Our Experience with USAA Home Loan & Movers Advantage

[lululitaperlita]

This is my first time posting in this community; I felt that it was important to share our experience with USAA & the Mover's Advantage Program.

We are first time home-buyers in San Diego. I understood that the loan process was going to be difficult, but I did not expect the last 45 days of my life to be a total nightmare.

From the pre-approval to the final disposition of our loan each step & task was like pulling teeth. It took 24-48 hours for anything to be done. I had to call 4 or 5 times to speak with someone.

My processor seemed to be new and was not very responsive or able to explain my questions. Her supervisor & manager were in and out of trainings the entire time and were difficult to get ahold of as well.

I was assigned a realtor via the Movers Advantage program who did little work to get us in our house. I mostly reached out to her to choose houses to see and schedule showings. She went away on vacation for a couple weeks and so we placed our home search on hold until she returned. She came back early, but didn't let us know and assumed because we had gone out twice and seen a handful of houses (over our budget or in undesirable areas) that we were not serious buyers. She called me to say that I just HAD to choose a house now.  At this point we were really interested in one house and we told her we wanted to take a second look; since she'd gotten us that far we went ahead and placed an offer with her help.

The loan process was so exhausting; it was failed promise after failed promise.

At the end of the day, our house had an unpermitted addition which USAA said would need to be permitted in order for them to fund the loan. This was not an option for the seller; we had to move on.

We were promised a good rate with USAA, our full earnest deposit back at closing + the mover’s advantage bonus; we didn't get any of that.

Once I received confirmation from our processor that they would not fund the loan with the unpermitted addition I reached out to a local mortgage company and was able to get the loan approved with all final conditions and we closed Escrow within 7 days. Unfortunately, we did not receive our earnest money back & the mover’s advantage bonus which we were planning to use to make some much needed updates to the house.

The day we went in to our final inspection with our realtor she shared that she met with USAA mover’s advantage a few days earlier and was told that if she had asked them they would have approved the loan. < SERIOUSLY!

USAA Pre-Approval Process> Terrible

USAA Loan Processing Department> Inexperienced processors and busy managers

USAA Loan Policies> limiting and unreasonable

USAA Movers Advantage Program> Poor communication and education to their partners

This experience was extremely taxing on me financially & emotionally, it was truly a roller coaster ride. I have never worked with so many individuals that simple can't or won’t do their jobs; there were a handful of truly committed representatives that I worked with, but the overall bureaucracy of how USAA has structured these processes tied their hands to be able to help.

Thankfully at the end of the day, we closed on time and we have our first home. We have learned a lot and hopefully this experience will make our next home purchase much simpler.

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

Lululitaperlita,

Thank you for sharing. I have passed along your feedback to the appropriate area. I am very sorry to hear of your recent experience with us. While I cannot change what has already happened, we would like a second chance to see if there is anything we can do to help you and your family. If you would like, you can complete this form. We look forward to hearing from you.

[Florida bound]

Thanks for your posting. I am a very experienced buyer and have fired two movers advantage agents because within days it was clear they were not any good. As someone who practiced real estate law, I know what to expect from a good agent and getting someone who wants to do no more than unlock the door to homes I find is not within the definition. I used to rest assured that USAA provided superior service whether directly or through affiliates, but that clearly is no longer the case. I'm going to use Angie's list to find a competent agent.

[PaulH]

I too have had the same experiences with the Real Estate agents assigned by Movers Advantage. I'm not sure why they only work with one company, as I was told, in NE Ohio. I was assigned an agent who knew nothing about the homes I looked at, she just opened the door, and I looked around. The first one I was assigned didn't even call at the beginning until I informed MA and then was assigned another, from the same agency. After wasting a month of of not being able to contact the agent on  a weekend, and an occassional email saying "Let me know when you find something", I decided not to use Movers Advantage. Of course, I emailed my coordinator for this program to let him know, and haven't heard back. With all the horror stories I've read in regards to the Mortgage Dept. I will look elsewhere for that as well. 

I have been with USAA for about 6-7 years and feel they have excellent service in every other area. My suggestion is revisit your entire Home Buying program from start to finish, or get out of it altogether. I'm not the type to base my decisions reading online reviews, but it makes me give pause. USAA needs to minimize or eliminate the "Bad Press" of the Home Buying process.

Movers Advantage and Mortgage Dept. unfortunately will not be part of my USAA experience.

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

PaulH,

Thank you for sharing your experience. We are sorry you were assigned unsatisfactory agents with Movers Advantage, buying a home is stressful enough without the support of a professional! While I cannot change what has happened in the past, we would like to get someone in contact with you to make sure you have everything you need now. If you would like additional assistance or another outlet to provide feedback, please fill out this form. In the meantime, I have passed your feedback along to the appropriate area. Thank you again for posting and best of luck in your home buying endeavors.

[luckymnm]

We had similar bad experience with a sale in Maryland. USAA Movers Advantage referred us to an agent based in DC who was barely literate, had no knowledge of the local historic district, and, when asked how she'd market our home, she looked it up in the booklet she was leaving with us and read us, verbatim, a couple paragraphs from the corporate sales pitch. We found a local realtor, David Maplesden, who was outstanding and exceeded expectations on just about every opportunity.

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

luckymnm,

Thank you for sharing your experience. We are so sorry that the real estate agent was unsatisfactory. Would you mind providing details about that agent in this form so we can ensure that the proper measures are taken?

Thank you again for commenting in the community!

[Disappointed&annoyed]

I am so glad I found this thread, my husband and I have been with USAA for 11 years and have had nothing but praise for them. When it came time to buy a home again we decided to give USAA a go. Let me just say we have excellent credit, have purchased homes in the past and were recently pre -approved with another company hassle free. Our plans changed so we have to start shopping in another state. After my conversation with the mortgage department today and seeing this and several other posts I will stay far far away from USAA mortgage. The conversation started off extremely unprofessional in my opinion. The mortgage specialist asked "Why would you want to move from A to B?" She then proceeded to say she would have run screaming from our current duty station ( a place we have lived off and on for 10 years and love dearly). Multiple mistakes were made during the process, data was input incorrectly, and all the while she kept interjecting her opinion about everything from my husbands job to my own. The final straw after all her "Oops, I did that wrong" and "Let me google that" was a comment about how my husband should start looking for a job ASAP since he has decided to "Leave the military, he should just stay in". It's not a choice we've made lightly but after multiple surgeries among other issues that were none of her business, it's a decision we've made. I finally told her to just stop. To which she replied "but your pre-approval will get declined" to which I said, that's the best thing you could have said all day. Im sorry if this rambles but I've never dealt with such a level of unprofessionalism with USAA and I'm beyond irritated.

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

Dear Disappointed,

I am appalled to hear about your recent call. I am so very sorry that you had this experience. I know an apology cannot change this transgression, but we would like the chance to speak with you again to get additional details about your call to ensure we give you the very best service and to make sure something like this does not happen again. Please email us at socialmedia@usaa.com with your member number and the best way to contact you. We truly would appreciate the opportunity to renew your faith in our services. Thank you so much for your 11 years of membership. We look forward to hearing from you.