Consumer complaint received 2020-06-28
Company: GUARANTEED RATE INC.
State: KY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
Regarding our recent application process with Guarantee Rate, pertaining to Loan Application # XXXX, the following is only a small excerpt of the most unprofessional and unethical Mortgage Lending Company, that has experienced multiple, multiple complaints through XXXX, CFBP, and many others, and require an immediate investigation into their current practices. 

The mortgage for our home was initially provided by Guarantee Rate, having already been approved through our bank, Guarantee Rate became involved shortly into the purchase process as a result of a referral from our Realtor, due to the fact the Realtor XXXX XXXX with XXXX would receive a referral fee from Guarantee Rate. 

The prociess with GR became increasingly confusing and stressfull, and we nearly did not close on XX/XX/XXXX when we bought the home. We were given an interest rate of 4.75 %, and told that in 1 year to return and the interest rate would be lowered through a refinance to considerably less. We were told that FHA required a higher credit score ( my spouse ) than what she currently had and that influenced the interest rate. ( Not a requirement and the credit score was well over 680 ). First untruth. 

We attempted a refinance in XX/XX/XXXX, and from the beginning was an even more confusing process, and in the middle of the process, loan officer XXXX XXXX Senior Mortgage Specialist, XXXX : XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX IL XXXX NMLS ID # XXXX experienced many issues and had an emotional breakdown due to too many clients and was overwhelmed. Very unprofessional and unethical during the process and continually stated that " I need to just sign whatever documents I am given, without review, and trust him that it will be done ... don't worry about reading anything and trust me ''. Further stating that all of his clients never read any documents anyway as the process and documentation can change all the time. 

When XXXX left, his immediate Manager XXXX XXXX, Senior Director of Sales Consumer Direct Division, XXXX, XXXX O : ( XXXX ) XXXX - C : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX NMLS ID : XXXX had taken over, and immediately told me that XXXX XXXX has had multiple issues and numerous complaints due to be overwhelmed and is taking over, and no commissions would be paid to XXXX and credits would be issued and no cash to close would be required. '' XXXX further stated that if there was any CTC, it would be very little if any at all. 

Below are the emails pertaining to the final month with GR before we withdrew our application. There were so many additional issues with this simple refinancing process and I can certainly provide additional correspondence to you. GR are scammers and should not be operating, period. They are deceptive, unprofessional, very unethical and take advantage of those that are unfamiliar with this process. FHA has very specific guidelines and not one of those guidelines were followed. 

They claim everything that is done is per law, they can not send my remaining escrow until 90 days by law, etc., but were never able to provide the specific statutes pertaining to these laws. 

Please review the following e-mails : NOTICE OF LOAN CHANGE FORM Guaranteed Rate, Inc. NMLS XXXX XXXX Notice of Loan Change Disclosure Rev. XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Loan Number : XXXX Property Address : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, KY XXXX Dear : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX You recently applied for residential mortgage financing through Guaranteed Rate, Inc.. The purpose of this Notice is to advise you of a change affecting your loan in process. 
The Changed Circumstance ( s ) are : The loan amount has changed from XXXX to XXXX Name of Fee and Amount of Fee being changed Name From To Mortgage Insurance Premium XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX  to XXXX, me Hi XXXX, Title will accept a personal check up to $ XXXX so you are good there. We do need to know which account the funds will be coming from along with the previous two months of bank statements to verify those funds. We can do this one of two ways. You can upload two months of statements to the online portal or XXXX can send you a link for AccountCheck. This allows the statements to automatically be pulled from your bank. 

Whichever you prefer works for us. Let us know if you have any questions. 

Thanks Can they take a credit card? Not really interested in providing bank statements. Only trying to do this in the most simple and efficient way. 

Also, are they able to move the escrow as we discussed before XXXX? XXXX I know clearly understood this was an FHA streamline as everyone else knew so not sure why this cant be done. 

Please advise on credit card option and on the escrow being able to be transferred as previously discussed. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX Unfortunately there is no option to pay closing costs on a credit card, funds would need to be provided in the form of a cashiers check and we need to verify the account with your two most recent bank statements. 

If you have any questions please let me know Thank you BEWARE OF CYBER-FRAUD Before wiring any funds, call the intended recipient at a number you know is valid to confirm the instructions - and be very wary of any request to change wire instructions you already received. A Guaranteed Rate employee will never provide nor confirm wire instructions. 

Sender 's photo XXXX XXXX Loan Coordinator XXXX XXXX O : ( XXXX ) XXXX - F : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX NMLS ID : XXXX I will discuss this further with my wife. I am not sure why bbn if a certified check or cashier 's check is being provided that bank statements are required. 

This entire process has changed so drastically, now with cash to close, additional documents, etc. We will discuss this further an let you know where we will go from here. 

XXXX XXXX Please advise if it will be a personal check or cashier 's check? Also, there does not need to be a verification of 2 months of bank statements with this. I will need to pull from other means for this cash to close that has certainly now made this more challenging. 

Please advise asap. 
XXXX XXXX Hi A personal check will be fine. We will need to have your two most recent, consecutive months of bank statements on file. This is required on all files where there is cash to close. 

BEWARE OF CYBER-FRAUD Before wiring any funds, call the intended recipient at a number you know is valid to confirm the instructions - and be very wary of any request to change wire instructions you already received. A Guaranteed Rate employee will never provide nor confirm wire instructions. 

Image removed by sender. Sender 's photo XXXX XXXX Loan Coordinator XXXX XXXX O : ( XXXX ) XXXX - F : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX NMLS ID : XXXX Ok. I will be pulling the cash to close from a credit card as this was not expected that there would be CtC. Are you able to move the escrow account funds as well or will this be mailed to us? This is where the CtC is required because what is in escrow now could not be pulled as previously told. 

Hi XXXX, If you decide to pull funds from a credit card, we will need additional documentation. Well need to have the credit card transaction history showing the withdrawal taking place as well as order a credit supplement to confirm the new balance and payment on the credit card as this is a liability and affects our debt to income ratio for qualifying purposes. 

You will receive the escrow refund check from our servicing department within 3-4 weeks after we disburse funds Thank you BEWARE OF CYBER-FRAUD Before wiring any funds, call the intended recipient at a number you know is valid to confirm the instructions - and be very wary of any request to change wire instructions you already received. A Guaranteed Rate employee will never provide nor confirm wire instructions. 

Sender 's photo XXXX XXXX Loan Coordinator XXXX XXXX O : ( XXXX ) XXXX - F : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX NMLS ID : XXXX XXXX, Well, then we will cancel this and go to another provider. XXXX, GR will be hearing from someone with how this entire process was handled. No cash to close was what we were told! So, by having additional documentation required for a small transaction on my credit card in addition to 2 months of bank statements is entirely against everything we were told. 

We will pursue this with CFPB and with an attorney and go to another provider. GR has destroyed this process when we trusted in GR to help us through and we selected GR to complete this and GR failed and mislead. XXXX should not continue in this industry or should be terminated and changing this all in the 11th hour is both highly unethical and unprofessional. Not one part of this process that was disclosed in the beginning has held true. Shameful. 

This will be communicated further with those at a much higher level with GR. 

XXXX, Im very sorry we could not make this work for you. I tried my best to get the cash to close low enough so the escrow refund you would receive in a few weeks would make it a wash. Unfortunately, we are bound by investor guidelines regarding bank statements so I apologize we could not waive that condition. We will go ahead and withdraw your file per your instructions. 

Thank you BEWARE OF CYBER-FRAUD Before wiring any funds, call the intended recipient at a number you know is valid to confirm the instructions - and be very wary of any request to change wire instructions you already received. A Guaranteed Rate employee will never provide nor confirm wire instructions. 

XXXX XXXX Senior Director of Sales Consumer Direct Division XXXX XXXX O : ( XXXX ) XXXX - C : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX , XXXX, IL XXXX NMLS ID : XXXX XXXX, In addition to the comments below, I reviewed my notes from our initial conversation to which you advised that due to the significant errors and manner in which XXXX handled this, that any commission that XXXX would receive would be removed and applied as credits towards the closing costs and we would not have to bring ANY cash to close as a result. You assured me that you would " take care of it ... '' on your end. So, if that was your commitment to me in that conversation, why has the cash to close not been removed entirely as you stated? 

Either credit the CtC entirely and XXXX it out, our as I mentioned, I will submit all of my notes and conversations to the CFPB and I will pursue this legally. The CtC is NOT what we agreed to per our initial conversation. I do hope you recall that conversation. Please advise ASAP. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX, Very disappointing. GR has wasted 2 months of my time upon providing me initially with every assurance this would have been completed with NO out of pocket costs by XXXX end. You XXXX, also assured me, as I mentioned in my last email, that there would be no closing costs as you would take all commissions earned by XXXX and apply them to XXXX that out, or would be very little, as a result of XXXX 's incompetence and handling of this very simple process. 

I have never been treated with so little respect and professionalism ever. It is very evident that GR is attempting to recover some costs due to XXXX 's failure, at my expense. I remain unclear as to how we can go from receiving a {$4.00} refund in closing costs, to {$1300.00} to {$2500.00}, when there is a $ XXXX credit applied for our PMI, and nearly {$1900.00} in escrow that we were told would be applied directly or made part of the mortgage. There has been no transparency in this process. 

I trust that someone in your CustomerCare will review this including your Leadership Team with the hope that additional questions will be asked of you, XXXX, and this team, as to why this failed in every facet. I encourage them to review this carefully. 

If you have now advised this can not be done, which is what I understand from your response and NOT at my direction to discontinue, then we will proceed elsewhere and again, pursue this further. 

XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX Additional information is readily available. Guarantee Rate requires an immediate investigation. There are MULTIPLE complaints on GR, and NO accountability. It took 60 days to obtain the remaining escrow balance of {$130.00} as they said they are required by law to keep it, when the mortgage with GR was paid out by our new lender on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Please contact me should you require additional information. Thank you very much. 

XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX, KY

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation