Consumer complaint received 2017-05-24
Company: GUARANTEED RATE INC.
State: WI
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
The initial application was started on XX/XX/XXXX and concluded on XX/XX/XXXX with GuaranteedRates denial. My loan officer was XXXX XXXX. In my initial conversation with XXXX I advised that my situation was a bit unique in that I have been retired for some seven years and dont show any income on paper. I have assets ( 401 ( K ), investments, home equity, and cash ) that I draw from as needed to pay all expenses. I have been doing this for seven years which included purchasing two houses via conventional mortgages. XXXX indicated that he was well familiar with this situation and had managed numerous similar loan applications all to a successful conclusion. As such, I completed the initial paperwork and received my Pre-qualification Letter on XXXX XXXX, 2017. XXXX even commented that this should be an easy one because my credit scores were so high. Initial closing was set for XX/XX/XXXX. Meanwhile, I had found a house to buy and had received an accepted offer. I would be borrowing around {$220000.00} ; XXXX advised this would not be an issue. My plan was to share this house with my daughter and her XXXX children. Subsequently, my daughter sold her house on XX/XX/XXXX and we put her furniture into storage for the week until we could close and move into the new house on XX/XX/XXXX. We all moved to XXXX hotel rooms in an extended stay on XX/XX/XXXX I was asked to submit numerous documents over the next several weeks. I fulfilled all requests and received confirmation that my submittals were acceptable ( some did take a second submittal to get it just perfect for Underwriting ). This process took several weeks longer than expected and we wound up staying in the hotel for 40 days. All the while XXXX assured me that this was normal and everything was moving along nicely, albeit slowly. One of the interesting matters was that GuaranteedRate required me to deposit cash ( several hundred thousand dollars ) with an independent money manager that agreed to withdraw {$6000.00} from my investments and deposit it into my checking account to use to pay bills. In addition, GuaranteedRate required me to start taking Social Security benefits - this would be about {$3200.00} in monthly deposits to my checking account. Thus, I had a steady income of {$9200.00} with which to pay bills. My bills owed at this time were about {$5500.00}. Finally, GuaranteedRate seemed to be satisfied and the closing was set for XX/XX/XXXX. However, on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX called to advise me that GuaranteedRate would be denying the loan. His reason was that the debt to income ratio was not acceptable. I received the official denial letter on XX/XX/XXXX. The reasons that I am so upset : - Nothing had changed regarding my expenses and income since the start of this process. They enthusiastically kept me on the hook for over three months with promises of " everything is fine ''. If they were going to deny my loan for this reason then they should have done it at the outset rather than string me along for week after week. At the very least XXXX was deceptive ; however, I believe he outright lied numerous times. Maybe he did n't know I would ultimately be denied ( he should have - he was the loan officer in charge ) or maybe he was just stringing me along to be mean. Either way, GuaranteedRate 's behavior was deplorable. - Because the loan process was extended for so long I wound up spending almost {$10000.00} in hotel and meal expenses. - We ultimately rented a house on XX/XX/XXXX for {$1900.00} per month. This compares to a monthly mortgage payment that would have been around {$1200.00}. More cash flow issues. - I wrote a letter on XX/XX/XXXX to several people at GuaranteedRate that were involved in this mess. I requested consideration for the loss of the {$10000.00} and a fair retry on the loan. No response

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation