UNIVERSAL MORTGAGE INC

I chose Universal Mortgage, Inc (UMI) on the suggestion of a trusted resource and because of a fine conversation I had with N. Calvo by phone. Once submitted, Mr. Calvo passed my application onto Isaac Shalom, his associate, and Isaac acted as my main point of contact. This was done without warning or explanation. Mr. Shalom, while I am sure he is a nice person, is not detail oriented, does not communicate clearly, does not provide thorough information, and made mistakes that caused delays in the approval process - which cost me both time and money. He also gave me poor, misleading advice. For example: I closed a few retail accounts that were dormant and suggested that my credit report be re-submitted because I expected to have a higher score. Isaac Shalom assured me that the score would in fact be lower because this action would cause lenders to suspect that I am "afraid of credit." I had another lender pull my report and my score had risen a full 63 points - putting me in the elite category and opening more loan options to me. After 5 months of working with UMI, I sought another source for a mortgage and found a much more efficient, responsive, helpful agent elsewhere. I also got a much better rate from this lender. I informed UMI of this and that I'd be moving ahead with the new contact as my primary lender but that I would keep applications open through UMI with two other banks as back-up and requested updates on those applications. I was told that I'd receive updates in a few days. Two weeks passed. Upon my (repeated) follow-up, I was informed that no further work had been done on my files because I had chosen another source of primary funding for my mortgage. N. Calvo himself told me that work was stopped because UMI was no longer guaranteed to make money on my mortgage. I did, however, pay the application fee in full - should that not cover full processing of my application? I have made repeated requests for the return of all fees paid to UMI but have not received a response to those requests. I paid the full application fee, why should I only receive partial service on the applications? Here is the quote from an email exchange with Mr. Calvo: "For us to do any follow up on a file when clearly you are going elsewhere is not something that we normally do. It is SO defeating for everyone. How can we give your file our all when there is no reasonable expectation of getting paid?.... For us to do your file...would require quite a substantial amount of work." Overall, my experience with Universal Mortgage, Inc has been frustrating, long, arduous, and wholly disappointing. And I paid an expensive fee for no return whatsoever. I would absolutely not recommend UMI to anyone.