Consumer complaint received 2023-07-11
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: Brightfunders, LLC (SC)

Overview : XXXX XXXX ( Lower, XXXX ) has lied, omitted key information, misled on the facts, and intentionally withheld final loan details until the last possible hour. He promised a fantastic deal. Three days before closing, he told uswith no time to change lendersthat his deal was worse than what he promised. 

XXXX cornered us into this deal and switched the terms at the last minute. We had no option but to proceed or else have nowhere to live. I wish I had been firm when I told XXXX we wanted to use another lender. He is not trustworthy, he caused immense stress, and he is costing us thousands of dollars today and tens of thousands of dollars over the life of this loan. 


-- - On the day we went under contract, I ( XXXX XXXX ) informed XXXX XXXX that we would be using a different lender. He immediately refused to accept this, promising that he could beat any rate from the other lender. After many calls back and forth with my realtor and wise counsel, I was advised that, as long as XXXX could deliver the better rate, I should use Lower as a lender. 

The final numbers XXXX shared looked fantastic, and they looked the same on the Loan Estimate he shared the following business day. However, I was not given ample time to look through the entire document. XXXX called me at XXXX XXXX  on the last day for us to apply for financing. He rushed me through signing the 100-page Loan Estimate over the phone with him explaining what each signature acknowledged. Ultimately, although the interest rate and cash-to-close were the same that I had previously seen, XXXX concealed the fact that he did not lock our interest rate.

When I discovered the concealment two business days later, I requested ( multiple times, via email, text, and finally over the phone ) that we lock it. XXXX assured me that they were monitoring it and would lock it shortly, ultimately getting us the best interest rate. I told XXXX that I didnt want our costs or payment to increase. I knew they couldnt guarantee anything and asked him to please lock our rate as soon as possible. He said, No worries, we have early indicators so that we can lock it before it increases. 

That was the last time I heard anything about our interest rate or cash-to-close, despite requesting an update multiple times from XXXX and from his colleague XXXX XXXX. The most information they would share was that everything looks good, were still on track with what weve talked about.

After business hours, three business days until closing, I was informed that the fantastic interest rate that XXXX flaunted would cost us an extra {$4500.00}. Besides delivering this news without apology, he also failed to mention that he underestimated Escrow.

Now, to afford closing and to move out of our current home on-time, we are compromising with a higher interest rate, an extra {$1500.00} towards buying a half point, and spending {$300.00} more per month than what XXXX initially estimated. 

I wish I had followed my intuition when I felt uneasy about working with XXXX and with Lower. His numbers were, in fact, too good to be true. I should have known something was suspicious when he could only share specifics over the phone, and always had technical issues when I asked for documentation of what we spoke about.