I had the misfortune of doing business with East Coast Commercial (ECC), which was to provide a mortgage for the property I was buying. The company's president, Christopher Ando, pressured me to wire the large ($2,300) loan-fee deposit, which he repeatedly assured me was refundable if ECC did not provide the property's loan. He also repeatedly assured me that ECC would give an approval decision (i.e. commit or decline) within 10 days. After 20 days, ECC had not provided a loan decision and it was apparent from his company's failure to request any additional information on the property that he had not made any real progress on securing a loan. Consequently, I had to resort to an expensive hard money loan for the property's mortgage.
I contacted the Better Business Bureau. After ECC repeatedly refused to refund the loan deposit, ECC requested that the BBB assign a neutral arbitrator to review my complaint and produce a binding outcome (The arbitrator was equally compensated by both parties). That arbitrator awarded a refund to me, however, ECC failed to refund any money during the required period and even to this day. That is not surprising since ECC has other unhappy customers and even failed to pay a legal judgment awarded by the court. This scofflaw's spotty record has caused ECC to be awarded an F rating by the Better Business Bureau:
http://www.bbb.org/upstate-new-york/business-reviews/loans-small-business/east-coast-commercial-inc-in-rochester-ny-66007687
If your experience is like mine, you will not be able to count on any results if you hire Mr. Ando and/or East Coast Commercial. Rather, you can count on the company being all talk, despite few, brief communications during the loan process. And, while you can forget about the money back guarantee on the deposit you give ECC, it is guaranteed that the company will expend little effort on your loan and string you along the way.
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