The Orange County Mortgage Blog

 The O.C. Mortgage & Real Estate Blog

My recent experience with Indymac Bank wholesale broker division,can be summed up in one word; Horrible!  I recently submitted 2 past customers of Pinnacle Mortgage Group who are wanting to Refinance their current loans, to Indymac; and let me say here, who used to be in my opinion a good wholesale mortgage lender.

One refi request was to consolidate bills and refinance their current 1st mortgage and the other to simply lower her interest rate and payment; called a Rate & Term Refi.  Both had superior credit scores at 757 and 800 mid-scores respectively, both were full doc providing tax returns for previous 2 years and both had liquid assets in retirement IRA's totalling in the Hundreds of Thousands of dollars. And both had Low Loan to Value ratios at 48% LTV and 67% LTV.  Creme of the creme loans right?  Wrong - not at Indymac Bank!!

Indymac Bank (IMB) now employs outside, independent Review Appraisal services (skewed on the extremely conservative side for their benefit when selling in the secondary markets) who completely and thoroughly inihilatated the deal with the 800 credit score, so much so, that it pushed her Loan to Value over 80%, thus requiring Mortgage Insurance (further protecting IMB's interests) and essentially "blowing out the deal" as the M.I. payment added to the loan made for not enough reduction in overall payment to go ahead with a refinance.  IMB's review appraisal service took our licensed and legit appraisal of $470,000 and slashed it by $85,000 down to $385k!  On the other loan file with the 757 mid-score, they took so long underwriting the file, asking and re-asking for redundent documentatio that had long since been submitted with the original loan file that they caused the 30 day rate lock to expire and then refuses to acknowledge it was their fault nor help with the pricing increases caused by the expiration. I asked the V.P. of operations at the branch we deal with in Orange County CA if they would "work with us" to allow this deal to fund, and If they wanted any more future business from my Mortgage firm"?  His answer was bluntly; Embrace their way of doing things, or hit the highway?? Ironic, I thought?  Embrace their way of slooooow underwriting, lousy over-conservative outside third party review appraisals, with zero service nor care of future business from Their Customers - Us the Mortgage Broker!!  To me this total and complete lack of service nor caring whether they got any future business from my 24 year mortgage brokerage told me that those rumors I've been hearing of IMB changing over to a Retail Only operation by 2010, and shutting down or scaling back drastically with their Wholesale business, are most likely true.  IMB has been hit hard in recent quarterly reporting of their REO's and loan write-downs from foreclosures and servicing defaults and it is now showing with a blinking neon sign - They do not want mortgage broker business at this time!  I felt it my responsibilty to let my colleagues across the Country know of my own personal experience with what once was a top wholesale lender in the industry.  Things have been and are continuing to change and adjust during this sub-prime fall-out and trying to find a "bottom" with home prices and valuations.

How else can one explain this total inept service and lack of commitment to their current wholesale mortgage customers??  Your comments and opinions on this troubling concern for mortgage brokers is encouraged - please voice your opinions and concerns, be you a consumer, home owner, mortgage or real estate professional - I would like to hear your thoughts or similar experiences! 

Thanks for reading my blog, I look forward to hearing from all of you!