In the midst of a raging housing market that finally drove us away from renting and out of a large city, my husband and I decided to move out of the area and begin looking at houses to purchase. Our agent recommended a Prime Lending officer, and we trusted his advice. Pre-approval was a breeze, and we figured that was because of our healthy down payment, great credit rating and strong freelancing income that was growing continuously over the past years. Plenty of encouragement on the part of our officer - “The numbers look great!” - and we began looking at houses. Our first red flag came up when the initial appraiser, on PL’s staff, couldn’t be bothered to do the job, only writing to our officer to state that the house (an intact historic property with deep potential for restoration) wasn’t even worth bothering with. He refused to do a job we’d paid in advance for. A second appraiser had to be found, causing over a week of delay. After the expenses of inspections (general property and structural engineering), appraisal and earnest money, in the last week under contract we were placed under endless pressure to scramble for paperwork that we were never asked for in the pre-approval stage - tax filings, letters from clients, revised letters of intention, documents and statements that should have been requested months prior, and well before pre-approval. Predictably, the loan died a slow death after being dragged out to three separate underwriters, accompanied by the occasional, “I’m still fighting for you guys!” email to us. Three and a half months of work and stress wasted, as well as the expenses associated with the loan process. We’re still waiting on the return of our earnest money, but frankly I’m not optimistic. Luckily we managed to find a rental in our new city (yes, we relocated in the midst of this stupidity, strongly encouraged that we’d have a house ready for occupation and restoration), and still plan upon purchasing a home. This time, however, we’re going to research local credit unions, avoiding PL and similar behemoths. This was an exhausting exercise in incompetence, palpitating stress and despair. Never again.