Guaranteed Rate Affinity, Bourbonnais, IL

Based upon my recent experience with Guaranteed Rate and John DesMarteau, I CAN NOT recommend this company to anyone in the market for a home loan. As a first time home buyer, I specifically asked John DesMarteau for extra explanations of the process, the timeline, and terminology. My interaction with him from beginning to end was disastrous. I did not receive explanations or heads up on the steps I had to take to secure a loan. Inexplicitly, I was handed off to multiple people and as such, often had identical requests made by them -- many times after I had already submitted the paperwork required. The communication between John DesMarteau and his assistants would literally break down before my eyes via text/email. I would ask John DesMarteau a direct question and rarely a received direct answer. In fact, I felt that I was such an annoyance to him when I called, that many times I had to use the internet to answer my own questions and translate the many acronyms John’s team used in communications with me. (Is it realistic for a first-time home buyer to know what POA, LOE, CD, U/W, CTC, VOE/VOI means? Thank goodness for Google). I have much appreciation for my real estate attorney who had the wherewithal to step in and ask about specific paperwork/items needed for closing. I feel the lack of communication, guidance, and process, by John DesMarteau and Guaranteed Rate created extra work and extra anxiety for me and my team in preparation for closing. There were several times that information was not shared with me until the last minute, and I had to scramble to fulfil a critical request that was known by everyone but me. Once again, I am a first time home buyer so maybe my questions and the process seemed elementary to John DesMarteau, but they were new to me. I also attribute John DesMarteau’s actions or inactions to a rate increase on my loan of +.25% higher than originally quoted. Additionally, 0.05% of the loan was charged to me as a closing cost which was not explained to me prior to receiving my settlement statement. At the end of the day, I did close, although a week late.