FIRST PLACE BANK

We recently contracted to buy a house in North East Ohio. My
wife (a CPA, provides documents to lending institutions for her clients as a
significant portion of here services) compared banks and base on rates and
closing costs chose First Place Bank. We submitted our application around May 1st
and follow up questions started to come from the bank starting on May 24
(closing was scheduled for May31 at 11:00 AM). Piece by piece they sent email
requests for documentation with the usual trickling in of requests and demands
for same day replies with documentation ( we work during the day like most people)
instead of a compiled list (almost as if the bank has never done a mortgage
before) that continued until on the afternoon before closing we received yet another
email request at 3:30 in the afternoon (surely this would be the last) and
scrambled to provide the requested documentation from our bank as quickly as
possible, before they closed for the day, as we had for all the preceding email
requests from the bank. This is pushing it time wise, frustrating, but that?s
how these things go.
 Also, when we asked
why a closing place/time had not been scheduled, early this same day, we were
told by the bank (as if we were stupid and with a sigh) to call the title company
to schedule. We called the title company and they said they didn?t have information
from the bank yet so they couldn?t schedule anything as yet.  (By the way, I haven?t found anyone that I have
asked so far that had to call and ask for a closing appointment the afternoon
before they were closing)
Much to our surprise we checked our email at around 9:30 PM
(this is the day before an 11:00AM closing the next morning) and found a
request to document the source of the funds for our ?good faith? cashier?s
check (email request sent at 6:38 PM) There are a couple of things that make me
think this is ridiculous:
1.      
The earnest money was the very first check delivered
in this scenario so they could have asked for documentation weeks before.
2.      
Our bank, like most, is not open that late in
the evening and if you have a job (and we do) you can?t get to the bank in the morning
before closing to get a copy.
In any case, my wife took the day off and went to the bank
to get a copy which she submitted as soon as possible before the closing
appointment.  We went to our appointment
to do the signing to close on the house and the amount we needed for a check to
finish the closing was still not available from the bank. So we proceeded to start
signing documents until the amount could be determined. We planned on going
directly to the bank after the documents were signed and getting a check for the
correct amount.
During the signing we discovered that funds from a rental
deposit and rent to extend the sellers residence time in the house had not been
included as an adjustment to the final amount. After contacting the First Place
Bank about this (reminder: this is while were signing closing documents) omission
they indicate that they ?never do that sort of thing?. First of all ?that sort
of thing ? is pretty common and lots of banks will, as a courtesy, make the
adjustment. Secondly, they didn?t call us to let us know, just left us hanging
at the closing.
After closing (while at the bank getting the check) my wife
got a call from First Place asking for documentation as to the source of the
$1000 ?good faith? money (could have asked weeks ago).  She explained that the money did not come from
an account it came from cashing an unused cashier?s check that we had in our possession
at the time of making the offer.  Neither
we, nor the bank that provided that check had a copy (How would we have retroactively
known it would be required??) At this point, the secretary from First Place
told us that if we didn?t get the check copies to them within 15 minutes we
would not be closing. To keep an already long story from getting really long my
wife went nuclear on the phone and ?magically? they were able to close without
further ado.
Of course, we have been to this party before and understand
that for some reason (I can?t decipher) banks don?t even look at your paper
work for weeks after you submit it and cannot start requesting documentation
until a couple of days before closing, and that customer service isn?t in their
vocabulary since they are doing you a big favor by lending you money. Let me
add (not meaning to sound arrogant at all) we live well within our moderate means.
Our eligibility for the amount we were borrowing was not at all in question and
we have about as high a credit score you can have. We are a regular middle
class family of four moving from one west side Cleveland suburb to another and
just buying a regular Colonial 4BR nothing exotic or complicated. We had used an
experienced realtor we had used before and things had gone smoothly. In short,
everyone involved did their best to accommodate this transaction: both realtors,
the seller, our insurance company, the title company?.everyone except First
Place Bank who was unable to get their request together promptly, was difficult
to communicate with, demanded documents that, obviously, could not be provided,
was unresponsive and unprofessional causing us a lot of stress. I?ll let you decide if you want to roll the
dice with the ironically named ?First Place Bank? to save a couple hundred dollars
in closing costs. My wife lost more hours at work answering their emails than
what we saved. It sure wasn?t worth it to us.