Losing Patience- Already Pre-Approved, but haven't gotten paperwork for it.

[Anonymous]

We applied for pre-approval a MONTH ago. It took 2 weeks to get our RR results back, at which point our LO sent our pre-approval application to UW (15 days ago). I got an e-mail from LO last Wednesday letting me know that we had been officially pre-approved and that we should have our PA certificate in the mail any day. She said that she was on vacation until Saturday and would touch base with us on MOnday (yesterday). Well it's now 6 days since that e-mail and I still haven't gotten the certificate in the mail! Is it normal for it to take this long? She also did not touch base with us yesterday as she said she would. I e-mailed her yesterday and asked if she could just e-mail a copy of the it to us so that we could move forward with house hunting. I got no response. I just called and left a follow-up voicemail. I don't want to annoy her and I understand that she is busy, but my patience is starting to fail.

[IOBA]

Deep breathe.

If a certificate is mailed to you, will that be acceptable to go house hunting with?   If it is, can you print out the email and tell your realtor  you are waiting for the official certificate to come via mail.   Explain that it was delayed becuase the lender was on vacation for a week.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I believe that a printed version of it would be good enough, at least temporarily. But that's the problem. I can't get my LO to maintain consistent communication long enough to get her to e-mail me a copy. I haven't even gotten an answer from her on whether or not she has the ability to e-mail me a copy. I don't want to push her buttons because she's good at what she does and helped us position ourselves to be able to get pre-approved in the first place. But at the same time, I need her to do her job so that we can buy a home for our family, ya know!? Frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Since she is your LO you have every right to continue to contact her until you get what you need before you start looking for a home. Yes, certain times of the month are busy for them but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be treated as an important customer. Even if turnaround time is a day or so 6 days is excessive.

[Anonymous]

Well if she said you were approved I'd go ahead and start looking for a house. We made an offer and then our lender faxed a copy of our preapproval to the realtor.

[BreezyWe]

Can u just go with a different realtor who will show u homes without the pre approval? We did

[DrJim]

Is the only lender you are working with?  I ask because I will start looking in a few weeks and I am getting preapprovals from 3 lenders - that way I can shop my rate and work with who I want to.

Remember, your LO works for YOU!  You are the customer bringing a lucrative contract to his/her company.  Your LO should be courting you and treating you like the valuable customer you are.  If you have other lenders you can simply threaten to walk if they do not treat you with respect.

Just my .02

[Anonymous]

No, we can't use a different realtor. My aunt is our realtor and A. She's the best in our region and B. It would be a big no-no for anyone in our family to use a different realtor.

But I feel like that's besides the point. I'm trying to "politely" tell my LO that I don't appreciate her lack of customer service and I REALLY don't appreciate her ignoring or not returning my calls or e-mails in a timely manner without putting stress on the business relationship. Whether I change realtors or not, she is still my LO and I'll have to deal with her throughout this whole process. Any tips on how to encourage her to return e-mails and voicemails in a timely manner? In the beginning she would always respond in 48 or less....now I'm lucky if I hear back from her within 6-9 business days!

[Anonymous]

We also can't use a different lender because we are in a first time home buyer program that allows us to recieve grants for closing and down payment. We've been in this program for 12 months, so we really can't afford to start over with someone new.

[DrJim]

I was suggesting a different LO, not a different realtor.

Unfortunately you can't get someone to do their job if they are not doing it.  Just keep pluggin away!