Awful. Just Awful. If you are military and you have chosen Alaska USA as your VA mortgage company, prepare to have the life sucked out of you & all possible joy of new home ownership be flattened like a pancake. This was my 8th home purchase in my life and, by far, the worst ever. You know those "ultra-cool hipsters" in trendy coffee shops who act like they are doing you a favor getting your latte? The ones that treat you like you have interfered with their day? Yeah, them. The people at AlaskaUSA Mortgage go to the same training to learn how to be accusative, aloof, and treat you like you are wasting their time by buying a house. First, while it is standard procedure to provide bank statements for your checking, savings, and retirement account, expect to be grilled with an accusatory attitude and treated like a criminal and have to explain every dime deposited into your accounts. And, OMGoodness! If there are any cash deposits, it is so obvious you are engaged in selling meth!! Then, for fun, withdraw the earnest money that goes with your home offer FROM AlaskaUSA and get a money order when you make the offer. You will then be grilled five ways to Friday as to WHERE the money came from and why you don't have checks on your account. Seriously, we haven't had checks in a decade and AlaskaUSA treated us like we were the ones behind the times. Hello? Checks were so LAST CENTURY. Only grandmothers write checks now. I can pay EVERY bill I have online and pay for every purchase I make with a debit card. Isn't technology fun? Next in the process, AlaskaUSA will call the appraiser of their choosing. You will learn that there is a 21 day WAIT!!! for an appraisal. We offered to pay $150 for an "expedited appraisal" in 12-14 days. We put it in an email and in a phone conversation with AlaskaUSA mortgage on the same day. Then, we waited & waited. On the day our EXPEDITED appraisal was promised, we learned that NO ONE FROM ALASKAUSA had bothered to tell the appraiser that it was to be expedited!!!! No kidding. So we sat and twiddled our thumbs ANOTHER FREAKIN' week due to THEIR ERROR. Finally, when the appraisal was submitted after 22 days, the appraiser wrote that the house both NEEDED and DIDN'T need repairs. So, VA wouldn't accept it until it was corrected. Of course, that took from Monday to Wednesday to get corrected. Because, you know, they can't be bothered to take this seriously and shame on you for wanting to buy a house anyhow. Silly you. Ok...so now the house needs repairs. Repairs that are going to need three different types of contractors. So, get all them out there in one week to do the repairs? No! That would be too easy! Instead, let's schedule them, one at a time over the course of three weeks. Of course, the final contractor needs to replace two windows and, guess what? Those window sizes have to be special ordered! We have another 2 week delay! yay! Now...it's time for you to close and become a homeowner, right? Well, guess what! AlaskaUSA Mortgage insists that you AREN'T the owner of your home UNTIL the title company has recorded it. That's right! After all this trouble, expect to NOT BE GIVEN THE KEYS to your new home AT CLOSING...because, despite the fact that you have signed ALL THE PAPERWORK and given them a CASHIER'S CHECK FROM ALASKAUSA TO ALASKAUSA, you are such a CRIMINAL that you can't be trusted and you must be trying to pull one over on them....so, if you have the audacity to think you own the house, you don't. You have to sign an "early occupancy agreement" for a HOUSE YOU JUST BOUGHT and paid closing costs for! That's right! And...this agreement says you "will move out in 5 days if you don't close on the house"....ah, DUH! You just closed! Also, the agreement says people from AlaskaUSA can enter the house all they want between closing and recording without your permission. That's right, you can move your stuff in under the agreement...but they can enter the house and go through all your stuff LEGALLY if they want. Because, you know, you inconvenienced them by buying the house! Shame on you! Hello! In the rest of civilized USA...the closing is the FINAL step in the buying process and ownership transfers to the buyer AT CLOSING. This is straight from the Zillow website "Closing ---- Also known as settlement, this is the final phase of a real estate transaction when the property is formally transferred from the seller to the buyer. It is usually handled by a title company, though some states require an attorney at closing. Closing is when the buyer takes on any loan obligations and receives title from the seller. " This is backed up by hundreds of other websites....closing is the point where ownership transfers to the BUYER. It doesn't matter if it takes the title clerk 15 minutes to go record it or if it takes them a week. IT'S CALLED THE CLOSING BECAUSE THE DEAL IS CLOSED. Bottom line - Find another Mortgage Lender read more