State Home Mortgage

New customer here and I have to agree most of the reviews are accurate. Although I am currently late, I am unable to make a payment online nor have I been able to reach anyone via phone. Which is causing the payment to be even later. I am not pleased with the way this company handles business at all. Heck, I'm afraid to mail my payment. I would hate for them to say they never received it.
Apr 7th, 2024

Had I known what I know now before getting into Georgias first-time home buyer assistance program, I would have stayed as far away from it as possible. First, the $5000 assistance is a separate loan, issued by a bank. The bank charged me more than $2000 as an origination fee for the $5000 loan. I ended up receiving less that $3000 in actual assistance but of course I owed $5000. Then comes the mortgage insurance premium, which you will have to pay for the life of the loan, which will add tens of thousands of dollars to your loan over its lifetime. Unlike the PMI (private mortgage insurance) you cannot get rid of the MIP, unless you refinance your loan and get a conventional loan. I was lucky to get into a situation where I was able to do just that, but lets go back to my experience with State Home mortgage. I never paid late, making monthly payments through their online portal was a breeze and their website has a lot of helpful educational and calculation tools. The problems come when you need to get help. In my case, I wanted to change my insurance provider because my initial insurance provider had increased the premium so much it had become unacceptable. For several months, I called them, the new insurance company called and sent invoices to SHM for payment of the new premium. State home mortgage ignored every single one of the calls, messages and letters and refused to pay the premium. I ended up paying the premium directly to the insurance company because they were about to drop my policy. I was lucky to be in a situation where I had built enough equity to be able to refinance the loan with a local credit Union at a lower rate and no hoops to jump. Of course, I had to pay off that second $5000 loan entirely after having had it for almost 6 years. The only benefit I got from the program was the first-time home buyer education program that they required, which I could have taken without being on the hook for thousands of dollars. If you have a mortgage with this organization, my advice is to run away as soon as possible. Refinance with a credit union or with anyone who is not SHM. When I left them, I was several years away from seeing a bigger portion of my payments go towards the principal of the loan. Refinancing immediately removed 4 years of payments from my loan and put a bigger share of my payments toward the principal. My monthly payments immediately became lower, allowing me to pay additional curtailment and speed up the repayment timeline. Now if I send an email to my mortgage company, they respond within hours. If I want to speak with someone, I dial their number and get someone on the phone within seconds. I will never ever advise a family member, a friend or anyone who would listen to use this organization. The $2500 or so that you receive is not worth the hassle of the sign-up process and the tens of thousands of dollars that you will lose over the life of the loan. Run, if you can. RUN away from them! Your financial future will thank you.
Mar 27th, 2024

This is my first property as a homebuyer and this company is so terrible I had to leave a review and Im not even the type to do reviews. These people never pick up the phone but as soon as youre a millisecond late on payment they can call and call. Ive been trying to get in contact about payment and they keep sending me in circles. I called their number just for him to tell me to call the number I just dialed which makes no sense. If I could give no stars I would. They need to be shutdown its lowkey criminal how they are running things.
Feb 20th, 2024

Feb 17th, 2024

Feb 8th, 2024