Awhile ago I decided that I was getting tired of paying bills.  By that, I mean that I had a bunch of different bills that I had to pay monthly and it was getting to be a pain to budget.  So, I decide to get a home equity loan to pay off all the annoying bills and then be able to deduct the interest on taxes.  Since I had my house appraised about a year ago, I knew how much it was worth and I knew that I could borrow enough to put everything into one lower payment.

This is what I wanted to consolidate:
1) my Monte Carlo
2) the Jeep that we bought for my parents (it's in exchange for them watching our daughter while I work)
3) some stupid credit card bills (note to self: don't put a $3,000 generator on a credit card)
4) a Grasshopper tractor

So, I decide to contact the "big boy" Ditech (which is really just GMAC financing in disguise).  Anyway, they were not easy to work with, and their systems is flawed in many ways.  First, you talk to the "preparer" which is fine as they all do.  This person was very competent and said that our credit score was great, the amount that we wanted to borrow was reasonable, and that they just need verification of employment and stuff and all should be set.

Then I was passed on to the loan officer.  She was not professional at all.  She liked to WRITE A LOT IN CAPS so that you could hear her.  She never once called me to discuss things.  Instead, she said that they just needed a "drive by" appraisal to finish the loan.  Instead, some extremely unintelligent "appraiser" called us.  The result?  They said that our house was 500 square feet smaller than it is and that they couldn't give us a loan.  I then told the loan officer that I had no problem having the loan based on the value of our house, but even double SEV was higher than what they were saying that the house was worth.  Want to know why they didn't do a "real" appraisal?  Because they don't charge for appraisals on home equity loans.  (Yeah, like it matters if you can't get the loan because the appraisal is wrong).  I got frustrated and gave up on them.  Life is too short to deal with stupid people.

So, then I get in touch with the people at Irwin (https://www.premierequity.com) My main contact was Tremain (ask for him if you end up going through them for a loan, he rocks).  He got everything in order, checked property values and got the ball rolling.  He *called* me to discuss things and kept me updated.  Everything went completely smoothly, there was no fighting over the value of my house, and they sent the closing agent to my house during a time that I chose.  (Man, that was *so* nice!) 

In the end, I actually got a better rate from Irwin, got more cash back than I thought I would, and lowered my monthly payments by about 50%-  plus I can write off the interest. 

Sorry Ditech, your stupidity made you lose a loan to Irwin.