Flanagan State Bank Flanagan IL West Falcon Hwy, Flanagan

Carla, thank you so much for being open and honest with me and my daughter Chelsea throughout her loan process. I really want to thank you for going above and beyond, with all her questions/ changes, no matter the time or day. Thank you for taking care of her! If I know of anyone in the process of trying to get a loan to purchase a home, I will definitely refer them to you!

We chose them for our mortgage in 2017 because the loan officer we dealt with sold themselves as a small, hometown mortgage lender. The loan officer was always available - even after hours - for questions/guidance throughout the process. This turned out to be the only positive aspect of our experience. They drug out approving our loan over things to do with the house that neither realtor or our family members had heard of approval being withheld over. We had to hire an expensive ($200/hour) structural engineer to look at a small crack in the basement wall. A garage window had to be repaired by the owners... It was frustrating, but we thought it was just because they’re a smaller lender and being extra careful. Finally, we closed on the house. Before we even made our first loan payment, they had already sold our loan to PennyMac - a mega mortgage lender. I found this out via a bill I received in the mail from PennyMac. I thought it may be fraudulent so contacted the bank at which point they told me they had sold my loan and that selling off loans is commonplace. I was surprised they would do this without notifying the customer. When I need help with my mortgage, I call PennyMac’s 1-800 number, go through a telephone tree, and get a different person at every single time. This is a lot different than the relationship/personal touch I expected to have with my mortgage lender when choosing to go with a small institution like Flanagan State Bank. If I could do it over again, I would have gone with a different bank. A close family member didn’t realize this was the bank we had used and used them for buying a house 2 years after we did. They had the same experience we did. Closing was delayed in ways the realtors involved hadn’t experienced before and their loan was sold off right away.

Straight forward home buying experience tbh. Carla was patient and answered any question i had, would recommend.

I have been a Flanagan State Bank customer for over 20 years. They have great customer service, and offer everything I’d want from the big banks with all the personal touch and experience of a small bank.