It was an overall easy process although VA needed too much information in my opinion considering our credit score and income then hearing about the new subprime push from DC. Our loan officer and assistant could not have been more professional, responsive or helpful - much appreciated. Our realtor too was most impressed with their service.
There was a few things that could have been better. I am not sure if I would ever go with a big company that is out of town again. It seemed there was some lag in certains things, especially when it came to underwriter. Loan officer overall was very good, kept us informed when she could, seemed to be informative and knew about certain things, although had our ups and downs with her as well. Overall the process was good.
I felt that the checklist that I had receied at the outset was incomplete and resulted in delays in closing. The agent assigned to collect the data was slow to respond causing more delays.
Make sure that your people are well versed in state rules and regulations for the state they are working in. We first contacted Bret Szumera of VUHL in 2011 about a new construction that we planned to do in Texas in 2012. All paperwork requested was completed and always returned within two days of the request. We were assured that we would be able to close within 2 weeks of completion of the home, and that we would receive all monies back that we had to pay up front for the construction many times during 2012. Szumera and his team became increasingly difficult to contact, sometime waiting 2 weeks for return telephone calls or Emails. The home was completed in January 2013. Over the course of this process we had to fill out the same paperwork at least 3 times. It took over 3 months to close after our acceptance and move-in whith cost us over $4,000.00 in interest on the construction loan before it finally closed, and we were only able to pay off the construction loan plus closing costs and not the entire cost of the home. That seemed to change weekly, as to weither we would be able to receive the 20% we had to pay upfront or not. When Matt McDaniel and Whitney Elliott took over our loan we were very pleased that they were very responsive to our telephone calls and emails (generally within 2 hours or less).
