I'm coming to the final days of my 45 day lock on a 30 yr fixed VA loan for $390.000 on a new construction I'm to buy in Virginia and the loan has yet to be finalized.  There's a lot of last minute scrambling for documents to meet VA requirements - which to me should have been handled weeks ago.  Should the lock expire, I'm dumping my LO and will be shopping for a new mortgage.  Can anyone tell me of a reputable - and RESPONSIVE - lender in Virginia who can help me with my loan.  I've been told that I'm an excellent subject since my credit score is in the low 800's, I make just over $100k, have a low debt to income ratio, and can put 10% down.  Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated - to say that this has been a pretty undesirable experience would be an understatement.

Jason,

I can understand your frustration with regards to your situation. I don't think finding another LO or company to work with is a smart option, however. If you think this company is not playing by the rules or is really not working in your best interest then that's another story. Starting this process over with someone else is basically game over...start again at level 1. New appraisal, probably higher rates as of today, new paperwork, etc. Ultimately it might cost you more to start all over than to extend your lock for a couple of days/week.

Talk w/ your LO and make him explain EXACTLY what the situation is. Come back and post it and we can give you further advice as to the situation. But leaving them just because the lock expires is probably not the best option for you at this point.

Keep in mind, your LO WANTS to close your loan just as badly as you do. He doesn't get paid unless it closes. Find out why he can't close it and you might have a better feeling towards the situation.

Jason,

I am a lender in Virginia and I specialize in VA loans. Give me a call 919-249-4131.

The issue apparently is that the VA produced a laundry list of required documents Friday afternoon and my LO waited until Monday afternoon to contact me and the realtor.  It seem like somebody somewhere waited to the last minute to handle my case and now I'm having to intervene to ensure my realtor and LO are cooperating to push this through the last 10 yrds.  I've unfortunately not been very impressed with my LO through this process and should've changed much earlier.  She wasn't proactive in contacting me with rate changes prior to locking, and has since been extremely quiet since then.  She deals primarily in e-mail and doesn't follow up with phone calls to ensure informaiton has been received - which has been a major problem especially with time sensitive information needs.  For example:  she knew I would be out of my office for two weeks on vacation, but could be reached 24/7 via my cell phone... she still sent e-mails asking for more current bank statements --- I asked her why she didn't call... her explanation was that she didn't want to bother me on vacation.  I didn't really know what to say - I told her to call if anything came up, because this is obviosly an important issue and I wanted to avoid what I'm dealing with this week. 

So your option is to let her finish what she started or start all over with someone else out of spite. Seems like an easy choice to me. Finish up and put this behind you. Learn from this experience and next time use someone that you not only trust but someone that you get along with, someone you think is going to look out for your best interests. Gut feelings go A LONG WAY.

Jason et al,

The real truth here is that most Loan officers don't even know how to contact the VA let alone process a VA loan application. If the LO was worth his or her salt you would have been well informed of the items needed to process your loan and prepare you for what will be asked for once your loan has been underwritten. Processing all loan types over the last four months has been a challenge but if your expectations were set at the beginning you probably never would have found this blog.

LO Jason is correct in saying a loan officer does not get paid unless a deal closes IN MOST CASES but if they run you thru hell on the way to collecting his or her pay check should they really be allowed to collect a fee?

VA loans can be transferred from company to company so there is no need to order a new appraisal because the VA appraisal will follow you to another company should you choose one.

I closed over 100 mil in 2008 and 60% of my business are VA loans. Let me know if you need any help.

$100 million in 2008? Jesus H! Nice work, that's very impressive.