I trusted my nice buyer's agent and went with Zillow Home Loans to finance my condo purchase. This apparently was a huge mistake. I have gotten two home loans in the past two and a half decades, and never before has the process been so dubious, piecemeal, and frustrating.
Worse, my experience (terrible communication by Zillow's loan officer and "undewriter" with me, my insurance agent, and with each other; demanding more and more documents just a few days before closing; sending me documents to sign with incorrect figures on them and telling me to "sign them anyway" when I point it out) mirrors the bad experiences I now have read on Trustpilot, where Zillow has a 1.4/5 rating. Apparently from what one commenter was told by their loan officer, the company uses A.I. for underwriting, which almost surely means that they don't understand why that A.I. black box is reaching conclusions and asking for more data and simply push those data requests to the applicant.
I no longer trust Zillow, especially when multiple commenters talk about the company not only blowing past the closing date because they can't get their underwriting process together but also doing things like not actually locking in rates and producing a loan offer the day before closing with higher rates and down payment requirements than they had communicated to the borrower even a few days before that. My closing is set for six days from now in a city an eight-hour drive away from me, and if funding is not ready in time, then I want to call a halt by Wednesday so that I can cancel my travel arrangements. However, I also want my earnest money back, which I will get according to the purchase agreement if I cannot secure funding by the date of the close.
So, what do I do?
– Wait until Zillow doesn't finish underwriting by the closing date? I'm pretty confident they won't finish; commenters talk about them sending more document requests several hours before the scheduled close and sometimes flat-out cancelling the closing because underwriting is incomplete. If I wait for the actual closing date, however, then I will have traveled, gotten a hotel, paid the pet sitter, and incurred other travel expenses for nothing.
– Call a halt to the process the day before I travel, which would be two days before the closing? I'm not sure if doing this would not count as my being "unable to secure funding" and might jeopardize the return of my earnest money.
Needless to say, I'm pretty sure I've lost this condo and maybe even my chance to get another loan for 3–6 months since Zillow's hard credit check dropped my score from the 800s to the 700s. I guess I have to be an example of what not to do: never choose a lender on anyone's recommendation without evaluating things yourself.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1v77pqs/back_out_before_close_or_after_lender_fails_to/
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