SUMMIT FUNDING INC

I purchased my first home two years ago and Ken McKee greatly assisted me with the Mortgage process. So, when I went to refinance that home for a lower rate, I contacted Ken again. He and his team were extremely helplful. One point I really appreciated was that every Tuesday they called in person to provide an update of the status of the loan. That really helped make a difficult process less painful. Interestingly, the first appraisal I had for the refinance devalued my property by about $50,000 from what I purchased it two years ago. Ken and his team arranged for a second appraisal and that one came in just a where I had purchased the home two years ago, which allowed me to refinance at the lower rate. They made the process about as painless as a refinancing can be..I would definitely recommend Ken McKee to those who wish assistance with their mortgage needs.

It really pains me to write this review. I went with Summit Funding because Chris, the loan consultant I used for the purchase of my home back in 2007, is now working for Summit. I had such a great experience with Chris last time, so going with him again was a no brainer for me. I went in for a no equity refinance of my house, and while everything closed, it was clear that I was not a top priority as a refi customer. I started the process back in April and I e-mailed Chris and asked what the best time would be to contact him to look at refinancing my home under HARP. I was called back by Chris's assistant Tim who had me fill out an on-line application. A couple of weeks later, towards the end of April, Tim asked me to come into the office with copies of my paystub, bank statements, and other supporting documents. At that time Tim told me the offer sheet with a rate of 4.5% on my first mortgage was just a starting point and the actual rate would be determined later on. Also, he told that there would be no cost to me until I agreed on an actual loan. Then on May 9th I was contacted by Debbie at Summit and she asked me to give her copies of my paystub and bank statements that I had just provided to Tim. I told her she had the bank statements, but I would give her screen prints from my on-line statement because my next full statement would not be for another 2 weeks. Also, I gave her a copy of my most recent paystub. She also asked for a cashier's check for $125 for a subordination agreement for B of A, who I had my mortgage with. I told her Tim told me there was no cost until I agreed on the loan and since I didn't have a loan in front of me with a locked in rate, I wasn't going to pay B of A anything. The next day she then told that I could hold off on the $125 and she was simply giving me a heads up that B of A charges for the agreement. About a week later Debbie contacted me again and said that B of A would waive the $125 fee for the subordination agreement and that my next step was to deal directly with Chris and Tim. On May 23rd, I spoke to Tim and he said that for my loan to continue, I needed to pay the $125 fee for the subordination agreement. I told Tim that Debbie said B of A was waiving that fee. Then Tim mentioned that Chase was requiring the fee. I told Tim that my mortgage wasn't with Chase it was with B of A. Then Tim said that the next step was to wait until the subordination agreement came in because Summit couldn't lock in the rate until they had the subordination agreement. Also, Tim told me I had to deal with Debbie and not him and Chris. That same day I got a note from my homeowner's insurance company that Summit was now the payee on my homeowner's insurance. The next day I was in touch with Debbie and she said that the change in payee with my homeowner's insurance was done prematurely, that my loan hadn't closed yet, and that she would call me back when the subordination agreement came in and they could lock in my rate. There was no movement on my loan until June 11th, when I got an e-mail from Debbie asking me to do a conference call regarding a new credit account with Wells Fargo I opened with my fiancee. Although the new account had a zero balance, I had to do a conference call with a credit monitoring company hired by Summit. According to the monitoring company, Summit insisted on the conference call with me, the monitoring company, and Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo confirmed that there was a zero balance and that was that. On June 15th Debbie told me that the loan documents were with Chicago Title and I should call her with any questions. During the two months of the loan process, interest rates were dropping. However, Summit wasn't changing the original quote they gave me back in April and that was my rate. Not wanting to go through the process all over again, it wasn't worth haggling over a half percent or so. But in my opinion Summit wasn't really interested in finding the best deal for me. When I arrived at Chicago Title on June 19th, the escrow officer looked puzzled that someone from Summit wasn't there with me. However, I told her I was a lawyer and had been through the process before, and she was good with that. The escrow officer said my loan would close next week and she said Summit had already arranged for a bank in Michigan to administer my loan. I thought I was officially done. But two days later, Debbie e-mailed me and said that Summit would need a copy of my second mortgage before escrow would close even though they had a subordination agreement regarding the first mortgage. Why they couldn't have asked for this back in April is beyond me. I sent the documents over the next day and now that I was done. The loan closed and I got a notice from Summit that everything went through. I confirmed this through B of A and they had been paid off. On July 5th, I got an e-mail from Genelle at Summit saying that the escrow officer didn't have all the necessary documents and I had to sign yet another form. I signed it and sent it back. I was thinking how long will this take. On July 16th, per the escrow instructions, I sent my payment to Michigan. However, in this morning's mail was a letter from Summit saying I needed to send my payment to them. No word back from Summit as of yet. Overall, Summit did exactly what I paid them to do. But it seems like I was passed off to the B team and the right hand had no idea what the left hand was doing. I have excellent credit (792-807-787 on all three reporting agencies as part of the refi) and I feel like Summit took way too long. And just to prove the customer service has died, to this day Chris has failed to pick up the phone or send an e-mail to thank me for being a repeat customer. When my fiancee and I get a new home in 5 or 6 years, we won't be dealing with Chris or Summit. Which pains me because Chris was such a stand up guy when I did my purchase mortgage for the home.

We contacted Jon Dobbel at Summit over two years before purchasing a home because we had some financial obstacles and credit issues to overcome. Jon, without any judgement, provided sound advice on the specific steps we needed to take to raise our credit scores and explained the higher standards in place following the mortage collapse. He answered all our questions. We continued to call him and his assistant Kim over the next year to ask additional questions and for advice. Jon and Kim always took the time to speak with us, even with no assurance we would go to Summit for the loan, never rushed and always patient. When we were finally able to apply for funding there was no doubt that we wanted to go through the process with Jon. We were on the phone with him daily and when we got the funding, he was as excited for us as we were. We signed the papers last week for our new home and Jon sent us cookies and a bottle of wine, it sounds silly but it made a difference that he understood how much this meant to us. Kim was even at the signing which did not occur at the purchase of our two previous homes. If you are trying to decide between companies, we learned it really comes down to the people.