Stay away from Chase Manhattan

[Tom]

We've just closed on our manufactured home loan for a unit in a mobile home park where we rent the space, NOT own the land. We are in our mid-50's, having moved to a new community, debt free, making a good income and have excellent credit. We were almost immediately appoved for Chase's best rate (8.75%), and requested a 15 year loan, rather than their standard 30 year loan. This was no problem, they said. However, the rest of the process was. In the words of our escrow officer..."one of the most difficult closings I could ever imagine."

Delay after delay after delay dragged out the funding of our loan to almost 5 months. First our loan rep went into the hospital for back surgery. I understand that these things happen. But no one was assigned to handle our loan in her absence. That delayed things several weeks. Then we could never get ahold of anyone personally in the Chase loan office in Cleveland to answer our concerns by phone. And voice messages were never returned. Finally, a fax got a supervisor's attention and she started to work through the quagmire of whatever their loan process is.

Then when our loan rep returned after her surgery, our loan was turned back to her. She then began requesting information from our sales person at the park for a specific document. He sent it by fax the next day. Then after a week went by with no communication, we assumed everything was progressing as it should. Then the loan rep called me in exasperation saying that she couldn't read our sales rep's fax. I asked her why she didn't call the sales rep, and she said that he wasn't returning her phone calls. Well, he was, but her voice mail always answered and she never returned calls left on her voice mail. Finally, I got the form she needed and overnighted it to her.

After two more weeks of waiting, I called again and asked to talk to our loan rep to find out what was happening with our loan, since our 3 month approval window was just a week away from expiring. I then learned that our loan rep had gone on vacation and our papers were just sitting on her desk.

Finally after I sent a strongly worded "fax" to the Cleveland office, her supervisor called us back and promised to move things along. Well, she didn't do it fast enough to rescue our original loan and we had to re-apply. After two more weeks of waiting, and getting re-approved, we found out that Chase had now changed their method of approving loans. All loans now had to be approved by the "Seattle office" rather than the "Cleveland office" where all the loans originate. The new approval and funding process took almost another month, while the new "approval people" in Seattle asked our seller for infomration that was not germaine to the sale and some of it even being illegal to disclose (i.e. the account number of the escow account where our downpayment was being held). Plus they asked for documents that we had already submitted months before, because they had lost them or "couldn't find them", or never looked for them.

During this time, our escrow agent really earned her fees. Everyday for almost three solid weeks, she was on the phone with the Seattle people answering questions and sending forms that they conjured up new every day. Finally, a week shy of 5 months after our inital loan process was started, the funds were sent (not wired, but sent in the form of a cashiers check through overnight delivery-wiring the money would be so much faster and more efficient!).

We have owned several homes in our lives, and this was the smallest loan we ever applied for, yet it was the biggest headache we ever encountered with a loan company. In my opinion, the people in the Manufactured Home Loan division at Chase Manhattan Bank should all be fired. Outside of one supervisor in the Cleveland office, every single one of them were incompetent, rude, uncaring and unprofessional. If they were not the only loan company we could find that was lending money at a decent rate, we would have gone elsewhere.

My advice to anyone is if you have another choice, do not choose Chase.

[rmurray]

Chase has been one of the most loyal and competitive lenders in the industry for many years...

Obviously your park has hardly ever used them in the past and knows little of their proceedure..They could have called their loan rep at the first sign of trouble and had resolution very quickly...

Chase is VERY careful in credit qualifying and verification...Especially of downpayments...They absolutely REQUIRE seasoned..verified downpayment money...It is very unusual to use an escrow agent for closing of a home only loan..Soooo unusual that I doubt Chase has a proceedure to verify downs at an escrow agent and yours required some sort of waver of policy...Unfortunately for you some in the industry have made quality lenders like yours very suspicious of unusual situations...How do they know if the escrow agent is not your bother in law or the park owners cousin???....

Normally Chase does not advance any money on home only sales until the recieve ALL properly executed final contract documents...Again another corporate waver....With companies the size of Chase..corporate waivers are hard to come by and take lots of time..

