Just Approved: Refinance finessed despite late bills, hectic travel schedules
Mortgage loan officer: Bob Gerson, California Bank & Trust.
Mortgage type: Cash out refinance.
Appraised value: $1.772 million.
Loan amount: $700,000.
Loan type: Portfolio 7/1 adjustable-rate mortgage amortized at 30 years.
Rate 3.625%.
Backstory: An associate of mine wanted to get funds for both his son’s college tuition and home improvements for their San Francisco residence. The clients had a first and second loan that needed to be paid off, along with getting extra cash out from our bank.
Their past credit scores were a major issue, due to payments being past due. This lowered their scores to a level that initially made this loan a difficult challenge.
However, our bank offers a program that can help people in such situations. We started by getting a cell phone account that was past due paid in full. This bumped my clients to an acceptable credit score. We were close to being fully approved, but a new challenge appeared when the client’s wife, who was due back from India, needed to stay in the country to help her mother and manage some business interests overseas.
In order to keep this loan rate lock from expiring, we had the wife take a one-hour flight to get to the nearest consulate and sign with a notary. At the same time, the husband also was traveling to Europe on business, so I needed to coordinate his signing for the day he returned to San Francisco.
I worked around both traveling schedules to fund and close their loan on time, even though India was 12½ hours ahead of our time frame.
Our title company played a huge part of this transaction. Without their assistance, this loan would have expired. One of the great features of our portfolio programs is that we can lock at 90 days without any additional penalties, while most other lenders only go up...