Consumer complaint received 2022-04-21
Company: Better Mortgage, Inc.
State: MI
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
XXXX  by Better Mortgage Complaints First complaint while applying for a mortgage with this company, was working with our so called Processing Expert, XXXX XXXX for our loan estimate. For several weeks during the months of XXXX XXXX I had to deal with her over the phone several times with no avail to rectify an $ XXXX miscalculation of our earnest money. I explained to her several times as to how this amount of money for our earnest deposit was not being taken into account on our loan estimate making our estimated cash to close that much higher unnecessarily. This resulted in them strongly recommending that I liquidate my 401k to cover the difference which would ultimately result in me incurring IRS penalties. Long story short, eventually she went on vacation sometime around the end of XXXX and XXXX XXXX ( our loan expert ), was able to escalate this issue to her supervisor XXXX. XXXX was able to resolve the issue with underwriting in a matter of minutes! This was an issue we had been dealing with for almost 2 months, that was resolved instantly in minutes with her supervisor!! 

The second complaint, which is the biggest complaint of all with this company, is that they refused to allow us to close on the home due to external concrete items being incomplete ( i.e. porch, driveway, and sidewalk ). These items were left incomplete intentionally by the builder because we were set to close in XXXX and our home is located in XXXX Anyone who lives in the XXXX knows that it is not consistently warm enough to start pouring concrete or asphalt in this area until at least XXXX at the earliest. These items were already included as part of the purchase price of the new build home, and due to be complete at a later date as weather items. The typical Fannie Mae rule is to have the Title company do an escrow hold back and withhold XXXX % of the cost of these items until completion usually with a 6 month extension after closing is complete. This lender refused to abide by this guideline, when every lender in this area does! After days of begging and pleading with them to make an exception, we had no other choice but to withdraw our application which resulted in losing {$450.00} for our appraisal fee and find a new lender ASAP. We were able to find a new lender, but this meant moving into our new home 3 weeks after we were originally scheduled to move. We were living in an apartment at the time, and barely made it out without having to pay another full months of rent unnecessarily. Also, my wife was XXXX XXXX XXXX  at the time which meant we had less time to get the house together and the XXXX setup before she was due to go XXXX XXXX In addition to all of that we had family scheduled to come into town to help us get boxes unpacked, which couldnt happen due to the delay, and we had a XXXX shower which happened a couple of days after moving which was extremely stressful. Lastly, we had to keep rescheduling movers, appliance installation dates, and ordering of things that we needed all because of this. 

In summary, XXXX by Better Mortgage should not be lending mortgages in areas where they refuse to follow the guidelines put in place which allow fair treatment of all parties involved in the mortgage lending process. I highly do not recommend using this company as a mortgage lender, and if you get XXXX XXXX as your Processing Expert, withdraw your application immediately and take the application fee loss.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation