I used Peoples Mortgage to secure a VA home loan and I worked with two of their mortgage brokers: Jerry Norlander and Lori Smolke. They are cowardly, dishonest & unscrupulous individuals. Contact me if you would like evidence.
CONDENSED VERSION OF EVENTS: Jerry and Lori withheld (or didn't know) VA lending requirements. One week before closing we find out that Peoples Mortgage is trying to get an exception to the rules in order to make our loan. We had spent thousands of dollars already on VA inspection, VA appraisal, our inspection and title fees. They were sending us invoices while they knew the loan was not a guarantee - not even close to being a sure thing. We would never have spent over 3k if we knew that there was a solid chance the VA would not grant an exception. It turned out that the VA did not grant the exception. We could only use my girl's income on the loan, and had to pay every debt we had (aside from car loans) to show we could afford proposed mortgage payment on solely her income.
FULL VERSION OF EVENTS: One week before we were supposed to close, Peoples informed me that we still had to get approval from the VA to use my income on the loan (to determine my ability to repay). At the time, this was very concerning, but People's assured me that they were extremely confident in attaining VA approval (in fact, one of their admin assistants told me that she would have bet thousands of dollars on getting VA approval).
VA lending guidelines state that a borrower must have worked at their job for a certain period of time. They do make exceptions; for example: if a borrower changed jobs but remained in the same industry. At the time of closing, I had not even been out of the Army for one year, so I obviously did not meet the work history requirements.
Whether or not we were going to get this loan hinged on the VA granting an exception. Peoples did not disclose this to us. Despite countless phone calls, texts, and emails, Peoples Mortgage never told us that our loan would only be possible if the VA granted an exception regarding my job history. Apparently they didn't feel the need.
We were advised to pay title fees, the VA appraisal, the VA inspector, and our inspector. Peoples Mortgage were sending us invoices for the VA Final Inspection, BEFORE they even knew that our loan was possible. We had spent thousands of $ and unbeknownst to us, there was a very real chance of the VA denying my job history and our entire loan falling apart.
The VA ended up denying my job history. Peoples Mortgage acted very surprised, explaining that they are routinely granted exceptions from the VA. One week before closing we find this out. We had already cancelled the lease on our rental. We almost ended up having nowhere to live.
Fortunately, we could use my girls income on the loan. But in order to show that we could afford the proposed house payment on just my girls income, we had to pay off every single debt we had aside from our car loans. We had to pay thousands towards all of these debts. Money that we had intended on using for our new house, flights to see our family over Christmas, and gifts. Money we had set aside from a plumber, electrician, landscaper etc. was all spent.
There's only 2 ways to look at this issue:
1. Lori and Jerry didn't know the VA lending guidelines, and are therefore incompetent.
2. Lori and Jerry understood the loan would only be possible if we were given an exception, and purposefully kept us in the dark about it to get our business (most likely the case). Brokers like them are exactly why we had the subprime crisis.
Peoples Mortgage were generally trash to work with. They routinely emailed us asking for documents we had already provided. When issues arose, they didn't have the backbone to tell us outright. They would avoid our phone calls and hide behind their secretary.
Mistakes happen, but this was deceit. Jerri and Lori could barely own up to their actions, and if I felt that they had a modicum of remorse I would not even be posting this. read more