I purchased my first home back in June (roughly 2.5 months ago) with a smaller, but very reputable, mortgage firm in the area (Maryland). It has great reviews online, and everyone whom I know that has used them had a great experience. However, after my first mortgage payment, my mortgage was sold to a servicer in Texas, and after my second payment, it was again sold to a servicer in New Jersey.
This is where I get nervous. I know that selling mortgages is commonplace and good for the economy as a whole (to keep interest rates competitive), but my mortgage was sold to a company with, shall I say, less than stellar reviews. Without mentioning their name, a bit of Googling reveals a class-action lawsuit against them in 2014 for mortgage insurance kickback fraud and 243 complaints against them on the BBB. While bills.com rates them a 4.5 out of 5, 127 out of the 139 customer reviews rank them a 2 star (out of 5) or lower.
The company's website notes that they are "the 5th largest originator of retail residential mortgages, the 6th largest originator overall, and the 9th largest mortgage servicer." Last year (2014), they closed "approximately $36 billion in mortgage financing and maintained an average servicing portfolio of over 1,100,000 loans." Part of me knows that these 127 horrid reviews are simply the most vocal of the customers, and most likely in the extreme minority, but I can't help but to be concerned.
I am in good financial standing and plan to always pay my mortgage on time (with additional principle) each month, but I am still nervous for the worst. I never would have applied for a mortgage with this company if I had known it would end up in the hands of this particular servicer, so what are my options now?
Forgetting the hassle of needing to change where I send the checks each of the first 3 months, I'm concerned about my long-term financial health. Are my mortgage terms locked in? Who oversees this? Re-financing with another bank doesn't seem like a good option after only 2 months of a low rate, 30 year fixed-rate loan.