Mike Murgatroy CrossCountry Mortgage

I contacted this company after reading the reviews on this site. I got a response immediately, at 11 or 12 o'clock at night. I was told I qualified and they would get back with me in 5 days. I never heard from them again, but I take that as a sign not to use the company. The company seems professional and probably are helpful, but not getting back with me spoiled it for me. Note to company: Please don't contact me with an explanation; I just wanted to post my experience; I am not interested in working with your company any longer.

I was pursuing a new home mortgage. However, the amount of loan I needed was to be significantly low. I called Mike Murgatory (because of his good reviews)and received an immediate call back. He was forthright in discussing my needs and the cost associated with it. What was most honorable was his being frank enough to explain that my situation may not of been a good fit for his company, as my particular loan would require a higher cost for him to close it. He recommended other companies that could benefit me better. In addition to his honesty, he offered to look over my Good Faith Estimate from whichever company I'd ultimately select and ensure I was getting a good deal. His offer to be a nonpartisan party in this matter was admirable. Though I did not use Mike for my specific loan requirements, I would not hesitate to use him if my situation were different. I could only imagine how great of service he'd provide if I were an actual client of his!!

The office called me back and explained to me everything I needed to consider. There was no pressure to use their service. They explained that I had a good rate now and that it would take about 2 years to recover refinance charges. I decided not to refinance at this time.

I had been trying to refinance my home for awhile. Every time I contacted either a local bank or larger companies like Quicken Loans, I would not receive a call back or would be stuck on the phone with a long, laborious conversation that would end with a disappointing interest rate or being pushed toward things that I was uncomfortable with. However, with Mike Murgatory, he called back that same day and answered all my questions and then sent me an email with the numbers and things we discussed...this all took about 20 min. This alone was amazing. Once I said I wanted to proceed, he set me up with Andrew Fishman, one of his mortgage planners , and he took me through the entire process. Andrew was usually immediately available or returned calls or email quickly. Any questions or issues that came up were resolved quickly. I got an amazing interest rate and inexpensive closing costs. I went from a 30 year to 15 year mortgage for only $50 more a month! I am so happy. The only drawback is it did take almost two months, but he forewarned me about that in the beginning and it was mainly because of my situation with a second loan I already had. I would not hesitate in recommending them and giving them an A+. They were fantastic and easy to work with. Everything turned out better than I expected! There was no hidden fees or guess work and I felt completely supported the whole time.

Mike was very responsive to my first request. They have a very streamlined process as others have offered in their reviews. When I compared the "Good Faith Estimate" to others, they were very reasonable. I was excited to work with them. However I did run into issues that others should be aware of. When they ran my credit score it was 30-50 points lower than any other institution came up with. Mike explained that online sites don't show a true credit score. However I even worked with other lenders who came up with the higher scores. The lower score raised the rate available to me. There are different methods for calculating credit scores, and there does not appear to be a required standard. Just be aware that WCS lending will show a score that could be much lower than you expect. The next issue that I ran into was the appraisal on my home. You cannot choose the appraiser, and you have to use whoever they choose. The appraiser they chose came up with an appraisal that was lower than my neighbor's home that is the same basic floor plan as my home. My home is a little large since I choose a bonus room option, and my home is filled with upgrades. Both homes were built the same month, and our appraisals were done within weeks of each other. The appraisal had the wrong square footage, and even the wrong bathroom count. They missed the garage size and other major upgrades. When the appraisal came in lower, they turned everything over to me to figure out why and to justify the compatibles that were used. They do not fight for you nor do they offer any help, other than to tell me that I needed to find other homes with recent higher sale prices. Since I am not in that industry and do not have access to the MLS system that would be impossible to do on my own. Since they are in this industry I assumed they would assist, like others I have worked with in the past. Regrettably they do not. The last problem that I found out about was, they notified my insurance company to change my home owners coverage to them as the lien holder before they even determined that the loan was going through. This created some issues since it did not go through and my mortgage company was notified of a cancellation of my policy when this should not have been done, especially without my approval. It does not make sense to me that they would change my insurance before they even had the appraisal completed. I liked talking to Mike, and working with WCS lending, however I was not prepared for the issues that I faced based on others reviews. Just beware and go in with your eyes open. If you need assistance beyond the ordinary this is probably not the group to work with. Look for someone local.

I contacted Mike via email. He responded the next day with information that I needed.

Mike took the time to talk with me and question what I was interested in accomplishing with our refinace. I was all set to tell him what I wanted and thought I had researched all the options. But, he took the time to listen and then explain options I didn't even know existed. He took charge of the deal and ran with the process - all over the phone. He then handed me to a team that worked, communicated, and baby sat me for the entire process. Peter and the team were great. Returning emails when I had questions, phone calls when I was confussed or clueless, whatever it took to get the loan approved. When it came time to close - they sent the closer/notary to OUR HOUSE to sign the papers. I can not even begin to tell you how happy I am with the service that Mike and the WCS team provided. If you are thinking of a refinance and have never used a broker before - use Mike and his team at WCS - they will take care of you.

Mike and his entire team were very professional. Everything was taken care of in an timely and efficient manner. His team was great in helping us in any possible way and answering all our questions. He got us a great rate and we couldn't be happier.

I contacted Mike on Oct 15, 2012. He responded the same day and we discussed what I needed. He sent me a good fatih estimate the next day and we discussed the best way to proceed. He gave me valuable information about obtaining a mortgage on a Florida property (I live out of state), We decided to go with the lwender that supports the builder of our home in florida, but I would highly recommend using Mike in the future.

I had a question that I emailed to him and he promply responded. I then asked one more question and he responded quickly to it.

Once the process started, we had problems with return phone calls and emails. Also, they only applied to one source which turned us down, even though we could get approval elsewhere. They claimed that they did a lot of loans in California but clearly the lender was not familiar with the California market and how things are done here. Everyone at the brokerage seemed to be nice but the ball was dropped many times from start to finish. We were told that we could close in 30 days but after 60 we had to cancel escrow. We were told we would be given a list of information and documents needed and that would be complete from the getgo but instead, every time we submitted something they asked for, it created a request for something else!

I e-mailed Mike Murgatroy after reading the reviews on Angies List. Mike got back to me promptly and had Andrew e-mail several options available. We decided on one of the options, the no money closing cost option. Andrew e-mailed me all the paperwork and we filled them out and e-mailed them back. Neither my husband or I are very computer savvy but it was very easy. Andrew kept us abreast of the process and requested documents appropriately and moved the process along nicely. Andrew located an appraiser in our area and we made an appointment with him, once the appraisal came in things moved very quickly and we closed in about a week. Andrew set up the Notary to come to our home at 6:30 on a Friday night and we were done! Great improvement on our interest rate!!!!

After an initial email contact with Mike Murgatory, I worked with Andrew Fishman. Nearly the entire application process was handled smoothly and efficiently by email. Andrew was always professional and responsive; he would respond to my questions at all hours, despite the time difference (I'm on the West Coast, and he would respond to my emails even late at night). The closing process, however, was unnecessarily bumpy, the result of errors by the title/escrow company that WCS used for the closing. None of these things were earth-shatteringly problematic, but they are the reason for my lowered ratings on service and quality. Over my years of home ownership, I have done five refinances, the last one just a year ago, and in none of the other refinances have I experienced errors on the part of the title or escrow company's work. So my expectations were that once the lender approved the application, everything would go without problems, as it had in my past refinances. There were enough small errors that it seemed like a pattern that I should make note of in my Angie's List rating. None of these would stop me from using WCS again, if the rate and expenses warranted. But my expectations would not be as high for the process being mistake-free, and I would have lower expectations about the ease of the closing. These errors were: 1. My trust documents were submitted as a supporting document to the application. The title company apparently totally mis-read my name on the trust, and even though all my communications and the application were in my correct name, Andrew emailed to ask me to submit a document regarding the difference in name between those items and the trust document. I wondered if maybe I had missed something in my trust documents, and I spent time going line by line over the documents, and then getting back to Andrew that I couldn't find any mention of the name that the title company thought the trust was in. I should not have even been involved in this matter, as Andrew had a copy of my trust and could have checked himself. But o.k., not a big deal .... everything else had gone smoothly up to this point. 2. The title company and recording fees on the final settlement form were several hundred dollars higher than those expenses on the Good Faith Estimate. I got in touch with Andrew on this and he arranged that I would receive a refund on the overages after the closing. 3. Two days after the closing with the notary at my house, he called to say the title company had lost one of the signed documents that he had sent to them along with all the other forms (the copy of my driver's license). 4. Three days after the closing, when the loan was supposed to fund, I received a call from the escrow company that another document was mistakenly not included in the package at the closing, and the notary would call me to set up a time to come to my house to sign and notarize it. This worried me as to the funding of the loan, since I wanted the new loan to fund before the monthly mortgage payment was due on the loan being replaced. I had not made that payment as I knew it would be taken care of when the new loan was funded. I asked if the missing document would affect the funding, and after checking with someone, the representative told me the loan would be funded on schedule. The notary and I arranged for the signing on the document a few days later, on a Saturday. 5. Eight days after the closing, when I thought the whole thing had been completed, I received a voice message from the prior lender saying that I was about to go into default on my mortgage -- the monthly payment had not been received. I checked the status of the loan on the lender's website, and found that the mortgage payoff had occurred just that day (the 'default' message must have been issued before the payoff funds were received). I thought that the loan had been paid off five days earlier. I got in touch with Andrew by email to review all this with him. A representative at the title company called the next day as well, concerned about the experience I had had with his company. In the end, the loan funded and I received a refund check from the title company. But the journey to get to that point was rockier than it should have been.

We were set to refinance with one of those BIG banks holding our mortgage, and we just felt that the bank didn't truly have OUR financial interests in mind, so we shopped around alot more, and we are so happy that we found Mike & WCS Lending on Angie's list. Not only did Mike find an interest rate .625% less than that BIG bank was offering, he also was able to give us a substantial Lender Credit that ending up actually being greater than we expect once we got to closing! This, too me, proves that this company is truly interested in giving the client the best rate, and lowest costs possible. What a nice surpise indeed! Doing business with Mike & his team - Peter, Connie & Becky was a great experience. We highly recommend this team for any mortgage needs.

Mike did not recommend the easy road offering us another FHA loan at a lower interest rate. He encouraged us to wait. Where do you learn to tell a customer to wait in sales?? Most lenders are after one thing and one thing alone not the case with Mike. He recommended we hold tight, build equity and refinance when it would be of maximum benefit to us. Because of the great experience we had with Mike on our original loan we took his advise and waited. Mike stayed in touch with us reviewing recent sales in our neighborhood and when the market was right we moved ahead. I must confess we did shop around with some other very well known name brands in the meantime to see what they could offer and lets just say it was very obvious we were just another number on their caller ID. They agents gave us a lot of lip service but I guarantee they would NEVER have done what WCS Lending, Mike and Pete did. But those calls did prove one thing to us......Mike knows his business and gets the job done! They say it's not what ya know but who ya know and in this case it was indeed BOTH!! Great job AGAIN guys and many thanks! Dean and Ted

I called at least 10 lenders before I went with WCS. Even though I had great credit and equity in my home I could not get a lender to make the numbers work for me that lowered my monthly payment and lowered my total payment. WCS made it happen in one phone call! I dealt with Andrew Fishman who was friendly, professional and prompt. If Andrew did not directly answer his phone when I called he would call me back in minutes. But most of the time I never had to call him, he called me. The estimate that Andrew gave me was almost the exact number at close. BUT THE BEST THING I CAN SAY ABOUT WCS IS THEY SAVED ME A LOT OF MONEY!!!

An extremely positive experience., for a number of reasons: 1. Highly Ethical - Mike Murgatory is a transparent, honest, open finance professional who truly wants to get the best deal for his clients. This is something you don't see everyday in the South Florida mortgage business. 2. Customer Focused - Mike and his team are responsive and extremely efficient. I had an one hour intro meeting the day after our email exchange where Mike went over all the facts, gave me a quote, and introduced me to the other members of his team. 3. V ery Competitive Interest Rate - Mike quoted me 3.375% when all the others were quoting 3.5-3.75%. 4. Very Competitive Closing Costs - the $3,060 in closing costs for a $387 k refi included all state fees and title insurance, legal fees, and his very nominal origination fee. This ended up being a "no cash to close" deal as all the numbers worked. Mike later unilaterally reduced his fees at closing without me having to ask! 5. Very Efficient Process - it took me 30 minutes to complete and email over their loan application package. After that, it was simply a matter of staying in touch about the closing date. There was only one additional request to sign a document. 6. Excellent Advice - Mike is extremely knowledgeable about the interest rate market and we quickly agreed on our lock in strategy. 7. Hassle Free Closing - It took 38 days to close. They voluntarily extended the 30 day lock without a fuss and all the paperwork was at the attorney's office in time, where we had a short, 30 minute close. I cannot recommend Mike and his team any more highly. You get a great rate, low closing costs, and fantastic customer service.

Mike and his team provided absolutely outstanding service. They were prompt in their work, professional, and worked excellently as a team. All of my questions were answered thoroughly and quickly, and they even provided excellent service on an issue that arose after the closing. I am completely satisfied and would not hesitate to use this company again in the future.

I'm a former lender and spent years writing residential mortgage loans. A Miami Beach resident since 1996, condominium values in South Florida were hit hard by the real estate meltdown. As I watched interest rates decline over the last several years, I considered refinancing, but delayed fearing the stories I had heard about lenders being overly conservative, the process taking forever and appraisals coming in low (many loans being "under water" here). I did my research contacting my existing mortgage lender, other banks and mortgage brokers for quotes. While I felt sure I could save money by going directly to the banks rather than dealing with a broker (I'm a professional lender after all), I decided to visit Angie's List and call the top three recommended brokers in my area for fun. I was in for a surprise! Mike Murgatroy answered the phone number provided by Angie's List himself. I didn't provide details about the other transactions I was considering, but provided him the same scenario I had given the other lenders for consideration. He efficiently and thoroughly walked me through the process of deciding what term would be best for me and my life partner. He explained the hurdles to refinancing a condo in South Florida, but offered assurance that if anyone could help us clear those hurdles, WCS could. Based on this conversation, I called a couple of the other banks back to discuss the hurdles Mike had brought to my attention. It became obvious right away that I was dealing with junior loan officers at these banks, and they couldn't provide suggestions about how to overcome the hurdles without consulting their superiors (red flag!!) I notified Mike that I wanted to move forward with WCS. Mike immediately turned my info over to Andrew Fishman, WCS Sr. Mortgage Consultant, who called, pre-qualified us, turned around a Good Faith Estimate, an Interest Rate Lock Agreement (that capped the rate, and allowed the rate to float down in the event rates declined prior to closing) and provided easy to follow instructions with all necessary paperwork, in less than 24 hours by email. Their offer clearly blew those I obtained directly from the banks out of the water. The other brokers I contacted were frankly not interested in helping us it seemed. Ours is not a mega-loan and condos here are much harder to finance than single family residences. I even checked with Quicken Loans (they were charging 2 points [2% of the amount financed] vs. 0 points with WCS and a .25% higher interest rate than WCS. Quicken Loans was the most expensive quote we received by far.). We completed the paperwork and returned it to WCS over the weekend. WCS arranged the appraisal within a few days, but when the report came back the estimated fair market value of our condo was a nearly $100,000 less than we had expected. Andrew pulled information about comparable condo sales in Miami Beach and presented them to the appraiser for reconsideration resulting in a revised appraised value that was in line with what my realtor said our property is worth in the current market. I need to emphasize, Andrew was pro-active and anticipated any problems before they became problems for us. This is huge! It saved us a ton of headaches we would have incurred had we tried to deal with a bank directly. And here's the real kicker: WCS placed the loan with a bank we were talking with directly, gave us a better rate AND with lower closing costs! Andrew explained that this is because WCS has a wholesale relationship with banks nationwide and has lower overhead than a bank branch, so they know who to talk with at each bank to get the best deal. (Again, having worked in major banks all of my life I can't begin tell you how important this is. No individual consumer can do this. An honest broker can! I'm a convert.) We started the process on May 18, 2012. We closed the loan on July 31, 2012. It took about a month longer than originally anticipated, but this wasn't WCS's fault. With rates at an all time low, the bank was running a bit behind on underwriting, the closing agent I had chosen was running a bit behind, and our Condo Association took a bit longer than expected to provide some necessary documentation. As a result of the delay we actually closed at a rate that was .25% lower than we would have if the original closing date had been met. In the end, we got an even better deal on the closing costs than had been proposed in the Good Faith Estimate - simply amazing. The people at WCS work hard and they also work smart. I remember early on receiving an email from Andrew at 11:30pm on a Friday night. If I called him, he returned my call that day, or emailed me back every time. Mike checked in to see how things were going along the way. He and I talked about how the banking industry has changed over the years and shared our mutual frustrations with the lack of concern with customer service, and relationships, that has seemed to creep into the industry. Mike is the real deal, and his entire team reflects his strong work ethic. I now have a 2% lower fixed rate than when I first called WCS Lending, and I have a new favorite Lender, WCS Lending, I have recommended to friends and family across the country. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Mike and his team to anyone interested in financing a new home purchase or refinance of an existing residence. I had no relationship with this company in any way prior to this transaction, but I now feel I have a strong relationship with a mortgage broker I can really trust. That's important to me. There is a lot of paper work involved in the mortgage process, and I'm sure some borrowers may find this task intimidating. I believe any motivated borrower will have a successful experience with WCS - but you will have to provide the information they need to help you. They are patient and will guide you step by step - just keep asking questions. It isn't rocket science. Thank you Angie's List for introducing us - the savings on my new mortgage has more than paid for my Angie's List subscription for the rest of my life.

Ultimately we decided to use another lender, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the service provided by Mike. We simply found out that a family friend works at another comparable company we were considering, and we chose to give our business to that company for that reason as the tie-breaker. I would certainly use Mike for future mortgage or refinance needs, and would highly recommend him to others.

The refi process was easy and quick! I even checked the rate I received with Mike with the local banks...they couldn't come close. I highly recommend Mike and his team. They work hard to get their customers the best rate possible and to make the process easy. I received an AMAZING rate and AMAZING service. Thank you to Mike Murgatroy and Pete Doucette for all of their assistance. Mike's staff was top notch!

Mike was very helpful and informative. Although at this time he cannot help me obtain a mortgage, I will be working with him in the future. He provided me the information I needed to improve my situation and was very professional, prompt, and patient. Thank you Mike I look forward to working with you in the future.

We were shopping for a mortgage company and I contacted Mike. He responded within a day or so. Unfortunately, they can't do business in MO unless they have a brick and mortar presence in the state. He did offer to vet the paperwork for us no matter who we went with. That wasn't practical, given the amount of paper involved but it was a nice gesture. Also, we needed a very short turn-around time, three weeks, and he said he couldn't do it. It remains to be seen whether or not the bank we chose is able to come through. It all depends on the appraiser. I gave them a "C" on price since that didn't apply.

He quickly responded to all of my emails over the course of several days of questions I sent. In the end, the market had a bad day and the rates changed before I made my final decision and so I decided to hold off for now.

It was a very easy process. Mike and his team were on the ball, with every detail explained and executed as promised. There was only one small glitch with the paperwork having to be handled a second time due to the 1st notary not understanding e-filing. It was not a big deal and did not change any term, condition or cost of the re-finance.