Consumer complaint received 2019-01-18
Company: ALTERRA GROUP, LLC
State: MD
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
I applied for a home mortgage with Alterra Home loans in XXXX, Va. I was working with XXXX XXXX. Mr. XXXX seemed helpful and knowledgable in the beginning of the process. My mother and I are on the loan and at the time of the application process we both had over a 650 credit score, with my mother 's score being close to 800. Mr. XXXX said we can use a downpayment program with no problem. Once we received our approval from underwriting things went wrong. We had to show proof we no longer owned a home in XXXX, Md. We had a short sale in XXXX. It was my understanding that we were okay as long as we were 2 years out of the short sale. When I showed the sale of the short sale I noticed the XXXX and remembered when first talking to Mr. XXXX so we can get an pre-qualification letter to look for a house, I told him it happened in XXXX. Once I noticed my error I apologized to Mr. XXXX and told him what hardship we had that caused the short sale with decrease in income and a work related injury that has left me, XXXX XXXX, with a XXXX XXXX  XXXX. Once, I showed the worker 's comp documentation to prove my injury and XXXX, it seemed that Mr. XXXX was looking for money. The loan closing date had to get moved. Mr. XXXX informed me and my agent that the explanation letter of hardship was solid and we would close on time ( the second closing date ). 24 hours before the second closing date Mr. XXXX called me and said we could not do a manual underwriting because of the short sale. He said the investor would not allow manual underwriting. He said we could not close. I called my agent and the agent contacted the seller 's agent. The closing date was moved again to the following week. This is now the second time we had to reschedule and Mr. XXXX is telling us it will work out. He informed me I would no longer have the down payment program and my interest rate would be lower and my mortgage would be lower, however, I would need to come to the table with more money. 
I asked to see new documents with all new numbers so I could see if I had the capital to close on the house since now we no longer had the down payment assistance program. 
My mother and I only agreed to move forward with the closing because we had already invested time and money into a home we wanted. I received new documents and it appeared to all be okay. 
The day before the last scheduled closing was chaos. Mr. XXXX was asking for more money from us to bring to the table. He asked us to show {$2000.00} in reserves. We did that. He came back and said we could not use the reserve account because I could not explain where the money came from. This account was only suppose to be a reserve, so I did not understand why we couldn't use it. Once, we could not use that I informed Mr. XXXX that I had nothing else to show him because we didn't have any more money. Mr. XXXX then asked me if I could ask my agent to cut his fees and I pay in after closing from my reserve account. I called my agent and told him this, he was mad and said this was illegal and Mr. XXXX should have never asked me to do this. Mr. XXXX also asked me if my fianc could loan me some money. Mr. XXXX asked me if there was a " worker 's comp account '' I could get some money from. I informed Mr. XXXX I have shown him all the money we have for the purchase of this home with no other funds outside of the reserve account that he said we could not use. 
My agent tried to call Mr. XXXX and his manager at the company and no one would call him back. I called the Hub office in XXXX and was told Mr. XXXX XXXX was in charge of the XXXX, Va. location and would return my call regarding my concern about my loan with his XXXX Office. Mr. XXXX never returned my call. 
My Agent received a call from the seller 's Agent office and was informed that Mr. XXXX had disclosed to them how much my mother and I were suppose to bring to the closing table. My agent informed me of this and told me this was a violation and the seller 's are not suppose to know what I am suppose to bring to the table. This I know was a true statement because I communicated with Mr. XXXX and he said he could make the loan amount from XXXX to XXXX ( which is the appraised amount of the home ) so we could cut down how much closing cost we needed. Mr. XXXX told me the seller 's agent suggested this so we could still make closing and the sellers probably agreed to it as well. I informed Mr. XXXX that the selling amount of the home was not XXXX but XXXX. Mr. XXXX said he thought is was XXXX and that was what he had in the system for the purchase amount of the home. This showed me that my loan may be all together wrong because he did not have the right purchase amount. 
We continue to work towards closing and the day of closing Mr. XXXX did not have an accurate closing cost and he didn't have a closing package. We were scheduled to close at XXXX the day before XXXX and it was then XXXX that Mr. XXXX gave me a dollar amount, but was still not an accurate amount, and he said it was going to be over the amount I needed and would get refunded at closing. I got a cashier 's check for the amount he instructed me to get and we made it to closing late, because where I live and where the closing was, was an hour away from each other and with holiday traffic was longer than that. After I left the bank, Mr. XXXX called me and said the title company was trying to get more money out of me and to let them know I did not want title insurance. I was not sure what that meant, but I said okay. 
When I informed my agent of this, he told me I need to talk to the closing agent and let her explain why title insurance is not an extra fee and why we needed it, so we could make a decision if we wanted it or not. 
We got to closing and we are signing documents and Mr. XXXX text me to tell me they cut their fees as much as they could and my agent and his company put in last minute admin fees. Not sure what that meant at the time but later learned admin fees are always in a loan for the selling and buyer 's agent. It is not a fee that just appears last minute. Mr. XXXX also called me, while I was at the table, and said since I am going to have title insurance I was going to need more money for closing. 
Mr. XXXX still did not have the correct amount on the closing docs and we were asked to come up with more money at the table in the middle of signing. 
Mr. XXXX called the seller agent and my agent while we were in closing saying that we are not signing the correct closing documents because his closing department still has not sent the documents. 
Please understand at the time of this call my mother and I had already signed all our documents and we just needed the seller to sign. 
The closing agent with XXXX XXXX was not happy at all about what was going on and I then learned that Mr. XXXX asked her to cut her fees, which I also then learned, that was not ethical. 
We made it through closing, with both agents cutting their fees more so we could close. 

XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. XXXX called me to say we have an issue with the funds we provided at closing and we would have to source the account we pulled money from. I had to go use my sister 's account to get money because of the timing of trying to get money and since I couldn't get to my own bank and make closing, with my sister 's permission, I got the funds from her account and got the cashier 's check. 
It appeared Mr. XXXX was still processing a loan that had closed and I was unaware of not being able to use money from another account to fund the loan because we had so many last minute things going on and all I wanted to do was close on my home and be done with Alterra and Mr. XXXX. I was not a happy customer and said so in the survey they gave us at closing. 
I got my bank to send a wire to the settlement company on XX/XX/XXXX and Alterra accepted the funds. On this day, Mr. XXXX text my cell phone asking me to send him an email saying I no longer wanted the down payment assistance program. 
I informed him to send it to me in an email and I will take care of it, but that morning I had be involved in a car accident. I never got an email from Mr. XXXX with this request. 
A couple of weeks later I also received a text from Mr. XXXX that I needed to send him something in writing stated I wanted my loan to be removed from his company since it was closed. 
I never sent Mr. XXXX any emails or letter regarding either one of these requests. 
I received a letter from Alterra stating if I didn't provide them with more information that my down payment assistance would be denied. 

I have never experience such chaos in my life. 
It started to feel like Mr. XXXX was being discriminatory against me and my mother and it started after I showed him my worker 's comp information stating I was XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. It felt like he was trying to do everything to NOT make this loan happen and help us buy our home. 

I have attached a file with supporting documents showing the text messages and emails of communication. 

Any additional documents needed I can supply upon request. I have all documents that were sent by Mr. XXXX regarding this entire process.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation