Consumer complaint received 2023-08-08
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: WATERMARK CAPITAL, INC. (CA)

Two components of this complaint : Unauthorized hard query of my credit damaged my credit rating ; Violation of confidentiality caused me to lose {$60000.00} .... 

On Friday, XXXX I applied for a home loan with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, a Mortgage Banker at Watermark Home Loans located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX, XXXX, CA, XXXX. 
I was in the process of being pre-approved for a purchase price of {$530000.00} with the mortgage amount of {$330000.00}. I was the sole borrower on the loan -- no co-borrowers or co-signers were involved. 

On Monday, XXXX XXXXXXXX told me over the phone that a family member, who had previously promised to gift me {$60000.00} toward the cost of purchasing the home, had called him -- without my permission -- and he had shared my private financial information pertaining to the loan with her. I was in shock! I told XXXX in a follow-up email that he should have obtained my permission to divulge my confidential information to her, and that what he did was illegal. He apologized and sent me a pre-approval letter for the terms stated above. 

However, after that family member had talked to XXXX, she decided to withdraw her gift of {$60000.00}, and didn't explain why. While I was poised to pay {$200000.00} as a down payment on the home, I needed that family member 's {$60000.00} gift for closing and moving costs, etc. After she withdrew her gift, I was uncomfortable with the additional financial pressure that XXXX had caused me, and had lost complete trust in XXXX, so I decided to not use XXXX XXXX or any other banker at Watermark Home Loans for my mortgage loan. 

About a week later, I was in the process of being pre-approved with a different mortgage lender but discovered that my XXXX credit score had plummeted from XXXX to XXXX in the past 30 days : see attached photos. To see what was affecting my credit without damaging it further, the new lender ran a soft inquiry and found that Watermark Home Loans had pulled a SECOND hard inquiry of my credit on XXXX this was AFTER XXXX had already pulled the initial hard inquiry on XX/XX/23. There was no valid reason for the 2nd hard inquiry it seemed to be retaliation by XXXX after I had called him out for violating my privacy rights and firing him. ( Watermark Home Loans is listed as " Watermark LLC '' and " CERTIFIED CREDIT '' on some of the credit reports -- see attached photos. ) The drastic drop in my credit rating caused me to pause buying a home in order to repair my credit score, so Id qualify for the lower rate I deserved. I emailed XXXX telling him I was very upset with him, and to expedite the removal of the 2nd hard query from my credit report. He responded without a reason for the 2nd hard query, and said he needed a formal letter from me to send to the three major credit bureaus to have the query removed. I sent him the letter, and told him to email me in 2 days to update me on the expedited process. Two days passed, I didnt hear from XXXX XXXX so I emailed him and he emailed me that he was waiting for his Superiors at Watermark to write a similar letter to accompany my letter, at which time theyd send both letters to the three credit bureaus. I reminded him that I was waiting for my credit repair in order to continue my process of buying a home, and that if he would not cooperate with me and expedite the process, Id have to file a complaint about him with his company, Watermark Home Loans, and with the FTC. ( I later discover that you, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was the appropriate place to file the complaint. ) So, there are two parts to my complaint : 1 ) XXXX violation of my privacy by sharing my confidential financial information relating to the home loan to the family member, who was not affiliated with the loan, facilitated my loss of {$60000.00} ; 2 ) XXXX unnecessary and unauthorized 2nd hard inquiry of my credit contributed to my credit score plummeting over XXXX points within 30 days, which caused me to not qualify for the lower interest rates on a home loan that I had been eligible for at the time I started the loan process with XXXX, on XXXX