Poli Mortgage Group

I had a very bad experience with Poli Mortgage. I was trying to refinance my house. I had purchased this house in Nashua, NH area in Sep-​2013 for 270K.
I did a refi last year and the value of the home based on the appraisal in Jan-​2015 was 310K. But I still had to pay PMI. This year I was hoping to drop off my PMI and lower my interest rate by doing another re-​fi.
So I filled up initial contact form for Poli in Zillow. Judy Turtz contacted me and discussed about my situation. She told me that for PMI to drop my house should be valued at 316K.
And she assured that since the property prices are increasing in my area and my house was valued at 310K in Jan-​2015, the house should be appraised for more than 316K this time.
Zillow showed the value of my home at 344K and I let her know about this too. Also I did some research around the home values around my area and found that there were 3 homes sold for more than 325K within 0.1 miles of my house.
So I was confident that my house will be appraised for more than 316K. Judy took down my credit card and charged $ 440 as a deposit for Credit report and Appraisal.
But the appraiser (Susan Fitzgerald from Baseline Appraisal) did a very poor job (Judy herself admitted this) with the appraisal and she came up with 284K as my home value. Please note that property values are increasing in my location (Nashua, NH, 3 062). So I absolutely don’t understand how my house value decrease so much (310K in Jan-​2015 and 284K Feb-​2016).
I talked to Judy and send her my 310K appraisal from last year, and she admitted that the appraiser did a very poor job. The appraiser missed some features of my house in her appraisal (like I have two decks and she put only one, I have an additional kitchen and bathroom in the basement but the appraiser missed that). Also the appraiser never took the houses sold within 0.1 miles of my home into consideration for the comparable.
She used comparables that are in busier roads than my house. So we did an appeal of the appraisal. This time the appraiser adjusted the value to 290K. Currently I pay 3.75% as the interest rate and my PMI is 75/​month. So based on this appraisal I was not able to drop off my PMI.
I requested Judy to return my deposit back because of the poor job done by the appraiser and Judy refused to return the money suggesting she can not do that because of their policy.
I believe this is really unfair especially because I don’t see any reason why my house which was valued at 310K in Jan-​2015 would loose 20K value by Feb-​2016 when the property values are increasing my area.
I believe the appraiser did a very poor job with the appraisal. Poli Mortgage uses incompetent appraisers. So based on this I would never suggest going with Poli Mortgage.

I’ve worked with Poli before but it was with a mortgage broker I had worked with at another company. This experience was totally different. They were very slow providing information and feedback on my condo. The appraisal was much lower than expected and was not comparable to the properties I knew had sold in the area. I’ve had much better experiences with our companies.

I was surprised to find a poor review on this company. I started working with them over a year ago as they are expanding nationwide. I have bought and sold many homes over the last 35 years and never have I dealt with a more responsive and involved company. From the moment I contacted them they were on top of everything. I cannot imagine a company that can do more AND give me a great rate.
Friends said that no one could offer these kinds of rates and the rate would switch at closing. It did not.

I needed help refinancing two properties at the same time, and a Zillow search suggested the best rates were at Poli Mortgage Group. So, I gave them a call.. .yes, the rates were exactly as they were posted on Zillow, so I started the refi processes with Chris Poli and Holly Blue. Things moved along at lightening speed, and my loans were approved faster than I’ve ever had before (I’ve done a few refis over the years). At the 11^th hour, a catastrophic error surfaced with one of my accounts at Bank of America and since they were unable/​unwilling to help (go figure), both refis were about to explode — no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Having worked with me through the process and knowing my details inside and out, Chris, Holly, and Chip got to work immediately on a Plan B to save both refis. By the way, they already got their commission, so there wasn’t much incentive to go above and beyond they way they did. When all the dust cleared, I was able to refi both mortgages with fantastic rates that saved me hundreds of dollars each month — as Chris put it «you may have had a grand-​slam called back, but still ended up with a 3-​run HR».
I can’t thank Poli Mortgage Group enough for their help, and will definitely work with them again.

Glenn Cira at Poli Mortgage Group was truly a pleasure to work with. He defies all of the negative stereotypes of a typical loan officer /​mortgage agent. He was knowledgeable and responsive, and he went out of his way to help me obtain the right deal and get it closed — all in addition to providing the lowest rate I was able to find after fielding tiresome calls from over 20 mortgage lenders.
Honestly, even if Glenn had turned out to be ¹⁄₈ of a point higher than someone else, I would still have gone with him because of how pleasant he was to work with and his ability and commitment to closing the deal.
Specifically, Glenn did three things that differentiated his competence and professionalism from everyone else’s: 1) facilitating rapid rescore, 2) informing me of FHA timing, 3) always picking up phone or calling back promptly.
Rapid rescore: Due to certain nuances of my credit utilization, my credit score at the time it was pulled was a few points too low to meet the requirements for the rate I wanted. Glenn contacted a credit consulting company who recommended a few easy steps (e.g., transfer $ 2,000 balance from one card to another) and after doing this my score went up by amost 50 points! Glenn was instrumental in making this happen and staying on top of the process
FHA timing: Glenn’s deep knowledge was pivotal for saving me thousands of dollars. Because all interest on FHA loans is paid monthly in full, I would get charged double interest for the month if we were to close after the 1^st of a month instead of near the end of the month. Since I had no idea about this, if I had gone with a different loan officer who didn’t know or didn’t care about this, I could have flushed over $ 3,000 down the toilet. I would imagine that Glenn’s knowledge would extend to many other things in addition to this specific nuance.
Responsiveness: I can’t remember a single time when I called Glenn and he did not either answer the phone or call me back within 30 minutes. This type of responsiveness is hard to find.
Above all of this, Glenn’s personality was different — better — than the other loan officers with whom I spoke when shopping for my mortgage. Most of the other guys reminded me of used-​car salesmen: pushy, in-​your-​face guys that make bold, unsupported assertions that aim to make you feel stupid if you don’t take their deal, or guys that are super-​friendly in an almost disconcerting way until they think they are unlikely to get your business, at which point they become rude and obnoxious. I always felt like I wanted to take a shower after talking to them on the phone. Glenn was the exact opposite — always straightforward, always pleasant, always willing to address my concerns honestly and head-​on. He is truly a class act in an industry that is otherwise full of tools.

I really wish I had shopped around before I went with these people. I trusted the person I worked with because he was the father of someone I had worked with, but I think that was a mistake.
The lack of communication and professionalism was really surprising to me. I definitely got the impression that my loan wasn’t really worth them bothering with. I sent many e-​mails that got no response, and often was not called back in response to voicemail.
They needed anything they needed from me right away, but they took quite a bit of time getting back to me with information I needed from them. They also dragged their feet even trying to obtain the information they needed from my condo association. They said that they had asked for the infomation a week before last Thursday, and asked me to call the condo association about it. The management company told me that they do not give this information out without the condo owner’s consent, and nobody had asked me for my consent, so it sounds like the mortgage brokers just never called. By the time they bothered to mention it to me, they needed the information right away. This seemed to be no big deal to them, but since my home is the biggest purchase I will ever make in my life, it is actually pretty important to me.
I would definitely say this company does a little less than the bare minimum to give good customer service. I also have the feeling I should have lookedaround to see if somebody could have given me a better rate.

Keith Hapenney from Poli recently handled our refinancing, after we had a terrible experience with Bank of America (lost paperwork, dragged on for months). What a difference! Poli had a great secure e-​mail system set up to send paperwork back and forth, so nothing got lost. Keith was great — clear, understandable, competent and direct. He delivered the best possible rate and deal for us in a timely manner, and leapt nimbly over any hurdles. When I had a slight question about a form, he actually called me from the airport on his way to his vacation. His support staff was also terrific, clear, competent and thorough. I wish I’d started with them!

I was recently shopping around for a mortgage and Tracy Bellavance from Poli came very highly recommended. I found her to be very responsive, honest, direct, professional and helpful in all of my interactions with her. Her rates were good and closing costs were quite reasonable too. It is an intimidating process, and I had a lot of questions, but she remained quite helpful and patient with me. I would certainly recommend her if you are looking for someone to use to obtain a mortgage.