Consumer complaint received 2021-08-01
Company: LD Holdings Group, LLC
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
Back in XXXX, I went to the NJ XXXX first time homebuyer website to request information. The following day, Monday XXXX XXXX, I was contacted by XXXX XXXX at the LoanDepot, who had me fill out an a online application. On Tuesday, XXXX XXXX, XXXX advised that I had been pre-approved for an FHA loan and the $ XXXX secondary loan for downpayment/closing costs that gets forgiven if you live in the residence for a set amount of time. 

Based on this information, I began shopping for my first purchased home. On XXXX XXXX, I had an offer of $ XXXX accepted on a home. Everyone else appeared to enter the closing period and was trying to move it forward. Home inspection was completed XXXX XXXX and I paid XXXX for the appraisal on XXXX XXXX. 

The original closing date was estimated to be XXXX XXXX. While it was agreed that XXXX XXXX would be a difficult deadline w and FHA loan, XXXX also would not provide a clearer time frame. XXXX became increasingly more vague on the phone, and in hindsight, I realize he would often make up things he would have to do to answer my questions but never follow up, or would answer vaguely or change the subject. Additionally XXXX was extremely non responsive to both my realtor and my closing attorney 's paralegal to the point that my closing attorney 's paralegal did not ever receive a response when she would email him about the status of the appraisal and mortgage commitment so she could advise myself and the attorney for a tentative time frame for closing. 

Finally, on XXXX XXXX, desperate to get answers, both myself and my attorney 's paralegal sent XXXX emails requesting a response in regards to the status, with my attorney 's paralegal requesting an email update the following business day, first thing in the XXXX. On XXXX XXXX, with myself nor the attorney 's paralegal having received an email update by noon, I called XXXX 's boss XXXX XXXX to express my frustration for the lack of responsiveness by XXXX and need for immediate update due to the status of my loan. 

It was only at this time that XXXX then called me to advise me that my mortgage was being denied due to my recent employment history. This was clearly very distressing, as I had paid for multiple items towards the closing of the home, and that I very clearly disclosed my work history clearly upfront in speaking to XXXX ( in that XXXX XXXX when I first spoke to XXXX I advised that I had just started a new job that day and he congratulated me ), as well as on the application I completed online, accurately showed my recent work history, including 9 months of unemployment prior to restarting work on XXXX XXXX. 

After consulting w multiple mortgage brokers to see if I could move forward w the home purchase despite the denial, multiple brokers told me that I absolutely had other options, but that the NJ 1st time home buyer program was not one of them, and all the brokers I spoke to told me outright that I should have never been preapproved for an FHA mortgage without a cosigner after a 9 month period of unemployment w reemployment of less than 6 months. One broker said that the preapproval was " blatantly negligent '' since I did not meet the most basic, commonly known employment requirements for an FHA loan. PLEASE NOTE THAT AFTER A PERIOD OF 9 MONTHS OF UNEMPLOYMENT, XXXX NEGLIGENTLY PREAPPROVED ME FOR AN FHA LOAN W/O A COSIGNER WHEN FOR THAT LENGTH OF UNEMPLOYMENT, I WOULD HAVE HAD TO BE REEMPLOYED FOR AT LEAST 6 MONTHS TO QUALIFY FOR AN FHA LOAN WITHOUT A COSIGNER AND THEREFORE BE ABLE TO USE THE NJ 1ST TIME HOMEBUYER SECONDARY LOAN FOR CLOSING COSTS/DOWNPAYMENT. XXXX*I WAS REEMPLOYED FOR A _SINGLE_DAY_ AFTER 9 MONTHS OF UNEMPLOYMENT BY XXXX. XXXX I was able to get preapproved for another mortgage, but was disqualified from the NJ 1st time homebuyer program bc my options were to either get preapproved for an FHA loan w a cosigner or to get preapproved for a conventional loan w low downpayment. Neither of these options allows for the use of the NJ 1st time homebuyer secondary loan. 

I feel it is important to note that while I paid for the appraisal on XXXX XXXX, when XXXX finally advised that the mortgage would be denied due to my length of employment, I was also made aware by XXXX that even though multiple weeks had passed since I paid for the appraisal, he had never ordered it. Being that an appraisal can take multiple weeks and can hold up closing, I have grave concerns that XXXX never ordered the appraisal at the time it was paid for bc he knew at that early point that the loan would be denied, and rather than attempt to resolve the issue, continued to dodge and not return communications about the status of my loan. 

As a result, I had to take out $ XXXX more of mortgage to cover the offer made on the sale that I now have to pay interest on and have a higher monthly mortgage payment than I am comfortable with. Had XXXX done his job correctly and not preapproved me for the 1st time homebuyer program, while I may have still gotten preapproved for a mortgage under a different option, I would have made offers $ XXXX less as well as accounting for the cash on hand that I have to ensure my offer allowed me to comfortably pay the down-payment and closing and leave a small amount in my savings. 

I have been greatly financially affected, as well as emotionally affected, from the fall out of XXXX pre approving me for a loan that I blatantly didn't meet the employment requirements for. As a result : 1 ) I had to take out $ XXXX more in mortgage, that I now have to pay interest on and causes me to have a higher monthly mortgage payment than I am comfortable. 
2 ) I had $ XXXX ( gifted to me ) for the down-payment and closing costs, but when making my offer accounted for having $ XXXX cash available for downpayment/closing costs due to having the negligent preapproval $ XXXX secondary loan for the NJ 1st time homebuyer program. When I had to get a new pre approval to move forward with the sale, I now only had $ XXXX of my own money available so I had to change the down-payment to the minimal 3.5 % ( causing me to take out more mortgage ), but that leaves me only $ XXXX for closing. I am likely $ XXXX short of cash on, which I most likely will have to borrow from my father after my bank account is completely drained. So instead of going into my first home purchase with the carefully considered numbers that gave me a comfortable mortgage payment w money left in the bank, I now am going in w a higher mortgage payment, an empty bank account, and owing someone money, which is a precarious and extremely distressing position to be in as a first time mortgage payer. 
3 ) Despite all this occurring on XXXX XXXX, it is still unclear if the sale will go through due to the seller and I being able to reach an agreement about the extension of the closing period needed due to needing an appraisal ( since XXXX never ordered it despite my paying for it weeks prior. ) At best, the sale will move forward w the above mentioned financial stressors, plus more financial loss due to having to pay my XXXX rent based on how my lease is written. At worst, the sale will fall through, I will have paid {$590.00} for a home inspection, {$100.00} for a move in cleaning deposit, and per my attorney, he will still require me to pay the {$1500.00} that I would have paid for closing due to the extensive amount of billable hours he and his staff have had to dedicate to resolving this issue. So I am losing {$2200.00} on a home I wouldn't close on. Additionally, the market has become increasingly aggressive since my offer was accepted on XXXX XXXX, where units similar to what I looked at a few months ago that were listed around $ XXXX are now listing around $ XXXX, so I am being negatively impacted financially in that I will not be able to afford the same level of home that I was looking to buy. 

Finally, I am a XXXX survivor and while the above would be distressing to anyone, it has been significantly distressing to me. Prior to XXXX XXXX when I found out I was having the mortgage denied and subsequently learned that I should have never been preapproved, my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Since XXXX XXXX in seeing the financial loss of the downpayment/closing assistance, uncertainty in the sale, losses of my money in ways such as having to pay extra rent or paying money for items on a home I won't close on, I've had a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, including difficulty XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, as well as significant XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  every time I feel stressed or become increasingly stressed when learning how else I will be financially screwed from the negligent preapproval by XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation