Cobalt Mortgage

I read some of these negative reviews and I was surprised. Maybe the service changes from person to person. However I used Ken Smith at Cobalt and was beyond grateful for his help. He was patient, kind, caring, available day or night, listened to me cry and even let me yell at him a couple times. I was really nervous about purchasing a home in 2011 during the recession and he talked me off the ledge. We got a ⁵⁄₁ arm at 3.5%. Shortly after that, the interest rates dropped dramatically, and about 6 months after purchasing, he was able to get us refinanced to a 30 year-​fixed at 4.25%. That also saved us the PMI costs and we were able to write off the refinance fees. He saved us tons of money and was really creative in how to structure the loan. He’s very smart and will get you a good deal. We were very hard to get approved because we were both self-​employed. He worked his butt off to get us through that process. After the recession, I felt like I couldn’t trust anyone related to real-​estate. He was one of the shiny bright lights during that dark time. I would and will use him again. You should too. So, not sure about everyone else at Cobalt — but Ken is golden.

I was recommended this lender by an agent and while I’ve been through several real estate transactions with other lenders/​brokers over the years, I was interested in reaching out to someone new given the current market conditions. While initially courteous and responsive to lure you in, Cobalt will end up wasting your time with erroneous quotes, lack of detail, incomplete responses to detailed requests, broken promises to get back to you, etc.

I worked with Connie Lindsay at the Cobalt Office in Kirkland, WA. I was surprised to see negative reviews about CM, until I noticed the reviews were from other states. Connie is the best — she was recommended by my Realtor and I’m so glad I chose to work with her instead of the lender recommended by my Credit Union. I had talked with another associate and sent some paperwork before wiring with Connie. When I first talked with Connie, instead of talking about my salary first or what my home price range was, Connie asked what I was comfortable paying. We talked about how much my current rent was (first time homeowner) and what the difference would be. She talked me through it a bit — to keep in mind HOA fees, taxes, etc. We talked over the general process of home buying. Then, as time passed she explained everything in detail. I asked a lot of questions, which she encouraged.
She responded quickly to emails and phone calls. She worked closely with my Realtors — I completely trusted her to take care of things and to have my interests in mind. *We closed in a month — on the date I requested.* As soon as she got a call from my Realtor (at 6 p.m.), Connie out everything together so we could bid on the home that evening. I so appreciated that.
I’d heard stories of people not knowing what was happening during their mortgage process and then learning after the fact they’d signed on to something they didn’t expect. That didn’t happen to me; Connie made sure I understood everything. I highly recommend working with her and Cobalt Mortgage. Her assistant, LeeAnn Main is great, too. LeeAnn was always helpful in making sure I had the right paperwork in and in answering questions.

I just finished a two week plus headache with cobalt mortgage in dallas tx.
the mortgage consultant that first contacted us, Av, sat on our paperwork for over a week because he was quitting cobalt to work for another company and wanted to take our loan with him. Dont mind us Av.
Then another mortgage consultant contacted us after he left and said he would be our new contact with cobalt, tim, and he either didn’t listen to our situation, or is new to the mortgage industry but he unprofessionally presented us products we didnt qualify for– bottom line 20 days into the cobalt mortgage process I did not know for sure what type of loan I was being pre approved for or what the APR was going to be… and we were only applying for a 125,000 loan with a 200,000 down payment.
tim told us it would be another 2 weeks till underwriting would approve our application that cobalt had in its office for 2 weeks already.
Not only that, but the guy diva-​ed on me when I asked him what was going on.
Shake my head.
Im going To Batton down the hatches world, I’m not getting a mortgage.
Climate change.

They switch us from 20% conventional to 10% Jumbo FHA with PMI. Which meant 600 $ more/​month. Save time — Go to Guild Mortgage. Laurel Knight, she’s the best. And was able to secure us 20% conventional 30 year at 4.25%. Cobalt seems to be just another set of standard loan «sharks». I mean «Brokers»

I see a lot of negative reviews for Cobalt here, but my husband and I had the exact opposite experience. Kristine Moreland (Kirkland location) and her assistant Heidi closed our new home purchase on time, without issue. A home purchase is not what I’d call «easy,» it’s just a stressful process no matter how well it’s going. However, Kristine and Heidi were great to work with and were very adaptable when we changed course mid-​way through the transaction (we went from selling our former home to renting it instead). They were forthcoming and upfront with us, communicating efficiently throughout the transaction.
Please don’t just Cobalt on the whole by bad reviews for individual loan officers. There are hundreds of loan officers at Cobalt nationwide, and they all operate fairly independently. A bad experience in Texas doesn’t mean you’ll have a bad experience in Washington. We had a great experience with Kristine, so we will definitely give her our business again in the future.
We’ve also worked with Allie Lord in the past and she is great too! Thumbs up for Cobalt in Kirkland!

I have financed with them TWICE so far without any issues. I highly recommend Chad Mattison and his team for the amazing job they have done both times. I have got quotes from others but Cobalt always quoted me the best price. I will go back to them again!

Cobalt just «sold» my mortgage to a loan service company, that specializes in bill collections. I have never paid late, have a strong credit rating, and now my mortgage is with some bill collections company in New York! These guys (the bill collectors) have no automated bill pay, no online way to manage your account, just mail us a check once a month! If you are thinking of going with Cobalt, think again!!! I really regret not going with Wells Fargo! Beware people, Cobalt will «sell» your mortgage paper, with no regard to where it’s sold!!! DON’T USE THEM!!!

Well I read other fellow reviewers comments on the firm and I think they really must have had terrible experiences here. I guess it really depends on who you are working with. Perhaps Cobalt Mortgage has a mixture of both competent and incompetent people. But when it comes to my personal experience, I should say I loved it.
I worked with Lysa Catlin and her team. They were fantastic. Truth is I had worked with her before she joined Cobalt Mortgage and I was really pleased. So when my brother or my parents or my good friends wanted to get a mortgage I referred them to Lysa and they were all very pleased. Also when I wanted to get a second mortgage I went to her and again it was a very satisfactory experience. Let me get to some more specifics.
1. The process has always been very smooth.
2. In both occasions I needed a mortgage pretty fast. Lysa said she could do it. And she did.
3. My brother decided to go with another agent against my recommendation. What happened? A week before his closing date the agent told him they wouldn’t be able to give him the loan because the property was in a new area and they weren’t sure how much it was really worth. Lame, right? But that’s really not the point. After that he went to lysa and got the loan just in time.
4. When getting my second property, two days before closing I did something stupid that affected my credit report. It’s not really important what it was that I had done. Lysa had it under control, and while it was a bit stressful for me, mu loan got funded just in time.
5. And last but not least, they are very courteous and prompt in their responses.
I don’t know what else should be there for to give her 5 stars? Just remember that my experience has only been with her. I don’t know about the rest of Cobalt Mortgage.

We found ourselves in this position because our agent recommended him (Robbie Gehre). If only we would have read the other reviews in advance, our experience seems to be in line with the rest of the fellow Unilocalers who have also had the unfortunate experience with these clowns in this office.
Robbie boasts that he can close a loan in 10 days. And maybe he can. But this has gone on 5 months. All because he stated incorrectly that he could use income from both jobs I have (one is part time for just shy of 2 years… a rule that has been in place for at a minimum of 25 years that part time income is only able to be considered if employed for at least 2 years). So it became very clear he isn’t aware of mortgage lending rules.
If Robbie’s ‘say one thing, do the opposite’ attitude isn’t irritating enough for you — then you can hear how fantastic he is (just ask him!). It’s pretty obvious when you talk to him that he is dragging around a giant ego. But it’s all talk no action. If only he followed the basic principal of sales training… under sell, over deliver, then he wouldn’t leaving the customer slowly shaking their head in disgust each and every time.
Then you have the pleasure to work with Becky on his team. She’ll email your CPA with smiley faces and then refer to the client as «chica» when forwarding an email incorrectly. There’s so many things they have done that should be incredibly embarrassing to them, but sadly it seems like they don’t even realize it.
They will even order appraisals for $ 600 when they are just sailing on the hope they can close the deal and then charge you again for another one because the one they ordered prematurely has expired.
After documents were sent to escrow, I caught that my husband’s name was spelled incorrectly on everything. The escrow officer contacted the Funding Manager to get it corrected and was told that it was fine the spelling was incorrect. The escrow agent insisted that it needed to be corrected. Apparently they think it is okay to have incorrect information on legal documents.
This entire interaction was a friendly reminder that common sense is certainly not always common! If you are looking for a frustrating experience, call up Robbie Gehre; he’ll make you want to shout from the rooftops. Just not in his favor.

I am startled at the level of incompetence here. I mean it is exhausting trying to do their jobs for them while also constantly grooming their disgusting egos enough to try to get the transaction completed on time. Do not even consider using this company. It’s not worth it. They’re more expensive, they’re unresponsive, they’re dishonest, they’re evasive. I can’t remember the last time I disliked working with a company this much.
I guess sellers must get kickbacks for recommending this place, because I can’t imagine that anyone ever has had a good experience with them. I know my real estate agent is now cautioning buyers against using Cobalt after what we went through.
After assuring us that they almost never sell mortgages they of course sold ours after two months to Chase. You know what? I’m thrilled. That’s right, I’m actually thrilled to be working with JP Morgan Chase — that pretty much says it all right there.

Recommended by our agent.
Dan was very responsive answering calls and delivering pre-​approval letters at nights and weekends while we were going into multiple multi-​bid offers over a few months. He kept us informed through the whole underwriting process and they were actually ready to close a week earlier than we planned.
There were some issues (misspelled name) with the documents, that neither Cobalt or the escrow company caught until I pointed them out, but they were quick to correct things.
The rates were good, but if you were willing to deal with a portfolio lender or internet broker you could get lower. Cobalt did some work to get close in points/​rate, but in the end we choose to use them because they were local and had too many stories about out of state brokers failing to understand local regulations. We didn’t want to risk that on our purchase.

My husband and I had a great experience with Cobalt Mortgage. We worked with Ryan Evans out of the Houston office and wouldn’t change a thing about the buying process and are very happy with the service Ryan provided. This was our first time purchasing a home and going through the whole mortgage application process. Ryan was very nice, honest and responsive to any questions we had. After hearing so many horror stories from friends and family members about their mortgage process, we are glad we had Ryan as our agent.
Our new home build had various issues of it’s own throughout the process, it felt good not having to worry about the mortgage process. We were notified regularly of any additional information that was needed for underwriting and submitted the documents in a timely manner. Even our builder acknowledged the promptness of Ryan and team in getting things submitted to him. We closed on time and without any issues. We appreciate Ryan and team for making the process painless.

TERRIBLE — would not even refer my worst enemy as I would not want Cobalt to profit from it.
They cost me $ 40k since I had waived the financing contingency on an investment transaction after my rep assured me I had the financing. A week before closing, my rep will not return my phone calls. I even go to his office to try and find him. Finally 3 days before closing, he tells me he just found out that Cobalt will not finance the deal. The kicker. .. that same afternoon I check my mail at my PO Box and find a letter from the lender, dated a week earlier, saying that my financing was not approved.
Dishonest and Unethical. Use any other company.

Our first mortgage.
We had many questions, and felt that while they always answered within a couple of days, we always had to ask. About everything to get it moving at all.
Things certainly did go as planned though. Things were on time, though sometimes only just on time, and while we noticed some notorious trash fees tacked on, nothing was terribly over the amounts expected.
So why the 1 star?
Because three months in, and cobalt sold our mortgage to ‘green tree servicing’.
I ask that anyone reading this looks them up.
I challenge anyone to find one single good thing to be said about these money skimming scum bags of the money lending world. They are the supreme rulers of trash loan purchasers, and I would also like to point out that we have great credit and haven’t ever been late for anything.
Go for it. Google ‘Green Tree Servicing’. It reads like a series of war crimes.
Cobalt. This is the equivalent of selling us a car and running outside and urinating in through the window the instant our signature is present on the ownership papers.
We now await their notorious abuse and tacked on illegal fees. Realistically, we have to look into refinancing less than 1 year after purchase.
This is an absolutely unforgivable thing for you to do to a young family trying to get on with their lives.
If I could do this again, I’d seek out the help of a credit union. Someone who thinks more of its reputation than to immediately sell mortgages for a quick buck the instant the ink is dry on the paper to whoever will give them any profit at all.
Lets face it, we could have saved ourselves a ton of money going there in the first place.
Thanks Cobalt. Thank you so very much.
It isn’t only high risk people who get sold to green tree. Cobalt’s actions show an immoral, lazy, quick buck corporate mentality.
Save yourself a LOT of money and go to someone who won’t do this to you.

If I could give them 0 stars I would, but Unilocal requires at least one!
HORRIBLE, UNPROFESSIONAL, STAY AWAY… FAR FAR AWAY!
My husband and I built a new home and were referred to Cobalt by our realtor. We were already using a company but they said they could beat our rate and offer us money toward closing to use their company. Deal! Shame on us! 24 hours before we were to close we were told that their underwriting process changed the Monday of that week and we weren’t out of underwriting yet. All while being told by our mortgage consultant that we were already approved. Best part, not only were we NOT out of underwriting, underwriting hadn’t even started the process. Very unresponsive to our requests for information once we were made aware of this fact. We are leasing a home and need to get out to turn it back to the landlord, still no response. They offered us another $ 1000 credit for our trouble and the delay. I rearranged a business trip to accommodate my closing and no one seemed to care, except our mortgage consultant.
Fired them, went back to the original mortgage company and within 2 business days, we are in underwriting. I’ll update my review shortly.
BE WARNED — STAY AWAY!

I won’t say that Cobalt is great, because I’ve only had one mortgage in my life, but they are very friendly and responsive when you touch base with a person rather than their customer service email address. I was introduced to them through my buyer’s agent and found that they had pretty awesome rates. I locked in a 3.25% 30 year fixed and it’s been about a year now. I’ve had a few small problems, but nothing that I could not handle with a little leg work. Do make sure you keep tabs on payments made through your escrow account, and always pay on time (but who needs to be told that?).
The only issues I had were related to property taxes and changing insurance companies, though that may have been a failure of communication on the insurance company side rather than Cobalt.

Terrible service. Absolutely awful. The worst experience we’ve ever had after buying/​selling 10 properties. Closing was 4 days late and only because we pushed hard. At one point we were told to get a 10 day extension.
The broker we first contacted passed us off to underlings with no explanation. We received a timetable to close that would have had us closing on time only to have it blown away by inaction on the broker’s part. We were contacted 3 times by the broker trying to give us the excuse that our mortgage was delayed because we were buying into a 6 unit building. However we signed initial documents with the lending bank and got a rate guarantee over 3 weeks before closing so the lender had already been selected when we were still being told that was yet to happen and that was the reason for the delay.
The broker called us directly multiple times to try to discredit our agent when she complained about the delays. He suggested that an extension of 10 days was no big deal when the seller had to have the funds to close on his purchase 4 days after our original closing date.
Frankly we believe that the impact of a delay is not the broker’s business to assess. Any delay in closing is unprofessional and inexcusable unless there is a real reason for it.
The broker is also the area manager for Cobalt so we feel that this experience reflects badly on Cobalt as an organization. In addition my son, closing within a few days of us on his first home, had to go to another mortgage company, got approval in just over 10 days and subsequently fired his Cobalt broker for inaction and lack of attention to his process.

I wish I had read about this place before dealing with them. It really depends on who you work with. Some of the people there are good, but some people there are very passive aggressive, misremember information they emailed and need to take some classes on how to treat another human being.
Steve that works there seems to be a really good guy.
I would not deal with Brady.

Be wary of this Broker.
Although you may think you’re the customer (which would be reasonable since you’ll pay all the bills), at no point will you feel like it. Rather, they will make you feel like they are doing you some big favor.
we are at 36 days and counting… Still no close. They apparently don’t have enough evidence yet…