Element Funding

Hello, I have purchased several homes before working with this lender although this one is my first new construction purchase (this lender will definitely let you know how things "are different" with new construction). The experience sucked. I feel played and it saddens me. It was the WORST experience I've ever had. I actually had many opportunities where I could've written a poor review for charging for unnecessary expenses that can be avoided. They will only tell you about those expenses if you call them out... They're playing this game where they are thinking "lets see what the customer knows and then we'll let them know if we can remove this expense". Basically, you're along for the ride with these guys so speak up and ask questions. I guess this is a part of the home buying experience (which sucks) so I wouldn't use this lender unless you've closed many new construction homes before because they will nickel and dime the **** out of you. I decided against writing a review on that premise because we all know the connotations with negative reviews, its usually just one unhappy customer and I chalked that part of the process up to the home buying game. But, things got worse and I'd need a ton detail to explain this so I'll keep it short. When this lender sold my loan to JP Morgan the first payment was due on 3/1. On the mortgage note the payment due date was 2/1. I called JP Morgan and they confirmed that 3/1 is the actual payment date. I called my loan officer and they said maybe it was a mistake. I felt lucky and moved on... shortly thereafter the loan officer calls me and says that they were wrong and I do in fact owe the 2/1 mortgage payment. I was expecting to make that first payment on 2/1 anyway but the utter lack of knowing what was going is surprising. That first mortgage payment is extremely important. On top of this, in all the email correspondence when we talk about monthly mortgage included a $150 HOA fee. I've never bought a house in an association before and I'm an investor so I'd like to know all my exit options in terms of renting this place out. In all the correspondence we discussed the $150 dues being apart of the monthly payment to help with the analysis. On the CD, it says HOA dues included in monthly payment. I am now 2 months overdue on my HOA payment because turns out the $150 is not included in my mortgage payment. How could I have been led to believe that the $150 per month for dues was going to go be included in my mortgage? I mean outside all the emails I have explicitly saying this... If you ask the lender they'll say we talked about it (even though i have emails saying the opposite) and if you ask me ill say we didn't because i asked the question over and over again and I got the same answer. All this to say, work with this lender at your own risk. Some of the fault is mine (I guess - i only say this bc I'm a big take ownership of your failures and that's part of the reason I did not write the first review), but I asked every question and then some extras to make sure I was saving money where I could this lender made me feel on the defensive as a customer. I would never recommend them. I never once felt like I was getting a good deal. Please understand that there are great people that work here, but the business practices are a different story. This is not an attack on anyone there, its just my viewpoint on their business. Would give this 0 stars if I could, it's costing me an extra $1800 per year that I though was accounted for... They will probably respond with all the things we spoke about and things I can do now to help correct this which is nice but if you want an experience where you feel like the lender is on your side and wants to help you get something done in a way that works for you I would just find another one. I had to use this lender according to the builder... first red flag for future home purchases...

Enticed to switch mortgage companies by the promise of an APR match and a $3K lender closing credit. Not only did we not receive the APR match, we only partially received the closing credit. I received the HUD and noticed that the credit was missing. I inquired with two different Element employees and was told: ?yes ma?am, we were all set for Friday?. At no point did anyone tell me that we were not getting the $3K closing credit. It wasn?t until 1 hour INTO the scheduled closing that we received a new HUD, which did not include the lender $3K credit. After I flipped out, the manager agreed to a $1K credit. What was I supposed to do? I was under contract on the home so I couldn't refuse to close. After the closing I requested that Element do an investigation. What a mistake that was- their "customer service" manager went on to try to convince me I saved money using them... How? My APR went from 3.6% to 4.25% and I didn't get the full closing credit. The investigation was a joke and when I attempted to use BBB as mediator, they never replied to my complaint. I wish I had done more research on them before switching mortgage companies.