I just signed onto a Countrywide loan. Countrywide was recommended by my Los Angeles area realtor and they said they would be able to work together with the mortgage company to get things done faster. Well, it still took over 6 weeks (not too bad) but I never knew the actual amount of closing costs until literally the night before closing, and that was only because I raised hell about not knowing the amounts with my realtor and she made some calls.\r
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My Countrywide broker had not returned my calls for over 3 weeks prior to closing, and was not even available at the time of closing - only the Title Company's notary - who wanted an additional $280 at that time that had not been discussed the night before.\r
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ALSO - BUYER BEWARE - The notary tried to actually cover up the part of the page that showed that we did not have 3 days to rescind the new mortgage contract and said it was ""standard"" procedure. She presented the bottom half of the page, and the top half was covered by some other documents and said ""just sign here."" I pulled the page up and she actually looked embarassed!\r
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They put points in without consulting me first, and then tried to claim that we had already agreed on it. I was the idiot for asking the question. This was after my realtor said that closing costs would be about half that. I was a new buyer - how was I to know?\r
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I used to think that the mortgage loan problems were the fault of buyers who did not understand what they were doing, but now it appears that buyers are deliberately kept in the dark until the last minute.
Pros: Did get a loan
Cons: Kept buyer in dark until last minute
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