Aimloan reputation - What are consumers saying about it?

Applied 5/27, submitted docs 5/28, and received call from appraiser 6/1 - (only 1 day after Memorial Day Weekend). Appraisal conducted 6/2, now needs to be given to Aimloan. I also received e-mail from processor today indicating that she had completed her review of my documents and all is complete, now waiting for 3rd parties to complete their actions: appraisal, CPL, and 2nd mtg. subordination. Now I just have to wait.

Well, I guess it was inevitable. The appraisal came in extremely low. I estimated the value of my house to be be about $50K higher than the appraisal (maybe a little less). The appraisal came in at about 84% loan/value ratio. Aim Loan was willing to stiil give me the loan if I wanted to pay an "add on", plus a higher interest rate, or I could pay down the loan lump sum to get it to a lower ratio, and I would have to have PMI, etc. etc., etc.
I told them to cancel the application.
I paid $325 for a useless appraisal!!!

Chem, I wouldn't call it useless; without it, you wouldn't have known what you could potentially borrow. Now you know. The lender is restricted in what it can lend based on value of the property; they undoubtedly made you the best offer they could.

Could you have avoided this? Perhaps, but it would only be the case if you had a good feel for the local market, which you apparently didn't have. Useless? I think not, frankly.

Chem's troubles could have been easily avoided by using a local lender who does ''have a feel for the local market''. A local lender can easily made a quick call to an appraiser or realtor friend who could have taken 5 minutes to make sure we are in the ballpark and not 50k off.


Why people continue to use these nationwide scamster sweatshops is beyond me.


Shop local people! Why use these nationwide sweat shops????

We just refi'd with them and had no issues. I was very skeptical and nervous about going thru an internet company but it went quite well. Everything was set to go within 2 weeks of application. However, due to heavy volume they were a few days behind on getting the docs to the title company, but the loan funded in time (yesterday) which was the 30 day mark. They were upfront and told us they were working on those who had locks expiring before ours. We are pleased with the process and would consider using them again if the need ever arises.

Our Guest's comments are not at all off-base. As noted, local lenders will probably have an opportunity to get a value-check that can avoid problems such as a low value preventing a loan from being approved.

It's awfully convenient (seemingly) to do business online, but we all go back to the maxim that knowing who you're dealing with (having a relationship) is far better than dealing with anonymous phone-answerers. That's not to say it won't work - it's just a more pleasant experience, in most cases, to deal with someone firsthand.

If you run a business in your house, this company will not give a loan. Their remark is that "the property is income producing". It does not matter that current loan is residential, that the property is residential, and so on. Also, they work in local appraisals that do not know the market (I guess the guys tried very hard to get aimloans' business).

I was pre-approved in the beginning, to find out 10 days latter that I'm producing money in my property, and they cannot give a loan. The fact that is against federal law (to discriminate in offering their services, based on the fact that I have a business in the house), it does not matter to them.

What a bunch of neophytes. You talk with the front desk people, which have to "translate" your discussion to the underwriters.

I will look twice at companies providing loans over internet.

Amanda, it's profitable to "look twice" at companies no matter where they emanate from. I've often stated it before, and it is worth repeating, that the most common effective way to find a lender is to speak to people who you know and respect to find out who they used and to take a referral. Then, you sit down with the person recommended to make your own determination as to veracity, competence, professionalism and overall countenance. Ultimately, you need to make the decision for yourself that "this person" is the one you can rely on to work on your behalf for the best product and pricing you can obtain.

i just did a refinance with aim and everything when fine. i must admit i believe that i was a perfect customer. they even have kept my loan instead of selling it. i have a 800+ credit rating, my loan to value ratio was about 50% (220,000 vs 120,000). i provided all the required documents and my condo was insured including the internal walls. i was able to get a slightly lower rate by getting quotes from amerisave which were lower and aim offered to meet or better. i did not go with amerisave since they have independent representatives and i felt the service would not be as good. once you start the loan process at aim you are assigned a dedicated person to follow thru with the document processing. with the recent changes in mortgage processing the verification and approval process is not immediate but the process was completed before the lock period was up. yo can always contact the proscesser if you have questions. the only time it took a while for aim to respond was when they offered to give a better rate than amerisave. i had to give them an ultimatium then they gave the counter offer. the person responding said it was because they had to wait for the latest rate decision by whomever did the rate decisions. i would use them again. what i learned from this experience is to get rates from several companies then go back to the company you want to use and ask then to match or better it.

