First Priority Mortgage Inc, Lansing, NY

1st priority has helped me find a home loan on 2 different occasions. Each time they listened carefully to me as I explained where I was financially, what my goals were, and provided me with great information. In the end they found great loans for me to purchase both homes and made the home buying experience super positive.

Stay away. We were looking for someone to help us through the buying process as first time home buyers and we were promptly dismissed by Sheila Kelly because we didn't have 20% down. We were simply trying to get a game plan together and some direction. Upon first conting her, we were told we could not be helped unless we filled out a form she provided to us. We were assured by Ms. Kelly that our credit score would not be affected by her credit inquiry as my wife and myself both have over 750 credit scores and we wanted to keep them there. Assuming it was a soft inquiry, we gave her our social security numbers. Come to find out, our credit was hit with a hard pull and our scores did, in fact, go down (albeit less that 10 points). When we contacted Sheila regarding our concerns, we were greeted with: "I told you I would run your credit and what I said is it would not hurt your score..It did not..Sorry for the confusion..". She went on to say "A credit score is a requirement to determine what mortgage you are qualified for.. I do them daily and not once has it hurt someone's credit score. Im not sure where you are seeing that mortgage inquiries hurt your score..As I said this one didn't..Your challenge is not with your credit score it's with having enough assets to buy a house." I am not able to add photos but if I could, I would attach pictures of our credit score decreasing as a result of her hard inquiry. Hard pulls also stay on credit reports for two years which we also did not want. On top of all of that, we have gotten exponentially more junk mail for loans and mortgages since our personal information was given to First Priority meaning that our information was sold. We have a PO box so having any mail show up at our place of residence was rare until right after our credit was pulled by First Priority.

My husband and I were in the initial home purchasing process and looking for guidance as first time home buyers. We were directed to Sheila Kelly who was said to be a great resource for people in our situation. I reached out to Sheila, giving her a general synopsis of our income, credit score, DTI, etc. She responded back to the effect of, "I cannot help you unless you fill out a pre-qualification form." To which we were very clear that we didn't want our credit impacted at this time. She said it wouldn't impact our credit. We interpreted that as she was just going to run a soft inquiry on our credit, but we should have pressed that issue further as she did in fact pull a hard inquiry on our credit. Word to the wise, do not trust a broker or lender who won't give you the time of day unless you fill out a pre-qualification form. We later went to M&T Bank, provided them the same information as we did to Sheila and they were able to give us direction and many helpful resources without running our credit. I absolutely do not recommend Sheila Kelly or any extension of 1st Priority Mortgage.

I worked with Jennifer Rich, after she was highly recommended by friends, and she couldn't have been more helpful. This was my first home purchase and she helped walk me through it. I am someone to do a TON of research before making decisions, especially big ones, and I had found 70% of the loans Jennifer did but the one I went with, I had not had any way of finding without her. I've seen the review that says that they'll sell your mortgage off to another company but please keep in mind this is a mortgage broker NOT a bank so they're making money by referral and if they recommend a bank that will sell your mortgage, that's something you should do some research on and understand.

It was our first time purchasing a house here in New York. The one in California was extremely easy and straight forward. Could have been a smoother process with this one.

First Priority Mortgage: Where the customer is the LAST priority. Seriously, Jennifer Rich was the most dificult loan officer I've ever dealt with in my life. Thankfully we walked away before we got in too deep with them. You're better off with a national bank, or better yet find a mortgage broker you trust.

Jennifer was wonderful. The entire team was really great. The entire process was explained and when we had questions along the way, Jennifer and the entire team were right there for us to simplify and explain everything. The whole mortgage … More

1st priority has helped me find a home loan on 2 different occasions. Each time they listened carefully to me as I explained where I was financially, what my goals were, and provided me with great information. In the end they found great loans for me to purchase both homes and made the home buying experience super positive.