Consumer complaint received 2016-10-27
Product: Mortgage — Reverse mortgage
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker — 
Company: Live Well Financial, Inc. (CA)

I am a XXXX in XXXX who agreed to a XXXX with Live Well Financial XXXX. I wanted to let you know of the disappointing result of this agreement. 
I am not accusing Live Well of intentional fraud or bad dealing, I am accusing them of incompetence that cost me {$12000.00}. 
As with many homes in the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, i am sitting on a gold mine of equity. I was going to sell my house so that I could have some liquid cash to pay debts, be relieved of a mortgage payment, fix the roof and furnace, and take a trip to XXXX with my son and other relatives. 
I love my house, and really did not want to move to a retirement community condo, but I needed cash. 
Live Well convinced me that I could get enough ready cash, and stay in my house. I spoke in depth with another company, too, and they also said I could get {$35000.00} at closing. I decided to go with Live Well, jumped through the hoops and was assured that all would be smooth sailing and the {$35000.00} would be direct deposited in a month. 
Then there was a problem with the HUD appraiser. My land ( XXXX acre ) is valuable, but my small house would not cost all that much to rebuild. The lender was insisting that I needed far more home insurance that I have, so much that my insurance company refused to consider it as it would never pay out that much. FINALLY - belatedly I think - the HUD appraiser was challenged, and he said, " Oh, I reversed the numbers. '' This lasted about a month with constant insistence that they were right about the value of my house and I was wrong. 
Finally, I was told that a notary would come to my house to sign the final papers. She came with a XXXX inch stack to be signed here, initialed there. It was late evening, but I did not want to delay any longer. I had taken a three week substitute teacher job for a friend with a health issue and was quite tired. I reached a page near the end of the stack that had the number {$22000.00}. I had never seen or heard it before. I asked the notary, but of course she had not idea. So I signed it. 
I realize that I was stupid. I signed, and that 's that. However, those pages were filled with numbers I did n't know - closing costs, projections of the loan if I lived to be XXXX. I thought at that moment that this was just some other partial number. 
Come to find out, that is the amount they would give me - no {$35000.00}. 
First, if an estimate is given and the amount changes, it is up to the company to discuss this with the client. Perhaps I would have gone with another company - that was my right. 
Sendly, papers of a finacial nature should not be signed with a notary who knows nothing aobut them, but with someone who can answer questions about the content! At the very least, the client should have the papers in advance so that a phone call could answer questions. 
Thirdly, it was clear from the HUD appraiser snafu that the right hand in this company does not know what the left had is doing. No one had the total picture and people I spoke with were always confused about what I was saying, and that they would check on it. 
Lastly, despite giving them a voided check, there was no direct deposit and there were more hoops before the money they were offering was deposited in my account. 
I feel that in a way, it was a bait and switch. Not intentionally perhaps, but I thought I 'd have an extra {$12000.00} - not a small sum! It leaves me much more secure than I had intended. 
I would like to formally file a complaint of incompetence on Live Well Financial so that no one else finds themselves in this position. They need to tighten ship.