Consumer complaint received 2020-12-16
Company: FRANKLIN LOAN CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
I am not applying for a mortgage with this company. However, we are selling a house to a buyer who is financing a mortgage through the company. We were supposed to close escrow a week ago. The buyers asked for an extension and we agreed for an extension of 5 days to this past Monday XX/XX/20. I called the loan officer with Franklin Mortgage to check and see if there was anything that might hinder this loan and I was just curious to know overall how everything was going. Of course, I know financial info is confidential and can not be shared but I didnt ask for any information like that. I was just curious to know why they needed more time as we were considering their request to extend closing. XXXX XXXX, the loan officer, advised me it was just a delay with IRS processing time and I can understand the need to extend because of COVID. I thanked him for his time and I hung up and we let the buyers real estate agent know we would extend closing for them. Fast forward to Monday, I call the closing company Monday morning to see if loan docs were with them yet and they had not yet received it. I was told by the loan officer, XXXX, that everything would be done by Friday or over the weekend for a closing on Monday. I texted the buyers agent in the morning and asked him why the closing documents were not send by the lender to the closing company yet because we would not be extending closing again. He replied via text he would call me later. So I texted the same thing to the loan officer and he called me three times. I was pre-occupied and called him 5 mins later. 
What he said to me is why I am taking the time to file a report with CFPB and also with California XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX through NMLS. 

XXXX answered the phone and said hey buddy hows it going and I replied with hey not much? Whats going on? And his tone completely changed. 

This man said let me be very straight with you. You dont text me that stuff. You call me directly and you say it over the phone. You dont text me threats. If you want to make this messy, I will make this very messy for you. I have emails of you acting like you are a real estate agent in this transaction when you are not a licensed real estate agent which is punishable by up to 6 months in jail or {$20000.00}. If you dont give us another additional week to close this loan then believe me I will make this very messy for you. I can go there. So its up to you, 6 months in jail and {$20000.00}??? And it continued like this for about 2 minutes. 

I said nothing during this exchange other than the initial hey whats going on? Because I couldnt believe what he was saying and how he was saying it. It was verbal abuse in my book. I felt very attacked and it left me shaking after I hung up. My jaw was dropped and my mouth was wide open. To me, its definitely a form of blackmail or extortion. All I could think in my head was wow, Loan Officer. I kept thinking of his title in the back of my mind and repeating in my head subconsciously those words, Loan. OFFICER. It felt like a police officer abusing his powers. I was blown away that a licensed loan officer is out there on the field doing loans for people with this kind of unprofessionalism. In my mind, I have dealt with many loan officers many whom are very good friends of mine and we talk mortgage all the time. this XXXX XXXX tarnishes the profession. 

My reply was, I dont know what to say.. I will call you back. 

And he said dont call me back. From now on, talk to the real estate agent. 

I was blown away. This was my second interaction with him ever and I did not expect for it to take this turn of events. He could have easily just said hey listen I thought we had enough time but underwriting took longer to get the clear to close or anything else but threatening me to give him more time or else. 

To clarify, we are legally selling a single family home in XXXX XXXX, CA by using a service called, XXXX XXXX, which you can XXXX. We basically pay them to help us post the property for sale on MLS and helps us market it online. But we are actually self represented and even though there is a real estate agent license, name and brokerage listed on the MLS or online postings, it is for advertising purposes only and not for representation of the sale. We do have an agreement with them and also a disclosure that we send out to buyers who are interested. We basically let them know that the XXXX XXXX service is not a part of this transaction and this is a For Sale By Owner. We of course, still pay the 3 % commission for the buyer agent. 

So thats basically it. 

I just wanted to let you know. 

I dont expect the loan officer to get in trouble because I made the mistake of texting and then calling him on his cell phone. I didnt know it was his cell phone. It was in the Pre-Approval letter they sent me. So no recorded line. But I did want to make you aware of this loan officer who should not be allowed to represent any mortgage company. A very bad man. I couldnt believe it. 

I did end up calling corporate as soon as I hung up and they did a really good job connecting me to a Senior VP for the region who let me know he would look into and deal with this. He asked me if we were still interested in moving forward with closing because he pulled up the loan file and it looked like they were really close to Funding. 

My reply was that I honesty really would have considered it and most likely would have agreed to extend if I hadnt just been verbally attacked by one of their loan officers. 

He said he understands and appreciated me for letting them know.

Company public response: Company disputes the facts presented in the complaint
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation