Conference 7.286::dcu

    I closed with them on 10/13. I started with them in the middle of
    August. I was handed from processor to processor while they took turns
    on vacation. They lost my paperwork for over a week. Then I was handed
    over to Martha Beckstrom. She did a pretty good job of getting things 
    going. One thing that was irritating was that they had no idea when
    closing was going to be. I got a call on the Friday preceding Columbus
    Day weekend, at 4:30 p.m. telling me that my closing would be
    Wednesday. Of course, I had been holding off sending in my last
    mortgage payment to my soon-to-be-former mortgage company but I ended
    up having to send it and my real estate tax bill because I didn't know
    when we were going to close and I didn't want a late charge/credit
    report hit. Of course, at closing I had to pay all sorts of extra
    interest and my tax bill because nothing had cleared yet. 
    
    When I applied, I was told, and it was in the good faith estimate, that
    DCU would escrow my homeowner's insurance unless it was with Metpay.
    When I finally got the good faith estimate, the figure for the
    homeowner's escrow was too low so I called. They acted like I was
    insane thinking that they were going to escrow the homeowners. I was
    told it was just for estimating the monthly expenses.
    
    All in all, it seemed to be fairly disorganized and the communication
    was definitely driven by me. On the other hand, I had originally
    applied for a no-points,no-closing mortgage and two weeks into the
    process, asked to switch to a points-and-closing-costs mortgage and
    they did allow me to do this so apparently the initial foul-ups worked
    for me as I'm sure if the process was well-along, it wouldn't have been
    allowed.
    
    Would I do it again with DCU? I'd really have to be convinced that it
    would be worth all the hassle. It just didn't feel as professional as I
    would have liked especially getting into debt for this amount of money.
    As always, your mileage may vary.

Everything went quickly and reasonably smoothly.  DCU even bent the rules
a bit for us:  we requested (in writing) that they waive the escrow of
tax payments.  Even though we didn't quite meet the ratio requirements,
they waived it for us.  

As already demonstrated in .1, your mileage may vary...

    We attempted to refinance in June.  The appraisal value of the house was
    too low to do it.  We then went with a local bank, and got a
    significantly higher assessment on the house.  DCU is using a very
    conservative appraiser, so keep this in mind if your loan/value ratio
    may be in question.  I complained about the fact that they didn't do a
    lot to go to bat for me, and that they had had some of the legal work
    done before hand, and they met me half way and paid for the legal fees
    and I paid for the appraiser.  

    We refinanced with them in August. They had the appraiser out 2 days
    after we turned in the application and we closed less than 5 weeks
    after applying. The people we had contact with were competent, helpful
    and patient when we had questions. They've improved orders of magnitude
    since the last time we re-financed with them. We were very pleased (and
    pleasantly surprised) with how smoothly and quickly it went. As always, 
    your mileage may vary.
    
    		- Bill

It's time this note had an update!  I turned in a refinance application to
the DCU yesterday and I locked my rate today.  So far, it's far an away 
the BEST refinance experience I've had -- this is my third (plus two
original mortgages).
    
Executive summary:  DCU had the best rate I could find and the best 
service I've ever exerienced.  Now for the details.


			Service

First off, DCU services its own mortgages.  The mortgage itself is sold,
but that is transparent to the members.  I understand that they are sold
for risk management, so that the DCU doesn't have too much of its money 
tied up in long term property investments.  

They gave me a form, and it seemed easier to fill out than the last time.
True, by the fifth time I'm fairly familiar with the process.  But the 
form came with a summary sheet to help in filling it in, and also with
a checklist of items that one should try to bring.  Armed with the 
checklist (and after ransacking my files to find all the items) the
meeting with the loan officer was nearly glitch free.

Then I asked about escrow and rate locks.  My last refinancer forced me
to escrow, even though I had 80% loan-to-value, and also raised the rate 
on me when the process stretched beyond the limit.  Not so at the DCU 
these days!  The loan officer made it clear that they'd be happy to waive 
escrow (on written request), so long as I had 80% loan-to-value.  She also 
told me that if closing is delayed through a problem on their side, they'd
still honor the rate lock.

FYI, there's a $250 discount promotion going on.  You have to turn in a 
coupon to get the discount, but if you don't have one, ask the loan officer
for a copy and see what happens.  The promotion expires October 31st.


			Rates

I started calling around for rates last Friday.  My presumption was that
DCU would be competitive against banks but not against mortgage companies.
In my defense, that's the way it used to be.  Not anymore.

I sure was surprized when I found out that for a 15 year 2 point mortgage,
NOBODY had a lower rate than the DCU!  Last Friday it was 7.0.  Early this 
week it was 6 7/8.  Today it is 6 3/4 (15 year 2 points), so I locked.  

Note, DCU had the lowest rate at 2 points -- not the lowest rate period.
For example, last Sunday one of the mortgage companies advertised 6.5%!
When I called on Tuesday, they didn't quote me that rate until I asked 
about it.  Oh, they said, that one requires 3 3/4 points.  "Never mind".

I did find a few cases where someone had a lower rate in the late afternoon 
than the DCU.  That's because the DCU only changes at around 11, whereas 
some places put in a second change late in the day.  So if I wanted to play
the system some more, I'd wait until someone's afternoon rate went up,
not down, and then lock at the DCU.  But I feel more comfortable locking
in a great rate, rather than waiting for one that *might* be better.


I'll post some more once the process is over.  In case anyone is interested,
the loan officer didn't know I'm on the Supervisory Committee.
    
	Enjoy,
	Larry

What a change from two years ago, when I asked about refinancing through DCU!
No waivier of escrow allowed, no local servicing, high rates.  I ended up
going through a local mortgage company which had the best rates and waived
escrow and PMI.

				Steve

I too had a good experience with DCU. This was a first mortgage.
DCU quoted me the lowest rates of all the places we called. Plus
they accepted MetPay weekly deductions for home insurance. So that
was $300+ less on the upfront costs.

Manisha

Folks,

I just got a call from the DCU to say that my mortgage loan has been
approved!  I think this is the fastest that I've ever gotten a mortgage
loan approved -- I turned in my paperwork just 3 weeks and one day ago.
It could have been faster if we hadn't put off the appraisal for 3 days,
and if they hadn't had to get the Board's approval (since I'm on the SC).
    
I'm also pleased to report that the appraisal came through at about
the price I expected.  My last (non-DCU) refinance was marred by a
long drawn out process and an appraisal that had factual errors about
my house plus what I considered to be rather dubious comparables.
While I haven't seen the DCU appraisal report yet, the result roughly
matches my own impression of how house prices have changed locally, so 
I'm content.
    
	Regards,
	Larry

PS:  There's still time to get a $250 discount on the refinance fees.
If you are looking to refinance and your experience is at all like mine,
you won't regret going with the DCU.  LS