I finally closed on my primary residence! Ended up following Esco’s lead and called First Republic, rates were amazing closed at 3.05% for primary residence (from 3.5%) and rental condo rate was 3.4% (from 4.25%)for a cash out refi.

Can’t in good conscience recommend them, they were a horribly chaotic cluster f%$ck!

Worst financial experience of my life, the folks were nice enough, but by their own admission they had just lost staff and things were crazy, but they kept accepting the work and would lock rates for 60 days to give them time to get through it.

I must say done business with HLS in the past and boy do I wish his rates were better, sorry, but at this point only reason to refi is all about the bottom line. Would never EVER want a new home buyer or first time buyer to go through this! Definitely tell those folks to go to someone who will give them the support they need! As a refi, I have nothing to lose, worst case I am out of pocket for the appraisal and lesson learned.