Avery Tuell was great to work with. He has closed several loans for me and he is top notch as a lender. I appreciate him and his team getting my loan completed on my home. read more

I think that they go by the Southern Elite Mortgage now. And, yes we made a big mistake accepting them to handle our loan. I am so disappointed with their work since they started the loan thinking we are buying the single family home. Then it is the townhome. It was not correct. They accepted the purchase agreement signed by my husband only - it was joint loan. It took a month until they discovered it is different type of house and it needed to be resubmitted. This took another few days and we missed closing scheduled for the first time. We missed the second as well since there were no final disclosures issued. There were many more mistakes made in process by them. The worst thing: We paid their mistakes and the money (deposit) from my 10 year old son has been retained by the seller! I would not TRUST them ever again to handle anything! read more

Horrendous experience. Lacked in professionalism. Calls were not returned. If you're in the market for a mortgage company, do yourself a favor, DON'T CHOOSE THIS COMPANY! read more

service request was horrible mia communication. sharing of PI to others without consent. STAY AWAY.

Look no further...Jennifer Pavlak from Southern Trust Mortgage is the Loan Officer that you have been looking for. Jennifer was the best possible person who we could have worked with when trying to secure a home quickly and easily. We were first time home buyers and not sure if we should go with a local lender or a big bank. While we were shopping around for the best rate and Loan Officer, we found that Jennifer quickly rose to the top in terms of knowledge, accessibility, and ability to work quickly and effectively. She truly cared about us and our process and was honest and forthcoming, which made us feel at ease throughout the process. From day one, Jennifer was so explanatory and made it so easy to understand all of the seemingly daunting financial elements of purchasing a home. Jennifer was always accessible - evenings and weekends, and we never felt that we couldn't get in touch with her if we needed her. Jennifer closed on our house in 21 DAYS!!! This was incredibly quick, and she did it all while being incredibly friendly, helpful and optimistic throughout the process. Not only that but she secured us a great rate and saved us so much money. I HIGHLY recommend Jennifer and Southern Trust Mortgage! Especially if you are a first time home buyer and not sure where to turn! read more

Yelp really needs to be able to give zero stars. When I tell you they royally fucked up our mortgage...they absolutely killed the joy in buying our first home. If you're considering them at all, likely because a home builder is recommending them (what happened to us) PLEASE message me. I will spend all my time fielding your questions if I can spare you from our experience. read more

Wish I had looked at Yelp before I went with Southern Trust. Mortgages are sold within days of closing. Found out several months after closing that I was eligible for a credit that my loan officer Wesley Smith didn't even feel the need to present to me. Upper management apparently doesn't seem to care because when I asked to speak with someone I never heard from anyone until I "reached" to them. Lacking in professionalism and I'm truly heartbroken. Update: two months later I still have yet to be contacted by anyone from upper management. I've reached out to Clayton Hicks and exchanged a few emails that claim "he's looking into it" Update #2: I guess the management team was interested in my review because I never heard from them. Update #3: Came to an agreement with COO Patrica Sherwood and it was not honored. Still working on a resolution. read more

When Southern Trust sold our loan to Penny Mac last November, our property taxes (which we had paid in full at closing) were not paid to our local county tax collector. Therefore, we got a bill in January with a penalty. Penny Mac, working with Southern Trust, paid the taxes (plus penalty) out of our escrow. Southern Trust took responsibility for the fiasco (even though Penny Mac should have noticed, too), and agree to refund the penalty amount paid by Penny Mac out of our escrow in February. I just learned that it took Southern Trust THREE MONTHS to send the penalty refund to Penny Mac, and Penny Mac then had no idea what the money was for and put it in "suspense" in my account. It was just applied against my principal in July, which was 10 months after we put the money in escrow to pay the property taxes. I will never, ever use Southern Trust again, and highly recommend that you do not, too, unless you don't want them to pay your property taxes on time or process a refund in a decent amount of time after they mess it all up. I also hope to refinance away from Penny Mac as soon as possible. read more

We couldn't be more pleased with our experience with Southern Trust Mortgage - in fact, it was our second time using them (we did comparison shop at local lenders and they still had the best rates.) The whole team was terrific from beginning to end!! Wes and his team, especially Meg and Katie, made our experience easy, efficient, and straightforward. Our primary contact with paperwork was Meg and she was just outstanding - so responsive, helpful, and supportive. We received an EXCELLENT rate and closed in exactly 30 days, with no issues along the way. I never ever want to move again, but if we do, we'll use Southern Trust again. Thank you all! read more

We had been working with Southern Trust Mortgage for 10 months. Ten days prior to closing they requested a "letter of intent" for my husband's re-enlistment. We tried telling them we could not produce one because my husband was not enlisted and in all of the 10 months we had been working with them they knew he was an officer so why were they requesting something we cousins produce 10 days out?!?! We pleaded with them to make sure they understood we did not fall into the enlisted category and they demanded that we produce the letter or they would not close. With 10 days left to close we didn't have time for the ignorant nonsense. We scrambled to find another lender and thank goodness we were successful to find another lender who knew we could not provide such a letter as it did not apply to us. The new lender we found was able to get us to closing ON TIME IN JUST 10 DAYS! We can't believe Southern Trust didn't know that such a simple document did not apply to us and missed out on a half-million dollar closing!! Southern Trust begged us to come back after we already decided to go with another lender who was very confident and could close us on time. When we refused, Southern Trust called our real estate agent and begged her to help him salvage the close! When she told him it was too late, he told our agent that my husband needed to "just pull up his big boy pants!" Our agent was appalled that on a business level, AND insulting someone who served 23 years in the military, Southern Trust found locker room trash talk to be acceptable! read more

Exceptional response time along with comprehensive messaging allowed for minimal back and forth between Andrew and I. This greatly expedited the process. John Eiler was very helpful and provided information needed, even responding before and after 'business hours'. Everyone needs a little hand holding. read more

This was the worst experience I have Ever had , this company had caused me more money at the end, I am almost sure my loan officer was racist, I rarely spoke to him and when I did he was fast talking rushed me off the phone , mr Wes flowers gave us the run around . Told us we was pre approved for a new construction house, we paid the land fee and moved on to building, after 4 months he calls to tell me I was not approved, he needed my husband to go on the loan then they decided to not put him up there ( after getting all his information ) now I'm approved again ..... house was to be done in August, now his assistant tells me they are not moving forward. This is the short story ..... I spoke with his assistant more than I spoke with him read more

I had an amazing experience with Laura Glasby I could not have asked for a better person to work with for my first home THANK YOU!!!!!!

Wonderful job, as always! Have worked with Andrew for over 10 years, and will definitely use him again for my next loan! read more

My wife and I are working with the Raleigh location and are having a horrendous experience. We're also not typically people to complain as we're usually laid back and go with the flow But in this case, if we weren't 1 week away from closing and there weren't fees involved, we would pull out and go to a different company at this point. Honestly, it's so bad we've thought about paying the fees just so they don't get the commission from this. The lack of efficient and timely communication is ridiculous at this point. Both of us are in project management and my wife ended up having to project manage their team due to the lack of responses and information. When pointing this out and requesting improvement in this area, the rep tried to make us out as believe we were being "set up." In actually, he just can't explain where the numbers on their statements are coming from or what their actual process is. We emailed the branch manager to complain directly and request some assistance and she's been on copy of all emails. She's not responded to us either so I guess this is just an issue with the Raleigh branch. DO NOT work with them. There are plenty of other mortgage companies with a hell of a lot better customer service and communication. I'm sure they will attempt to comment and spin this but it is guaranteed false claims. read more

Abby has been a champion for us for the third time. We will never use or recommend anyone else in this area. She will work hard for you and make sure you get what you deserve. No BS and tells you like it is up front. She also made the process fun and stress free. Couldn't ask for a better experience. read more

Brad, Jim and Ralph my Realtor worked seamlessly to make the mortgage process easy. Great experience when you deal with pros! My only surprise was how much they exceeded my expectations! read more

Refinanced our mortgage through STM. It was a terrible experience. Won't ever give them our business again! Agent was arrogant and totally unprofessional. We were so close to canceling the entire process but since we were so far along in the process, we went through with it. Needless to say, we never heard a word from the agent once the loan closed; not surprised, though. Our loan was immediately sold to another lender after closing. read more

My fiancé and I are first-time homebuyers were using State Employees' Credit Union during the pre-approval process. They were being difficult with giving us the amount that we needed as my fiancé had just gotten a new, higher paying job but they needed two months of pay stubs to approve us. Anyway, our realtor said they they had heard of someone getting approved thru Southern Trust easily so we tried it out. Boy was that a bad idea. We did not hear from them for weeks during the due diligence period of closing so we figured they had everything that was needed. As the time came closer, we told them we would be taking a vacation to California and needed to have everything completed prior to leaving. Long story short, we were closing on a Monday and were forced to rush around in San Francisco on the Friday before to get everything printed, signed, scanned, and emailed back. What a nightmare! VERY poor communication. We found out before closing they they sell your mortgage to another company without much notice. They also aren't very clear on when your first payment is or if it even goes to them. We paid our first mortgage payment to the new provider on the first of the month. On the 15th, STM sent us a letter saying that we had missed a payment and that there was now a late fee. It would have been nice to have received something from STM stating that the first payment went to them and how to pay it. Was I supposed to just send them a check in the mail and hope that it got to the right place? Really wish we could have stayed with SECU or another company at this point. read more

This firm appears to be either understaffed, incompetent or just doesn't care. We sold our house over a month ago with a closing scheduled August 11, 2015. The buyer chose Southern Trust for financing but Southern Trust has consistently failed to live up to its responsibilities. The closing was postponed to 13th, the 14th, then the 21st, 24th, 25th and now on 26th, the buyer has been informed that they still do not have the loan package completed. Since the buyer has solid credit and is this is a VA backed loan. I see no reason for such poor service. In the meantime, I have received numerous dunning letters from my mortgage company, and the ensuing harm to my credit because of the failure of this firm. As of today, the buyer is about to pull the loan from this firm and find a more competent lender. read more