We used them. On the front end it was great, but working with their people was not a good experience. The rate was 1/2 percent below everyone else creating what appeared to be an over whelming work load for my loan person. They don't answer phones, but replied to my emails the same day but with short unclear answers to my questions. They required way more documentation and it ended up becoming more work than it was worth for that 1/2%. I know times have changed but we have 798 fica, refinancing 200k on a 1.1 million home with liquid assets four times the loan amount. We've purchanced and refinanced many times and we won't use them again. I was a little put off by the long list of demands they made and how it kept growing each week. Be prepared to devote some time to this.

Guest, your many times of purchasing and refinancing undoubtedly took place in substantially different times. Is that fair to say?

We've found that the paperwork requirements for borrowers are far more onerous than previously, and becoming a drudge for everyone on a continuing basis. This is truly a new era in mortgage lending, and I think we all have to prepare ourselves to be annoyed, put off and wearied by the demands of lenders for more and more paperwork.

It's not to say that it's a favorable thing; their need for more paperwork slows down the process without question. Processors, loan officers et al are also burdened far more then in the past.

My wife and I tried to refinance with Aimloan earlier this year. Like many others who have posted on here, we experienced:

1. Major runaround. They requested the same documents several times. They requested documents at the last minute in order exceed the lock period resulting in our having to pay a higher rate .25%. It is plain to see that they do this when the rates are going up and they would lose money on your loan or refinance. We originally applied for a refinance in Dec 09 and the rates went up in Jan 10 when our loan was to close. Guess what? They made excuses, asked for paperwork unnecessarily in or order for our signing date to pass without our closing. Look at any website that shows the 3 year mortgage trend rates. Notice the higher rate between Dec 09 and Jan 10. Coincidence? No, they play applicants once they have you hooked for the $300 appraisal fee. It would have cost us an extra $720 to sign. We had the money but were so disgusted with them that we canceled our application just for the principle of the matter. Here is the copy of the email from Nadine Edwards their loan processor. As you can see, it was their fault for the timing and they asked us to pay a higher rate because of their taking too long!!

Your file was submitted to our underwriting department and I received the file back. I wanted to give you an update and advise that the investor has ordered a desk review of your appraisal to clarify some questions about the value and comparables used. I wanted to give you a heads up that once the appraisal had been reviewed they will either agree with the original appraised value given or disagree and make the appropriate adjustments. These adjustments good go up or down, so it "could" affect the current appraised value. If the review comes back with a lower value, we will have use the new value. I just wanted to give you a heads up, so that you are not blindsided if a lower value comes back.
Also, since you would need to sign today in order to meet your lock date, it appears you would need a lock extension. There is a .25 pt charge based on your loan amount to extend the lock at your current rate, this fee would be paid at closing. If you choose not to extend the lock, then you would receive worse case pricing plus an 1/8th. You may review our rate lock policy.

Thank you for choosing AimLoan.com!
Nadine Edwards, Loan Processor

2. No communication and miscommunication when it finally came. If you have endless time to make phone calls, send emails, track down faxes, argue mistakes on their paperwork then maybe you can be successful.

[Phone number deleted as per forum rules. Thanks.]

Thanks for sharing your experience in the forums! I'm sure your experience will help other decide whether or not they should go with Aim Loan.

I've just signed up for a loan with AimLoan.com, and they have been professional all the way. They've given me the terms, the interest rate, and the service that I was expecting. They had the best quote out of everyone that I checked out. They handle all the paperwork directly themselves, so all I have to do is provide the information. I'll let you know if it doesn't work out, but so far it's been going well.
Sincerely,
Michael

I decided to refinance when rates dropped to 4% for a few days. Everything went okay and I felt lucky because rates jumped shortly after. I got all the paperwork to Aim but had a difficult time getting them to answer my calls/emails to verify they had eveything they needed. Then the stall began. Because rates jumped I knew they were going to pull a scam and wait until the lock expired. Sure enough, despite my constant calls/emails they finally sent me an email on the expiration day telling me they'd need another $1050 to add 15 more days to the lock. A realtor friend of mine warned me they would do this because rates had jumped so much. Expenses were too high now so I canceled. My two cents - this company is a scam who will try to nickel and dime you. Stay away.