Consumer complaint received 2018-10-25
Company: Aura Mortgage Advisors LLC
State: MA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX, I began an application for a loan with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The reason I applied for a loan was to assist my mother who needs her rental apartment repaired after her tenants, left without notice and after 13 years the apartment is not in great condition. In addition, my mothers own apartment needs updating as the carpet is invested with mites and I need to remove a lot from her house so she can move around without falling and hurting herself. My mother is XXXX years old. My mother has a fix SSI income and is repaying a loan she took out when her roof needed repair. 

Since I work full with steady income, I decided the best course was to take out a loan and pay for the repairs to my mothers house. I had taken a loan out for $ XXXX back to pay down some debt using the equity in my house, which was the first time I had used any equity for the 5 years I have had my house on my own. I started with XXXX but found their closing costs rather high, I decided to look elsewhere. XX/XX/XXXX I submitted a refinance loan through XXXX XXXX. I was told if took a loan to consolidate my debt I would have some cash back to take care of my mothers apartments. I worked on paying down some credit card debts and on XXXX the XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ), estimated a cash back of {$36000.00}. After my appraisal was done which came in lower than I expected I received a new loan estimate from XXXX XXXX  with {$35000.00} cash back at closing. Again, I worked to paydown debt was again closer to $ XXXX cash back at closing. My credit score went up to XXXX. As XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) had my paperwork and the mortgage was going through the underwriting process. I filled out authorization letters for XXXX XXXX to contact Aura/XXXX and XXXX for payoff amounts. I was informed that I had some lien on my property from XXXX XXXX XXXX, which I never heard of. I thought it may have been an old name since Aura Mortgage Advisors has changed their name several times in the past five years. I receive a letter from Aura Mortgage which states I have to pay 42 % of the  difference in the equity in my house and original sale to release the lien. 

I had never heard of this and I asked XXXX if they did a title search when I took out a loan from them but they have not responded to my request other than the representative does not work in that department. Paying off the lien which is roughly {$49000.00} that would leave me with no cash to help my mother. The loan negotiator from Aura has left the company so I am not getting a satisfactory answer about this lien. In addition, Aura and XXXX do not offer any refinancing and I would either have to payoff this % again my home equity or wait until the entire loan is paid which will be in XXXX. 

Since I was unaware of the second lien when I went through this process to rebuy my home back from foreclosure, I have tried to see if XXXX XXXX XXXX would negotiate down the terms of the Shared Appreciation Mortgage. I contacted XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, a XXXX XXXX XXXX, and sent a letter to Mr. XXXX, a negotiator at Aura Mortgage Advisors, now called XXXX XXXX. He referred me to Mr. XXXX XXXX, I have dealt with Mr. XXXX in the past on other matters in the past namely my XXXX XXXX Account, and he is quite condensing to me so I asked that he contact the representative at XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) and work with them to negotiate the Shared Appreciation Mortgage and cc me in writing. I have not heard back from XXXX XXXX XXXX, or anyone from XXXX XXXX. I did receive a letter from XXXX which was a payoff notice for the first mortgage and also a payoff from XXXX. Though again, no one has contacted as requested to see if a negotiation was struck successfully in order to release me from the second lien. 

My complaint is being mislead through the process of using Aura Mortgage Advisors to buy my home back from foreclosure about Shared Appreciation Mortgage. This was never explained to me when I applied to rebuy my home back from foreclosure. The terms for the Shared Appreciation Mortgage is extremely high at 42 %. I researched other nonprofit organization who use Shared Appreciation Mortgage and the range they use is 10-17 % which is what I asked to bring my SAM down to. In addition, when this company was showcased on national nightly news, they did not indicate this second lien they put on home, so I thought I had an honest chance of buying my house back on my own. I never would have signed such an agreement after already losing my home to foreclosure from XXXX XXXX while my mortgage at the time was still in loss mitigation. 

In addition as I am trying to refinance, the Shared Mortgage is on the value and not the amount I am taking out to refinance, another advantage for XXXX XXXX. There is not allowance to waive the Shared Appreciation Mortgage after X number of years. In addition, Aura Mortgage Advisors, XXXX, XXXX XXXX do not offer homeowners a reasonable alternative to refinance. They do not give homeowners any right to economic empowerment and since they hide the Shared Appreciation Mortgage lien it is unfair and fraudulent to homeowners who look to them to buy their homes back from foreclosure. As now with the current interest rate I have at 6.375 % since XXXX, my rough calculations is that I have paid an estimate of {$58000.00} in interest, a difference of {$21000.00} above the national average for 30 year fixed rate mortgage. 

Also, when I closed on my home, they had a lawyer and said I did not need a lawyer to use their lawyer and I still did not understand the Shared Appreciation Mortgage. I was excited to finally get my home back I did not know this hidden lien would hurt me as a home investor. 

Since XXXX has not responded to my request to negotiate the Shared Appreciation Mortgage, I can not go ahead with the refinancing. I have lost my {$500.00} application which I would have received back at closing. Although my credit score is now XXXX and will probably rise higher, I can not get into any new loans terms due to XXXX XXXX XXXX and this second lien. I am attaching several documents and hopefully links as relevant materials. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation