Angel Oak Funding - Terrible, expensive, time consuming waste of time

This was hands down the worst loan experience Ive had over my 23 year real estate investment career. From my first interactions with my loan officer Marianne Rasmussen, I clarified that I could refinance my investment property even though it was held in a land trust.

After speaking with the underwriter, she confirmed I could refi under their no doc program. Their no doc loan program required me to submit 16 different documents in addition to my loan application. SIXTEEN! What a joke.

Thats certainly not No doc. It would have been more required documents if you include the countless emails back and forth explaining to the underwriter that an additional insured on a home insurance policy is not a second lien holder. My own privately held S Corp Management company is an additionally insured on my landlord insurance policy, but the underwriter insisted I needed to provide proof that a non existent second mortgage from my own management company was paid off because my management company was listed as an additional insured. After I sent in a personal statement saying there wasnt, and had never been, a second mortgage on the property along with a Wikipedia definition of an additional insured, the underwriter finally relented on this bogus requirement.

Why the underwriter couldnt look at the title work and see there was not a second mortgage is beyond me. I also had to submit a letter saying I live with my spouse in our primary residence and several other crazy items. I sent a complaint email to a manager about all the required documents for a no doc loan and I explained the incompetence of loan officer who didnt know industry standard terms, but of course I never received a reply from the manager. My net worth is 10x the loan amount I applied for, I have liquid assets in excess of the loan amount I was applying for, my credit scores were 755, 760, and 770, Ive owned the subject property since it was built (about 19 years), Ive been in the landlord business for 23 years, and I was seeking a 75% cash out refinance.

It took 6 weeks to obtain a conditional approval, but one of the conditions of closing was that I deed the property out of the trust into my name and have 6 months seasoning, OR my trustee co-sign on the loan. Again, prior to applying for the loan, I was told it could be refinanced in a trust - too bad they failed to mention Id need to deed it out of the trust and wait 6 months! Although my loan officer was very nice, her knowledge of the loan business and of her companys offerings was extremely poor, and have you ever heard of a borrower needing to explain industry terms to an underwriter. What a mess!

Six weeks of time wasted, several hours spent gathering 16 documents and completing the loan application have been wasted, and Ive spent over $1,000 on their appraisal and title work all to be told I was misinformed before I even started the loan application and I can not proceed unless I wait 6 months and deed it out of a trust that I submitted proof of control over. No thank you.

Rather than applying for a loan with Angel Oak, I should have simply taken ten $100 bills outside and set them on fire. That would have been much more fun and it certainly would have saved me a ton of time and headache.