this.
I received a call from one of their Senior Loan Consultants. He promised me that they could offer me a loan with good rates even though I had a high debt-to-income ratio. After talking to several other loan companies I decided NationPoint was my best bet. They had a great Better Business Bureau rating and where a large, nationwide company.
Things rolled along somewhat smoothly at first. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I answered lots of questions. Eventually I received a notice that my loan disclosures where available on their website. This was were the first significant bumps in the road arose. I clicked on the link. I logged in. No disclosures. I called my loan consultant, he informed me he would have their disclosure department send the disclosures through again. Again I checked, again no disclosures. He told me not to worry, that the disclosures were in the mail. I was getting nervous. The disclosures finally came.
Somewhere around now was when we moved the purchase price up by $5,000. Originally we had requested $5,000 in seller's assist from the seller. They had agreed, this was the maximum that Weichert was allowed to offer in the loan (those we had previously been looking at a loan through). I was concerned. The loan consultant had told me we were close to our debt-to-income ratio, but now he told me they could offer us another $5,000 in seller's assist for a total of $10,000. This would help us get over the hump of closing closts, but would it put us over the debt-to-income ration? He assured me we were fine.
My wife was in the unusual position of having graduated and at the same time planning on returning to school in the fall. I was unsure I would be able to get deferment letters from the loan companies so I asked my loan officer if we would still be okay if we couldn't get the deferment letters, he assured me we would still be okay.
He handed me off to the loan processor. She was nice. She had a nice voice. She asked for information and I gave it to her. Things were quite for a little while. We received the home inspection report, we gave it to her. She told me that we could waive the report and not have to repair the carpenter ant problem. My real estate agent was at this point calling both loan officer and loan processor on an almost daily basis asking, "Are we good for closing?" The reply was always yes. I asked the same.
At the last moment, the day before closing I received several frustrating replies. They told us that we needed to get the carpenter ants cleaned out and they said that our deferment letters were not satisfactory (did not go out 6 mo.) and that we no longer fit in the debt-to-income ratio. After days of asking if everything was okay, we were utterly frustrated. Especially since we had addressed both of these issues earlier and had been assured that they would not be an issue.
The loan officer worked the problem. Eventually they received permission to waive the requirement of the deferment letters, thus bringing us back into the debt-to-income ratio. I also, immediately, scheduled a exterminator and they took care of the carpenter ant problem. The money was to come in before the newly rescheduled closing.
I called to ensure everything would be okay and was ensured that it would be. I pressed for the money to be wired early so it could be available on the closing date and we were told that it could be. Then I called, it was noon. I was informed that the money had not been wired and that they did not perform wires after noon, therefore it would be sent out at 9:30 a.m. the day of closing. I told them that we were closing at 9, they said not to worry about it.
The next morning our fingers itched as we waited for the wire. The hours passed. The sellers waited. I called. "Where is the wire?" "We didn't send it out at 9:30 a.m. We were waiting for paperwork." Okay, it didn't go out on time. But several hours had passed. When will it get here. "Well, we submitted the request for the wire, but it takes a few hours to process." I was deceived. Couldn't you have told me the day before that the money took time to transfer? That it wouldn't be ready at 9:30 a.m.? I could have pushed back the closing. Instead I signed reams of legal documents and began moving into the house before I even knew that the money had definetly come through. What a nerve-wracking experience.
Negatives:
- False promises.
- Failure to return phone calls.
- Failure of web based system.
- Failure to regularly advise of status of loan.
- Failure to follow-up regarding trouble issues.
Positives:
- Did wire the money eventually.
- Was able to offer reasonable interest rates.
- Was able to help us even in our unusual situation.
Summary: Our experience with NationPoint was filled with weaknesses. NationPoint accomplished the job but not without much hand-wringing on our parts. I could not recommend NationPoint to anyone seeking a loan, though I have no better options. NationPoint was able to offer us some unique things - lower rates and unique help in a difficult financial situation - but this does not outweigh the heavy failure to communicate and the miscommunications or downright false communications which occurred.
June 06, 2007 Update:
Its been around a year since we first established contact with NationPoint and in a little over two months it will be a year since I first published this blog article. Its funny how topics you didn't ever intend to become main focuses of conversation did. These days if you do a search for "Nation Point review" or "NationPoint" you will find this blog posting come up right near the top. Not to mention the many comments I have received from consumers like myself as well as from loan officers with NationPoint. I figured it was my duty to take a few minutes to update everyone on my experience with NationPoint.
After closing the sale I haven't really heard from NationPoint again - except to receive my monthly bills. I receive two bills every month - one for my first mortgage, one for my second. I've paid them regularly and haven't had any problems to speak of. I use their website somewhat regularly and it is a little bulky, but overall gets the job done. My post-purchase experience has been much better than the pre-purchase experience. Not to say that I would now recommend NationPoint any more highly. In fact, the growing number of comments from consumers that seem heavily negative concerns me more than my initial observations.
I intend to keep this blog post here for the foreseeable future and I hope consumers, potential consumers, loan officers, etc. will all take the opportunity to continue posting their thoughts on NationPoint here. Thanks for the unexpected opportunity you have all given me to interact with you and share my thoughts as well as hear yours.