Guaranteed Rate, Inc.

Slow, disorganized, and caused us to close late

I worked with Alex and Ashley in Chicago and just completed a frustrating and disappointing loan with Guaranteed Rate with the net result being that we did

not close on time. My loan was pretty simple. I put 20% down, the appraisal came back higher than sales price, I'm unmarried, have good credit, have a

salaried job that I've been at for 11 plus years, we had 31 days to close, and this was a conforming loan. The only complication was that I was signing

remotely which meant that I needed to ship our signed documents the afternoon before closing.

It took 28 days from the time we started the process until they provided the loan documents to the title company. They set a handful of internal deadlines

to review documents, approve the loan, etc and missed them all. There were multiple delays due to asking for documents I had already sent that were not

reviewed correctly. The end result was that we closed late and had to scramble on the weekend to get a contract extension from the seller.

I wish I could tell you that I got the B Team and that your loan will go better. However, I reached out several times to express concern about the lack of

progress and they dismissed any concern I raised and stated that everything was going smoothly. This makes me believe that this is a typical experience

with Guaranteed Rate. After contacting client relations and multiple phone calls, they did offer to send me a small gift card. I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourself if you'd like to go through something similar.

I've gone back through all of our communications and here's the timeline:
6/09 - Our offer was accepted, made contact with Guaranteed Rate, filled out online application.
6/10 - Decided to use Guaranteed Rate, completed application over phone.
6/11 - First contact from the processor, signed application, began delivering documents.
6/12 - I completed delivering documents one day early, was told they would be reviewed within 4 days (6/16).
6/17 - Asked for an update since there was no response on the review, was told they would be reviewed tomorrow.
6/20 - Asked for an update on the document review. Received no response.
6/22 - Document review was completed 6 days late. Received request for additional documents.
6/23 - I delivered additional documents one day early. Was told they'd be reviewed shortly.
6/24 - Loan submitted to underwriting.
6/26 - Was told loan should be approved today or tomorrow.
6/29 - Was told loan would be approved no later than 6/30.
6/31 - Loan was approved. Was asked to provide documents on account which I had provided the week prior.
7/01 - Was asked for insurance information which I provided the week prior.
7/02 - Was asked for verification of receipt of appraisal which I provided two weeks prior.
7/03 - The loan was cleared to close.
7/07 - Documents provided to Title Company in the afternoon leaving 1 hour for them to prepare, us to sign, and ship documents.

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OK

The only broker that was not calling me every hour. Decided to go with someone local.

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Be Aware

If you are planning on refinancing and have only W-2 or 1099 income, then GR is a good company to use because they have low rates.

If you need to rely on income from a Schedule E or Schedule C, GR is not qualified to handle this type of income. I have this type of income and it took four months to close my first loan with them and it was a struggle all the way.

Do not use GR if you are purchasing a home. If you do, be prepared for additional stress because GR's communications are extremely poor after the initial information gathering period.

Be aware that GR does not underwrite jumbo loans. These loans are done by the lender who will end up owning the loan.

By background - retired from being a corporate real estate broker for over 40 years.

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Hold on after you get your docs in -

Lots of contact until the docs got in and d the loan was approved - then everyone disappeared until 2 hours vefore I was to sign papers. complete lack of contact and info - great rate, but lousy customer service.

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