American Home Bank

Just a note: we ended up choosing to take our mortgage from another company, but I feel comfortable reviewing this office based on our interactions with them when shopping our mortgage. It was a generally positive experience but we were able to find a better deal elsewhere.
We worked with Jim Febbo, the branch manager of this American Home Bank branch. He was recommended to us by our Realtor, so we knew that he must be a good guy. I spent a good 20 or 25 minutes with him on the phone, discussing our financial situation & the home we were in the process of purchasing, and he encouraged us to come in and sit down with him to discuss our options. All he would give me over the phone was his current rate based on the credit scores I gave him over the phone. I would have rather him just send me a closing cost estimate sheet for us to review on our own, but since it was someone our Realtor trusts, I felt comfortable taking the time to go in and see him. We made an evening appointment for just a few days later. Someone else in the office sent us some paperwork to fill out and bring with us to the appointment.
This office really isn’t set up for evening appointments. Everyone was gone for the day, and it took 5 or 10 minutes for Jim to realize that we were there and come out of his office to get us. But he was very friendly & offered us a soda or coffee before taking us back to his office. He had already pulled our credit for his system and was able to give us a good idea of rates and payments in the office. He was having trouble with his new software, so we were unable to look at closing costs in that meeting. A bit of a disappointment, since that’s what was the big difference from broker to broker for us, but I think everyone understands that computers don’t always like to behave. He promised to send us the closing cost estimate the next day, which he did.
His rate was the same as everyone else we worked with, but the closing costs were the 2^nd highest of the half dozen or so places we talked to — plus they require some of the costs up front (I believe it was just the appraisal & the app fee, but I could be wrong). That’s not a huge amount of money up front, but they were the only company we talked to that required money before closing.
We really liked Jim. He did a great job making us feel at ease and seemed to know his stuff, but at the end of the day, the costs really did matter to us. Why we didn’t go with the lowest cost provider, we were looking for the best value. I’d definitely say that you should consider calling them for a quote — every situation is different & numbers change daily!