Real GeniusReviews of realgenius.com

Prior to refi, my experience with first bank was great but degraded after refi application was accepted. While the refi application experience was good, the rest of underwriting was so-so (e.g. document request out of the blue needing to turn around same day and we had our current mortgage serviced already by first bank!). Could not apply our current escrow with first bank to new mortgage which was strange so large escrow on old mortgage stayed while we had to fund new escrow for refi. Took more than 4 weeks to get escrow refund. Never had that with refinance with same servicer. Website of first bank is top notch. Once mortgage was sold transfer to new servicer had a lot of questions about whether old servicer (first bank) or new servicer would pay property taxes that were due prior to official transfer. First bank rep did not know and said they would let me know in 10 days (7 days after taxes due). Still have not heard resolution but new services did pay. Lack of communication was Unacceptable.

Wouldn’t recommend using Consumer Direct. Process difficult, internal team unorganized, poor communication until in crisis mode. I used them for both our initial mortgage and refinance. Our first experience had bumps, but refinance was a disaster. Many other options our there…

The process was not quick. They said we had to have an appraisal, the house was less than 2 years old and we weren’t taking any money out. Our neighbors didn’t need one. It took months to get someone out to do the appraisal and we had to pay to extend the rate. The person who called to tell us was rude and basically said it wasn’t their fault and wouldn’t waive the fee. The customer service skills were lacking. Almost no communication from them at all. I had to reach out several times just to keep things moving. No responsibility was taken by anyone we dealt with. I would not recommend this company to anyone. I gave them a bad review with Costco as well so I hope that other members don’t have to deal with them either.

Recently tried to remove my PMI and it took months to take care of. When I call to get a payoff amount to get the loan down to 80%, I either didn't get an answer, got an incorrect amount, or got a different amount calling back. I would go ahead and make the payment, and then request the PMI removal only to be told I had to pay more. I eventually got it removed but paid several months of PMI in the process.

Our initial engagement with Josh Cornett was exceptional. He helped us clearly understand our options and guided us away from your competitors with his explanations and patience. However, once we had committed the submission and resubmission of endless documents, statements and explanations made the process extremely tedious and time consuming. We understand my circumstances may have needed specific or extended review but thus should have been done from the start and without my constant explanation. There were several times when we about to quit the process but said ok, just this one more - but unfortunately, we needed to do more. Lastly, the closing process was not explained properly which caused confusion on our part. Once that was clarified Candace Griffin from Silk Title was very flexible, pleasant and professional. Overall we are happy to have changed to Consumer Direct but had we known the hoops we had to go through before hand, probably would not have gone through with it. Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback.

reasonable process but the lack of coordination and your poor choice of servicer to which you sold my loan was a terrible experience. I added the same to my Costco review as this was initiated through my relationship with them