First Time Home Buyer - Should I Stay or Should I Go? (long)

Are you still planning on working with the agent who recommended him? If so, I'd talk to the agent and tell him or her basically exactly what you said here: "I was really pleased with Lonny in the beginning, but he has been slow to respond and not very helpful recently. Is this normal for him, or should I give him one last chance?" Guaranteed, the agent will call Lonny and tell him to shape up.

You could also do it yourself, but I know some people aren't comfortable being that confrontational. It is totally appropriate to expect that your agent will talk to their referral and tell him to step it up. If I were going to confront him myself, I'd probably write a short email that said, "Lonny, We have really enjoyed working with you over the last few months and are excited to be finally moving forward with the mortgage process. Thank you for your advice as we worked to get our credit score up. However, I need to address some delays with you. It has taken much longer than I expected to hear back from you in these 2 instances (X, Y specifics), and before we go forward, I want to make sure we're on the same page with what is normal. Could you please give me a call at 555-5555 so we can talk about normal turnaround times for each step of the process?" 

Then you'll see how quickly he replies, and you've put him on notice that you're annoyed. 

The only downside to switching is that it sounds like he already ran your credit. Now, several inquiries in a short period of time for the same mortgage are SUPPOSED to show grouped and not hurt your credit beyond the initial inquiry, but it doesn't always work out in that way. Since it sounds like not losing many points could potentially be important to you, that might be the only concern - which I would ask the new broker about before letting them run my credit (although they are very likely going to tell you it will be fine no matter what). There's also no guarantee that the new person won't be just as bad. 

Hope the home-buying process goes smoothly for you! My biggest piece of advice to a first-time buyer is to remember that these people (agent and lender) are making substantial money off of you. Just because you aren't cutting them a check directly, don't ever forget that their services are a purchase you are making. You MUST advocate for yourself, tell them what you want and expect, and be sure you watch out for yourself even if you trust them. They have motivation to try and move things along even if you don't fully understand what's going on.

I would run and find another lender. Lenders should be eager to have your business and work hard to keep your business. If you are this early in the process and having trouble getting him to respond it doesn't reflect well on how he will perform once you are under contract.

We bought this house a year ago and our very eager in the beginning loan officer, became a real pain as we progressed through escrow. He didn't get paperwork submitted on time or it was incomplete. It was hard on us trying to coordinate the move, but really hard on our seller who was facing two mortgage payments because they had already closed on their new property. Melvin the missing, wouldn't return calls and had every excuse in the book and nothing was his fault, but we were stuck at this point.

I hope you find the perfect house and everything goes smooth and it is a positive experience.

My pet peeve is when a business person does not return a call within 24 hours. For nine years, I worked from home for a nanny agency, and I if a client or nanny called before 4pm, there call was returned that same day. If they called after 4, I would call them first thing the next morning. In my opinion, there is no excuse for not calling back in a timely manner. You should be made to feel like you are their only client! I would move onto lender #2, personally.