Security One Lending, Inc. - Reverse Mortgages

Applied for a reverse mortgage. Their first echelon staff is very good; hard workers, truthful, very helpful and responsive. Their back office and management very much less so. Up front hidden costs are much higher than their competitors for add on services. Basic rates are industry average. The problem comes in the appraisel where they use a company that applies California standards to the entire country. For example I live in a radon free area - you can't even find a local certified radon inspector - but I'm required to have a $300 radon inspection, same for mold, soil tests, and God knows what else. These are not required by local building codes or by other mortgagors. These are also not disclosed as potential out of pocket costs up front. Approximately $1500 dollars (and 20 hours on the internet and phone trying to find certified inspectors) paid up front out of my pocket because they are applying California requirements to Virginia. As a note it can take days to find people who can conduct these tests because they are not routinely required in this area. While they offer a credit at closing, that's meaningless as it is amortized over the mortgage while you pay out of pocket. These additional requirements delay closing by 2 months for a total time of 3-4 months from time of initiation. A local lender does not have these requirements and can close in six weeks. Even more disturbing is that, even though you have paid up front for the appraisel, they refuse to give you a copy - a violation of federal law. Three Emails snd two calls requesting the report and they refused. Their management promises to call back with decisions the next day and doesn't. Basically once they think they've got you their requirement to cooperate vanishes. Unfortunately the agent you're dealing with is crippled by management in any effort to resolve these issues. Just fire them and go with a locally based lender. At closing these guys are slick. They will not reveal the name of the mortgage holder, or provide the FHA property appraisal that you paid for. They will not provide all the loan documents (over 90 pages) and will require you to review what they have provided on a Sunday with signing on Monday so you can't contact a lawyer to review the documents. Once you've signed the documents, they forget about you. Go elsewhere.