Your processor has many loans to close at any one time..unfortunately yours needing special treatment and maybe corporate waver or 2 got shoved to the bottom of the pile...Not good but human nature..

Now..if the dealer had picked up the phone and called the field rep..He/she would have known what was going on and your loan would have gotten immediate upper management attention..Closing would have been very quick..

Most of our closing with Chase are less than 48 hours from the time they recieve all proper docs...Our money is usually delivered about 48 hours after they recieve a complete signed contract package and title documents..

Sorry for your problems....but the selling agent is the one to talk to...They dropped the ball here...

Good Luck with your home..

[Barbara]

I can only assume you work for Chase Manhattan. Chase Manhattan is the most corrupt company in the lending business. I could go on and on about their practices, but it really makes me sick to my stomach to see their name in print. I only recommend that anyone, anyone who is considering Chase for anything, run, don't walk.

One customer who will never be burned by Chase again.

[rmurray]

NO...I do not work for Chase...I am a manufactured home sales person for over 30 years...and Chase has been one of the most loyal lenders in the industry..

They have the lowest rates in the industry for home only finance...but they are the toughest to deal with...my guess is after the sale..if a consumer does not pay on time..they are very tough..

Sorry you had a problem with them..

[Tom]

Some of the blame may have been with our park officials and escrow officer (we're a small town and this was the first time they ever have dealt with a Chase loan for a manufactured home), but the problems we experienced with our loan rep and the company changing their procedures mid-way through our loan approval and funding process was not. That was Chase's screw up. It was the most unprofessional group of people I've ever dealt with in a loan process. Their lack of communication with us and with each other was terrible. Only the manager in Cleveland showed any competence, whatsoever.

[DstPN]

Without Chase the Chattel end of the MH business would almost finished. Their paperwork and their service is second to none. Sorry to hear about a bad experience that someone had, sounds like this customer tried to go directly through Chase and not a retailer who has an agreement with them. This is certainly not the norm for service by this lender, and no I do not work for Chase either.

[D.Abben]

There are few MH lenders out there and Chase has some of the best programs out there. Where was the salesperson during this whole process? The salesperson should have been calling the bank not the customer. I used to do MH lending and it sounds like this customer went though what they call a "directs" dept. Those types of departments are typically poor representatives of a lender. Based what I know about this lender (I am not employed, but deal with them on a retail level) all you should have needed was the following:
1. Verification of Income (Paystub & written Verf of Employment)

[D.Abben]

There are few MH lenders out there and Chase has some of the best programs out there. Where was the salesperson during this whole process? The salesperson should have been calling the bank not the customer. I used to do MH lending and it sounds like this customer went though what they call a "directs" dept. Those types of departments are typically poor representatives of a lender. Based what I know about this lender (I am not employed, but deal with them on a retail level) all you should have needed was the following:
1. Verification of Income (Paystub & written Verf of Employment)
2. Proof of Retirement Income if applicable.
3. Verification of Down Payment (you must prove where your DP is from, not uncommon when you buy a home.

[D.Abben]

There are few MH lenders out there and Chase has some of the best programs out there. Where was the salesperson during this whole process? The salesperson should have been calling the bank not the customer. I used to do MH lending and it sounds like this customer went though what they call a "directs" dept. Those types of departments are typically poor representatives of a lender. Based what I know about this lender (I am not employed by them, but deal with them on a retail level) all you should have needed was the following:
1. Verification of Income (Paystub & written Verf of Employment)
2. Proof of Retirement Income if applicable.
3. Verification of Down Payment (you must prove where your DP is from, not uncommon when you buy a home.)
4. Proof of Homeowners Insurance and Photo ID(s).
If your dealer truly knows what they are doing this is actually an easy process. If the dealer is authorized to do business with Chase they should be able to get papers w/i 24 hours, and funded w/i 72 hours as long as the customer complys with everything they are asked to do. If you are unfamiliar with MH lending it can be a very expasperating experience in comparison to other industries. Hopefully this loan is booked and all this cutomer has to worry about is sending a check every month. FYI, you could always pay this loan off early with no prepayment penalty as it is simple interest. LOL.

[D.Abben]

Sorry about the repeated posts, user error on the computer.