Menlo Park Funding

I decided to use Menlo Park Funding (MPF) in Branchburg as a mortgage broker because Lee, the Branch Manager, is someone I knew from High School. I trusted that they would do more for me than I could for myself. They did not. Their responsiveness was great until I was too far into the process to go elsewhere. Once my closing date would have been jeopardized if I went to another broker and started over, the "service" dropped to ZERO. My closing date was delayed by 4 weeks due to loan processing time lags that MPF did nothing to try to mitigate and which they may even have exacerbated. MPF had my application over 2 months before the actual closing date. When I applied, Lee said my loan application was "clean" and "it should take about a week" to get approval. He and his loan processor kept assuring me that they "should hear [something] any day", and even said that the date in the contract for obtaining the commitment -- which was 3 1/2 weeks earlier than we actually received the commitment - "should be no problem." MPF did nothing to try to move the application along either -- even after we closed on our former house and they knew my daughter and I were living in a hotel room with our belongings in storage. All Lee did was tell me "Banks move at 2 speeds: Slow and slower" as an excuse for why he (or his team) could not do anything more than allow the bank to take their time with my application. He admitted he had no "pull" with the lender -- and "pull" was one reason I decided to go with a broker (and pay a broker's fee). Lee also told me "Your loan requires 1.xx points" which was not true -- that was the percentage being charged as the BROKER'S FEE for Menlo Park Funding . Broker's Fees are not tax deductible; points on a mortgage are, so there is a clear difference between points and a fee that goes well beyond what it is called. That distinction (and the fee being charged) may have influenced my decision. I also had to pay for an appraisal using MPF's appraiser, and the "appraisal" they obtained for me was a rubber-stamp of the price I offered for the house, not an independent evaluation of the actual worth of the property. When the bank asked for more information to process the loan, and gave a 7 calendar day time limit to submit it, MPF took the full 7 days to submit the information even though I got all the information MPF asked me for back to them within HOURS of their request -- including information from my attorney and an accountant. I had to reach out to Lee's boss (the Operations Director for Menlo Park Funding/REMN) to get them to submit the information on time. I could have lost the loan and the house due to their lack of responsiveness. The cost for their services was obscured. The service I got was great until I was too far along to go to another broker and start over, and once they had me (and the sellers) over a barrel, their responsiveness went to zero -- and they did not care. The only thing they cared about was that they had enough applications in process to make a revenue target, even if some (like mine) took too long to process and may not have gone to close. In the meantime, my closing got pushed back 4 weeks and my costs skyrocketed. MPF would not even make a call to determine how much additional time the bank needed when the closing date needed to get pushed back, so we had to adjust it on a week-by-week basis. That nearly cost me the house and it did cost me a lot of extra money (over $3000 additional) for living expenses, storage of my belongings, and additional attorney fees. Their web site states: "Menlo Park Funding serves the lending needs of home buyers and home owners, real estate professionals and builders across the country. Our associates are passionate about fulfilling the American Dream and realize they are the key to unlocking the mortgage process." (http://www.mpfunding.com/about-menloparkfunding/ ) They certainly did NOT "unlock" the mortgage process for me. DO NOT USE THIS BROKER. They provided misleading information and lip service until it was too late to go elsewhere. And I have an "Excellent" credit profile rating, so it should have been faster to get a decision on this loan. I could have completed the application and gotten all the information the bank asked for on my own. I paid for a broker who would save me time and money. That is certainly NOT what I got. I am also filing a complaint with the BBB. This was a difficult review for me to write due to the connection I had with Lee before this transaction, but I wish I had not used his firm. It cost me a lot of money (and time) for absolutely no service beyond what I could have done myself.