[NJblue]

Has anyone received a mortgage from Citizens First lately? Can you tell me how long it took for the approval process? We are closing on our new home in the end of October. I am exploring some other financing options but was warned by our sales agent to not wait too long to apply with Citizens First to avoid the penalties associated with not being able to close on time. I'd prefer to avoid the application fee if we end up not even needing their mortgage, but I would hate even more to be assessed the rather stiff penalties that TV imposes for not being ready to close on time.

[nanci2539]

We met with them yesterday. Closing at the end of Sept and the mortgage officer told us we have plenty of time. We are going to meet with him again after Labor Day.

The interest rate, yesterday was at 6.875 and there are closing fees involved. Half of the fees are mandated by the state of FL so regardless of who you use, these fees are payable by the borrower

Citizen's is the easiest way to go. Although their interest rate is higher than other banks/mortgage companies, their customer service is good and very accomodating.

If you get hung up with another mortgage company and not able to close on your date, you'll be fined $250 per day.

As I understand it; the inspection process is what holds you up when you use outside banks. In many cases, the inspector doesn't allow enough time.

We're still going to look outsdie TV and compare rates but will probably end up at Citizen's because it's an easier route.

[railroader12]

I'm not a bigh fan of Citizens First. Don't have a mortgage, but some of the dealings we had with them diden't impress me. Talking to a person in one of the pools last year, mention the Credit Union on 441. You may want to check them out. Good luck.

[NJblue]

Nanci,

The ease of dealing with Citizens is what attracts us as well. It just seems that when you are dealing with a finely oiled machine as the closing process at TV is made out to be, by inserting a new component into that machine in the form of another mortgage company, the potential for bad things to happen gets bigger. In our case, the penalty for not closing on time is MUCH bigger than $250 per day. Part of the incentive program that we bought our house under was that we were given a 3.5% discount off the list price of the house. However, if we don't close precisely on the day that is specified in the contract, we lose that entire amount, plus we start to have to pay a daily penalty on top of that. Because of that, I don't want to rely on some outside mortgage company to come through.

[sbm]

We just closed on our CYV 7-28 with Citizens. We had done a preapproval before we came down to buy, but that only took a day for them to get me an answer. Once we signed our purchase agreement we called the bank and met with our loan officer the same day and they had our closing date from the developer so they knew how much time they had. We got a call a couple days later from our processer to get some statements for verification of deposits and income and we were pretty much ready to go. Very efficient and accomodating. It closed on time and yes it probably was a little higher rate and seemed like quite a few fees, but I am a senior credit officer in a bank and I showed our good faith agreement to one of my mortgage loan officers and she felt it was pretty much in line with what our bank would charge. A lot of the fees are broken down separately where we may charge a 1% originiation fee and that covers most of the costs they have broken down further. I definitely was satisifed with the process and like they said it is a well oiled machine.

[jadebox]

My nephew used an outside mortgage company and had headache after headache. We used Citizens and everything was smooth. The second time we bought we needed to mortgage for 100% until we sold our other house. A couple months later it cost us $150 in closing costs to add proceeds of the sale to our mortgage and lower the payments. We were very happy with Citizens.

[KathieI]

I can't say enough good things about Citizens Mortgage, both the mortgage broker and the underwriter I worked with. In my very difficult situation, being retired, going through a divorce, having a house in LA and another in PS, they worked so well and coordinated all their efforts to be sure I could qualify for this mortgage.

I think my mortgage rate is very fair given my circumstances and they understood my requirements both financially and emotionally. Yes, this is a new home construction and yes they wanted to sell the house, but they went out of their way to be accommodating and reasonable and extremely efficient.

Thank you Citizens Bank for allowing me to move into my dream home!!

BTW, they are all invited to the housewarming party too!

I posted this comment a few weeks ago, and yesterday I closed in my house in Hadley. I still feel the same, their process is like a "well oiled machine," very organized and efficient. The closing went very smoothly too, considering it was done 3000 miles away.

[SteveFromNY]

Originally Posted by Hope2bforever

My nephew used an outside mortgage company and had headache after headache. We used Citizens and everything was smooth. The second time we bought we needed to mortgage for 100% until we sold our other house. A couple months later it cost us $150 in closing costs to add proceeds of the sale to our mortgage and lower the payments. We were very happy with Citizens.

I just did the same thing with my Citizen's mortgage. Really easy, although the fee to change was $175 now. Kept the same rate and term, just reduced the principle and payment. The process was easy and helped me quite a bit.

[MMC24]

I believe that Citizens First is owned by "The Family" so everything goes smoothly. I'm glad we avoided the mortgage headache by purchasing our home outright.

[pm10]

We used Citizen's, too, and our experience was almost identical to sbm's. One call with a couple questions, after we applied (we went throught the pre-approval ahead of time, too), and that was it - everything worked like clock-work. Very easy, positive experience.
Marcia

[jerseygirl008]

My experience in May was very smooth. I used Bank of America up here in NJ. (PA house had a B of Am. mortgage). Did everything over the phone, basically. The home inspection was done swiftly, all arranged by TV realtor. The whole process took 30 days and got an interest rate of 6.1% Citizen's sounds great. However, they couldn't beat the B of Am. interest rate. For me, it was the right choice. Bank of Am. is on 466.

[tucson]

I also went w/Bank of America. I called Citizen's after i got a pre-approval from BofA, ( just for another quote & I was curious too,since so many people in TV use them) But I felt more comfortable going with a larger bank and also I've been with them for a long time and received much better service and rates.