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First Community Bank

Review added by Justin Chandler (02-03-2009)

My experience with First Community Bank on Bethel Rd. was absolutely horrendous.

My girlfriend and I had been looking for condos in the Northwest Columbus area all summer long, but kept coming across an issue with condo conversions within the past three years needing a report in order to get approval for a mortgage loan. As directed by my real estate agent, I contacted every bank and all of them came to the conclusion that this was a new requirement and they could not perform the transaction to purchase the perfect home we had found.

That is, until First Community Bank called me back and said that they did not have this requirement.

We came to the agreement that 15% down would be acceptable and within my financial range to purchase the property. This being my first potential home purchase, I made it abundantly clear to the employee, Ted, that I was working directly with, that I would have to move from my apartment to my parents' house until it was done although I understood it would take a month or so.

The loan continuously got delayed due to issues that should have nothing to do with the purchase of a condominium (i.e. their concerns with external issues) but we kept getting the issue taken care of. Finally, after a couple months and a couple of contract extentions (still living with my parents) Ted e-mailed me indicating that they could not perform the loan due to the very same issue we brought up in the first place--the condo conversion paper needed.

I attempted to contact his Supervisor's to get the issue worked out. They attempted to avoid me, in fact, I had called and the receptionist said that he (Roger Blair) was there and it would ring into his office and nobody would answer. Further, I had previously tried to set up meetings with him and Ted kept trying to keep us from doing so.

At 4:30 PM on the day the final extended contract was to expire Roger finally called me back and said he would do it for 20% (an additional 5% or approx. $6000) down AND a co-signer. Even if this was possible, I was not given enough time to provide that before the end of contract.

Then, even worse, the bank sent out a letter to the seller indicating that they could perform the loan and giving the impression that I was trying to back out of the deal, which was not even close to being true. This lead to issues with holding the home for us and potentially costing me $2,000 dollars in deposit money. I had to fight to get that money back, but still was never able to recoup costs of storage during this period of time and just having to move to my parents house--with my girlfriend--for a couple of months. I even tried to set up a mediation to deal with these issues through a non-partisan state employee but they refused to participate.

Do not deal with First Community Bank, especially if you are looking for a home loan--it was the worst experience of my life and they are not truthful to their customers.
Chandler.83@osu.edu