Consumer complaint received 2019-12-05
Company: GUARANTEED RATE INC.
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
I closed on a mortgage with Guaranteed Rates XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. Dealing with Guaranteed Rate was a mistake and cost me thousands of dollars I was not planning for and to be manipulated into going into a mortgage on terms I did not agree to. Communication was unclear, deceptive, and changed consistently all the way through the final minutes of closing. In the last 10 minutes of closing, me and my wife had the choice of either signing paperwork that was against what we spoke to Guaranteed Rate about and spending an extra {$1700.00} of our savings for our childrens summer camp OR have the sellers walk from closing and us not have a place to live. 
Our last communication with Guaranteed Rate was while we were in the middle of closing and they could not tell me what amount of money I was supposed to have brought to closing even then. They hung up the phone and never called back. I never heard from XXXX again. 

On XX/XX/XXXX - I emailed and spoke to XXXX over the phone. He had advised me that my closing costs could be financed. He said I had an interest rate of 4.125 %, but if I wanted to finance them I could and my rate would be 4.875 % with my closing costs all financed. I told him via email I accepted this option. We spoke on the phone to confirm. He sent me the closing costs disclosure and the closing costs were not financed. When I asked about this explaining that I was uncomfortable signing the paperwork because it was not what we agreed to, he told me " not to worry '' and to " just sign it '' because they needed the paperwork in that day to ensure I could close in time for compliance. He assured me that my closing costs would be financed as we discussed. 

I received a clear to close email the night before closing, but was asked for several other financial documents after I received a clear to close and most of my communication was done over personal cell phone lines of XXXX and XXXX. The night before closing, I felt like something was wrong and called XXXX and XXXX. This is when they told me they were not actually ready to close. I asked for the final number I needed to bring to closing and could not get a straight answer. I asked if my closing costs were set to be financed and they said YES. I was then apologized to for Guaranteed Rate dropping the ball on this one. 

I got a hold of XXXX on the day of closing. He told me has sorry for the " XXXX show '' with underwriting, but still could not give me a set dollar amount to bring to closing. He told me to just " bring {$3000.00} '' and that would be plenty. 

The summary of the timeline is in bullets below. I was advised by XXXX XXXX over his personal cellphone that I needed to bring {$3000.00} to closing and my closing costs were being financed. Financing the closing costs brought my interest rate up to 4.875 %. However, in reality- NO CLOSING COSTS WERE FINANCED, AND GUARANTEED RATE STILL PUT ME AT THE HIGHER INTEREST RATE AND THEN SOLD MY MORTGAGE. Closing costs came out {$5200.00} and change. My realtor, the sellers, the title company and everyone involved sat around the table dumbfounded as we all argued with Guaranteed Rate about the situation. We were told XXXX was at a wedding ; XXXX talked to our realtor on the phone, said he had to go and would call us back in 5 minutes. I never heard from him again. Again, I had to sign the paperwork and deal with it after or be homeless. Our closing paperwork clearly shows the 4.8+ % interest rate with {$0.00} financed. 

The extra money spent on closing meant I couldnt put my children in summer camp, so my wife could not work. Now we are out an entire persons income for our new mortgage that is at an interest rate almost a full percent higher because of a service Guaranteed Rate said they would do but did not. Since then, I have called XXXX XXXX at his desk line and his personal phone and have not received a response. 
The deceit and manipulation followed by the blatant avoidance has costed my family the initial few thousand dollars in closing costs, plus the months and months of income my wife is not able to bring in. It is costing me hundreds of dollars extra a month on a mortgage that is at a higher interest rate than it should be. I can not refinance for ( I believe ) 9 months and when I do so I will be forced to go through a refinancing process that hits my credit to start this process all over again with more costs when I shouldnt have needed it in the first place. 

This problem needs to be fixed. I need to be compensated for the thousands and thousands of dollars in loss I have faced because of this ignorance. I will be filing a CFPB complaint and am already in contact with my lawyer to pursue the matter legally if need be. I am being advised of several federal regulations and guidelines that were not followed in my interactions with Guaranteed rate. 
XX/XX/XXXX o Approved for loan at just over 4 % for interest o I asked to finance closing costs and was advised that choosing the option to finance as much of the costs as I could, my interest rate would go up to 4.875 % XX/XX/XXXX o Received Clear to Close XX/XX/XXXX Late Evening ( closing set for XX/XX/XXXX ) o I asked for final numbers for closing, could not get a set answer o XXXX asked me for my XXXX financial records even though I was cleared to close o Communication mostly through personal cell phones of XXXX and XXXX o Was told Guaranteed Rate really dropped the ball and were sorry XX/XX/XXXX - Day of Closing- asked for set amount needed to close, could not get an answer o Was told to bring {$3000.00} to closing and that would be more than enough o At closing, was told we didnt have enough money by title company o Called XXXX/Guaranteed Rate, said theyd call back in 5 minutes with our final $ s for closing o Never called- we were told XXXX was at a wedding o Title company said we needed an additional {$1700.00} to close o Had to leave closing to get the money o Pulled from our savings we had for our children to go to summer camp Guaranteed Rate/XXXX  never called to follow up Received first bill from XXXX XXXX for our first mortgage payment Reviewed paperwork from XXXX   and our Closing Statement I followed up with XXXX afterwards with no response. A month or so later I began emailing and calling Guaranteed Rate, but no one would speak to me directly. I sent the an email with the info above and in XXXX, XXXX XXXX said he would look into things for me. I called XXXX and emailed him for weeks until he finally asked to speak to me XX/XX/XXXX about his findings on the case. 

XXXX ' findings were simply that I signed the paperwork to close so I was responsible. They did not look into the phone calls with XXXX. They did not ask me for my emails showing our conversations. XXXX advised that I could send him the emails and he would look into it further. I did, but still have not heard from anyone. At this point I am 6 months into paying a mortgage at this higher rate. I can not refinance yet. It has been sold to another bank who can not speak to or help me with what Guaranteed Rate did. And the start of my mortgage put me out an extra $ 1,200+ and we lost the ability for my wife to work. We now had to rely on credit cards, which has destroyed my credit score, all the while I have less money to pay off the cards for when I try to go to refinance because of the high interest rate I have received with no benefit of financed closing costs. 

I have immeasurable damages to my credit score and will pay the price of Guaranteed Rate 's methods of doing business for as long as I have a mortgage. An extra $ XXXX- {$2000.00} was lost of mine out of this deception on top of the additional few hundred dollars I am paying on my mortgage each month, on top of the 6 months of pay that my wife did not get because she had to stay home after we lost our children 's summer camp money. Someone has to do something to right this. Please.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation