Wells Fargo Finally Comes Through!

And it's over ladies and gentlemen...it's finally over!  Yes, we are officially done working with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.  At one point, it looked like WF had ghosted my refinance application, but a few days after this last blog post, I got an email from Leticia, the mortgage processor.  She explained in her email to my wife, Jessica, and me that they were working with their "underwriting team" to move our file over to the Closing department.  I gotta say it was a little strange getting updated by Leticia.  She hadn't done it before!

Then Leticia proceeded to email an additional three more times with updates.  She was polite, telling us to "have a great weekend," and she even threw in a happy face emoji on one of her emails.  I didn't know what the heck was going on!  If you've read my last two blog post on my refinancing with WF experience, you'd know that this was not what I'd come to expect in the form of customer service.  I was a bit taken aback, but happily surprised that my loan application had not been ghosted!

Leticia redeemed herself in my book.  I would've appreciated a consistent concern for my experience as a WF Home Mortgage customer from a mortgage processor, but as they say..."better late than never."  One person who was my advocate throughout this 6.75 month ordeal...yes, it took that long...was my mortgage consultant, Will Harrelson.  If I were to rate his customer service, I'd give Will:

10/10 for availability

9/10 for communication

10/10 for advocacy

10/10 for professionalism/friendliness

If it weren't for Will, my application would've probably been shelved.  So big ups for Will!

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage underwriting team finally sent my application to the Closing Department at the end of the first week of this month.  It took another week before the closing docs were available.  I was told that the earliest I'd be able to have a notary come to my home would be 9/18.  I thought I'd get an email from Wells Fargo facilitating this last part of the closing process.  But the only thing I got was a phone call from the notary requesting a time to meet later in the evening.  It was unexpected.  Usually, a bank will hire a company to book a notary.  This hired company will send you an email and let you book a time with one of the notaries.  But this is Wells Fargo!  They told the notary to "just call" me.

Luckily my wife and I weren't doing anything that Friday night, so we went ahead and made a late appointment with the notary.  We just wanted this ordeal over with.  One last critique of Wells Fargo was their closing docs.  Listen, I've closed on several mortgage loans...at least 8 times I've done this.  I've never been stumped on what to do or how to fill out a form.  Wells Fargo's forms stumped us all.  Plus they asked for personal information I'd never had to provide with anyone else.  For example, we were asked if we'd been married before.  Jessica and I had to write in the names of our former married partners.  And this wasn't an optional thing!  It's like they wanted to know all about us.

Well, Wells Fargo came through after all.  They gave me what they promised me, a new loan on an investment property I own at a rate of 4.75%.  I also got an incidental amount of cash at closing, $1895.  That wasn't bad.  But we went through too much turmoil for me to give WF Home Mortgage anything beyond a 3 out of 10.  They did offer me an opportunity to leave a review of my experience via a survey.  Of course I let them have it.  I still maintain the position that if you can, you should avoid doing any home mortgage business with WF.  Folks, stay away!  There are plenty of smaller banks out there willing to consider your mortgage application with sincerity and decency.  Until next time!