Valarie M

Review of 5 Star Partnership

My husband and I were the buyers (with my husband ...

My husband and I were the buyers (with my husband being the buying agent) of 4 investment properties and chose to employ the services of Brenton Van with 5 Star Mortgage. He had recently completed a refinance on our personal home, and despite it taking him twice as long as a refinance should take a broker to accomplish, we chose to give him the benefit of the doubt, and utilize his services for our investment purchases. Throughout the two and a half months we dealt with Brenton, we experienced innumerable aggravations, both personally and secondhand by all three of the selling agents we were working with, regarding Brentons mind-boggling lack of communication, disregard for timely professionalism, and an overall cavalier attitude towards customer service in general. Regardless, we chose to remain optimistic in our dealings with 5 Star Mortgage. Against our better judgment and recommendation from two of the selling agents to utilize a different mortgage company altogether, we chose to continue working with Brenton in hopes that he would live up to the 5 Star mantra of "Service is OUR specialty." This failed to materialize. Two and a half months had gone by since our contracts first went into effect, and the endless runaround we got from Brenton ultimately concluded with us losing two of the four condos, and Brenton stating that our "Financing has been extremely difficult, and we should just pick one or both (of the remaining two properties), and pay cash." While we did not appreciate receiving a message from him stating that, I find it grossly negligent that he failed to make those recommendation weeks or months prior to the expected close of escrow, before the earnest money deposit became irrevocable. Notwithstanding the $100 per day late fees that we began accruing on 9/18/2020. Brenton acknowledged in a text message that those late fees were due to his inadequate ability to get our deal to closing. He waited 75 days to admit to us that "Condos are too hard" of a loan for himself, or
5 Star Mortgage to accomplish.
Regrettably, at that point, we were so deep into our loan deal, we still chose to attempt to stick it out with Brenton, despite further pressure from our two extremely displeased selling agents, to quit him, quit 5 Star, and go elsewhere.
Nevertheless, we disregarded our better judgements, because we are nice people who wanted to believe in him, even though he gave us every reason not to. After a pointed exchange of displeasure in Brentons performance, he threatened to throw away our deal, despite all necessary documents being submitted to the underwriter for review and approval, and an estimated close of escrow date pending. (Bear in mind we had to extend close of escrow three times because of Brentons severe incapabilites.)
Out of desperation and fear of losing our remaining two condos, we (unfruitfully) reached out to the 5 Star Mortgage branch Manager Roseann Shannon via email. She stated, and I quote; "I dont know why Brenton accepted these deals to begin with because condos are too hard." WE WERE 75 DAYS INTO OUR DEAL WHEN THIS STATEMENT WAS MADE TO US.
Additionally, Roseann disclosed that she was also aware that the lender canceled our deals two business days prior to our ultimate falling out with Brenton! Why didn't they reveal this to us??!!!
We nearly lost our two remaining condos and $7,000 in earnest money, while simultaneously racking up several $100 per day fines because of Brentons incompetence, and Roseann's lack of willingness to take control of the spiraling situation. It is an understatement to say we are, as well, EXTREMELY disappointed with 5 Star Mortgage, Brenton Van, Roseann Shannon, and their disgusting display of arrogance and lack of care for their customers.