21st Century Mortgage

Beware of doing business with this company. They are not ethical. I contacted 21st Century Mortgage in mid-April to do a no-cash-out refinance. I have excellent credit (my score is about 800) and 40% equity in my house. I was promised a 30 year fixed rate loan at 4.5% with very low closing costs. I paid $350 for the appraisal, provided all requested documents within a day of the request, and then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. The only times I heard from my broker was when I called him, which I did just about every week. He gave me one excuse after another as to why the loan wasn't closing. He blamed it on new laws, backlog of work, etc, etc. Finally, in early August, over 3 1/2 months since the original contact with this company, I was told that the loan was denied under the original terms because my house is in a declining market (what market isn't declining in today's housing bust?). I was then told, however, that if I would pay an additional $11,900 in fees (points, adverse market fee, broker transfer fee, etc) that they would close me that same week at the original rate. The broker actually tried to pressure me into accepting the loan with the additional $11,900 in fees, saying that the payment wouldn't be that much more than under the original terms. I don't know if they did anything illegal in handling my situation so poorly, but it was definitely immoral. The day after this transpired, I contacted another mortgage broker. I closed on the refinance with this other company in 22 days. Unfortunately for me, rates have gone up about half a point between April and August, so my new loan is not at the same rate it would have been had I gone wtih another company in April instead of trusting Century 21st Mortgage.