Consumer complaint received 2020-10-18
Company: WEICHERT FINANCIAL SERVICES
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
To whom it may concern : I am writing this letter to inform you of my frustration and disappointment with my most recent mortgage application, Weichert Financial ( from the months of XXXX 2020 ) After using their services twice in the past, I chose to be a repeat customer and return for a third mortgage. This turned out to be a costly mistake. 

Previously, I had utilized their services to secure a home mortgage and then later a refinance. When it came time to purchase another home, I returned to offer my business for the third time. The home that I was purchasing is a multi-family however ; our mortgage processer started our application as a single family. After identifying several issues and discrepancies within our application, our mortgage processer urged myself to sign the paperwork with the promise of making the corrections afterwards. His explanation was that the information can always be changed afterwards, as long as the numbers were accurate, and that the signature was required so that the application process can begin. 

While going through the process and being quoted our estimated closing costs, the raw numbers that continued to show on our closing disclosure was extremely concerning. When I brought this up to our mortgage loan officer, he had continued to assure me that the numbers were inflated but that the closing costs were going to be in the range of his quoted estimate, as previously discussed. Later, I came to find out that it was just not true. 

A couple of weeks after our application had begun, the mortgage officer reached out to me to offer two options for my mortgage. Since the home that was being purchased is an investment property, which was made known from the start, the mortgage officer advised that the 20 % down payment that was originally advised would result in a higher closing cost due to the point cost and suggested that we put down 25 % to lower the point cost and make the closing more affordable. I should have immediately canceled the application at this point. 

Due to the recent change in information, I started to privately seek other options. While reaching out to other lenders, they did not require the 25 % down payment and offered extremely competitive rates with lower closing costs. When I had taken this back to the mortgage officer we were working with at Weichert Financial, he was then able to assist in slightly reducing some of the closing costs, as I was a repeat customer. Sadly, the benefit of being a repeat customer just meant that Weichert was just trying to compete with a lender competitor and had nothing to do with me being a returning customer. 

At this point, since I had used their services twice in the past, I chose to be loyal to your services even though you were still more expensive than your competitors. Unfortunately, this cost me significantly and will be the last. As I continued to go through the application, their underwriters continued to ask me for information that I had sent them two or three times in the past. At time we would get email from individuals asking us for private information that didnt even come from a Weichert email domain. Although this was inconvenient I was looking to do what was needed to have the loan approved so that I can close on the home. These excessive requests for repetitive paperwork caused me to miss our closing dates twice. What made this even worse is that it was always last minute. Originally, I was supposed to close on a Thursday and only found out that the closing was being pushed back that Monday night due to the loan process delay since the nation was behind. Afterwards the closing was rescheduled to allow the loan to be completed and was scheduled for a Monday. The day of our Monday closing I was informed by our attorney the lenders did not respond in time to make the closing happen that day. That Tuesday, the following day of our missed closing, I was informed by my mortgage officer that the he was just made aware that the home I was purchasing is a multi-family because he received the appraisal from underwriting and due to the home being a multi-family, my closing costs were going to increase by {$3500.00}. This is UNACCEPTABLE. 

In the eleventh hour of our closing, your mortgage officer advised me that I will now have to pay an additional {$3500.00} in points because of the extra layer of risk. So not only was Weichert seeing the benefit of having a repeat customer, their rates were uncompetitive, required a larger down payment, had a slew of errors that I was told to overlook with the promise of it being corrected and also continued to request documents that you were already in procession of causing my closing to be delayed twice. To say that this closing was horrific, is an understatement. When I expressed my displeasure at this information, the mortgage officer apologized but continued to indicate that this information was not disclosed in the beginning, when the entire application was only started after I sent him the signed contract from the attorney ; clearly stating, this was a multi-family purchase. This caused me to be extremely concerned as it was disclosed that the purchase was for a multi-family in the beginning and lead me to believe that he started the application on assumptions ( that we could be getting such a great deal on a multi-family in a desirable neighborhood ), which would explain the slew of errors, and discrepancies on the paperwork. 

After informing the mortgage officer that this is unacceptable as this is a money grab coming back in the eleventh hour and demanding more money at closing due to his error that he will have to do something about this. According to the information I received back, he had taken this to his manager and begged to have the {$3500.00} worth of points removed. He went on to explain that his manager offered to reduce the amount from {$3500.00} to {$2600.00}, which is a difference of {$900.00}. So due to Weicherts error, the customer, who has been a repeat customer, received a shock of an additional {$2600.00} at closing. This is nothing short of a money grab as it comes at the very last moment where an individual is most vulnerable as there are no other options that can be pursued without jeopardizing the purchase agreement. These business practices are atrocious and demonstrative of theft. Weichert was aware of our financials and what money we had available and with this new CD that we were given less than 24hours before closing, put us at risk of having very little savings in our bank account. It was a financial stress that we havent endured in some time because of how financially sound we are regarding our funds, even more so during a time of uncertainty in this pandemic. This was an added, heartless move on your companys end. 

To close on the home and prevent losing the deal that would have cost me to lose my good faith deposit, I had no other option but to pay this additional {$2600.00}. As an individual that puts 20 %, in this case 25 % down payment, has a 790+ - 800+ credit rating and never missed a payment ; I would have thought I was low risk and a customer Weichert would love to keep. Unfortunately, this will not be the case as I feel that Weichert was dishonest and my money would be better accepted elsewhere. Even at closing, the attorney and title company were appaled at Weicherts process and even mentioned how theyve seen it done in the past. Is this the reputation that Weichert works towards upholding? Afterwards, Weichert loves to send out surveys to know how well the experience was, which I had received in the past, but oddly enough for this most recent closing the request was never sent to me. All thats been sent is fake Weichert letters asking us to call to confirm information about our loan, which weve contacted Weichert to  advise and it still hasnt been resolved ; from both our refinance closed on XX/XX/2020 and our recent purchase, XX/XX/2020. 

Sincerely, Unsatisfied Return Customers

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief