Consumer complaint received 2024-09-15
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — Changes in loan terms during or after closing
Company: Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America ("NACA") (PA)

All dates are included in the Email threads posted and attached. In short I was traying to get a NACA loan which was the biggest nightmare. I've talked to multiple people about it and the most I got was " Oh this happens sometimes '' on a recorded line. Multiple NACA employees and even the Relator I was assigned to from them made a comment that this is normal with lack of communication. I've seen online posts for it as well and it's ridiculous. I will post numbers and high level information that may not be shown here that are in the attachments In short my Mortgage consoler who is a Loan Officer I found out after I started talking to a buddy who is a loan officer was not able to assist me in my first house. My wife and I found a great property and for those who don't know NACA let 's you do a buy down. In short you have a ( as of XX/XX/XXXX on the NACA Mortgage Calculator Website ) {$100000.00} will have a 4.75 % rate making your monthly payment {$620.00} a month ( not including actual property tax and home owners insurance ) If I put {$5000.00} to the principle of the house it would be a 3.917 % rate with a {$570.00} a month payment. 

Property I was looking at was 5.75 % rate in PA I ran the numbers using Zillows property tax, getting a XXXX quote and got my number closer to XXXX a month if I had family help XXXX without family help. I was confident in this monthly payment. I was working remote at that time. 

I made sure I did everything I could. Told the realtor to put on offer in. ( My fault for putting an offer on XXXX of XXXX week. ) and offer was accepted. Rate had changed ( which I understand is normal ) to 6 % so I was okay with this still and signed the documents. 

I felt uneasy with the drive, it was about an hour from my local office however I was remote. My family needed the space I had one more on the way.

I put the Offer in with the intention of the 2 numbers listed above ( XXXX a month or XXXX ) Got rejected because I needed XXXX right then in the bank. This was around XX/XX/XXXX I want to say. Could be off by a 3 days either direction so forgive me. Closing was XX/XX/XXXX. Had No idea this was a thing. Loan officer never told me. I know 30 days for family gifts but no idea what was happening. Tried calling XXXX 3 times. Even sent an email saying " XXXX I am trying to get in touch with you, I got the email of the rejection. What do I need to do. '' No response. No answer. I had to call in the corporate number. Talk to another person. They found out XXXX had left for the day ( it was XXXX pm ) and he wouldn't be in till Sat and he was hosting a class that day. I needed answers now. No response. I was transferred to XXXX 's counter part in the area. She explained what had happened. In short I made a business investment and the contract for the money to return was coming up so I had the funds just not in the bank. I was explaining and she said she would confirm ( on a recorded line ) to see if I needed the funds in right then. I said sounds great. It's XXXX. She never called back and XXXX never answered that question. However she did fix it with XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX to get the process going Had a meeting with XXXX about my plan ( as per required through NACA. ) XX/XX/XXXX Will I hate to tell you but XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX will not take this loan as is due to the fact you're putting to much down on the property. '' I don't remember the technical verbiage but in short my understanding is there wouldn't be enough profit on the banks side for it to make sense for the bank to take the loan. Which is fine Capitalism and businesses have to make money. 

" So XXXX what is the largest amount of money down I can put down to not put to principle but also not to waste the buy down for interest. '' Didn't answer the question. said to work on getting certain documents and we will figure it out later. I didn't like the answer. I ran the number for the house. Monthly payment went from XXXX or XXXX to XXXX now based on NACA calculator and me now not needing the additional funds for help which was the low end XXXX high end. I was annoyed but I could make it work with the XXXX We had our XXXX child around this time and XXXX sent me XXXX items I needed. I sent him an email saying we had our baby, I'm exhausted and want to get the process going. I don't understand some stuff and what some stuff means. I outlined my questions piece by piece for his line items. I think it was XXXX paragraphs. He sent a one sentence message saying " Congratulations! '' Without answering anything else. 

This was a huge issue of XXXX just not answering questions or just seeming annoyed and trying to push the process along ( see attached emails ) even to say " XXXX XXXX. I need the documents requested nothing more at this time '' I sent a massive email outlining the potential issues with the inspection as I was trying to do the chimney inspection and see what my options were. I was exhausted, my son had massive complications and I was on XXXX hours of sleep for living life of XXXX hours. It was horrible. I had to figure out all the numbers and figure out what he needed. He was supposed to be my Mortgage Counselor and the only thing he did was make my life difficult during an already difficult season. 

I told my realtor about this and she said that if the repairs were to high and we couldn't get the Mortgage we can use the Mortgage to get the XXXX money back. I continued with the process trusting the realtors judgment. 

Fast forward to Chimney inspection. It was horrible. The owners said they cleaned the Chimney every year and skipped this year. The company saw the chimney and said it hasn't been touched in years, it needed a new liner. I'll give the owners the benefit of the doubt, the house is currently under contract as of XX/XX/XXXX. They were notified about the repairs that were needed to be made, however I hope they told the new buyer. 

Well the XXXX was a domino effect. I attached the quote to the document ( which NACA Has ) but in short the house is coal heated. 

Since it was coal heated it needed a XXXX liner XXXX change out the heating system to oil and replace other things to go with it ( oil tanker, electrical panel, liner, Water heating system, removal of old furnace, grounding rod, repointing and crowning, and outside heating a guard rail inside, outside ) Which was about {$22000.00} estimate. The choice seems like get the XXXX liner, however the house coal system is from the XXXX and could only be replaced with a new coal furnace I was quoted XXXX, and at that rate switch to oil with the bells and whistles. 

I was livid. My XXXX. XXXX dream home for the family just turned into about a XXXX a month payment after, if I spent {$7500.00} to repair the home. ( NACA forces an escrow to make sure the home repairs are addressed and lumps it into the Mortgage. ) I couldn't do it, because of the original issue with the Mortgage I didn't take the money out for the investors because I was " Fine '' my hands were tied. I was glad My maximum monthly payment was {$1000.00} a month because NACA denied my application after I told them I had to go back into the office. My projected ( electric, gas, coal Mortgage ) was about XXXX a month. However, my boss telling me we may be returning into office ( and Now I am back in office full time starting XX/XX/XXXX ) My expenses for all that with tolls was about XXXX a month. I couldn't afford that monthly. I fought with NACA and explained but they were saying " well you're approved for XXXX. If it's under XXXX you have to take the Mortgage. '' XXXX the XXXX XXXX had said this, and I was devastated. I wasn't going to be able to afford gas to go work or get groceries. I had just started on food stamps because I hit a rough patch. It was everything at once hitting me. If I didn't do my do diligence and made sure my mortgage was higher than my allowed amount, I was about to be forced into something I couldn't afford. Which honestly is scary. How many other people has XXXX just not answered questions to and were in a bad financial spot. I'm not saying that people should take advantage of it, however I also think there should be a failsafe where if you truly couldn't afford it, you can't get the loan. 

The icing on the cake was XXXX ( he was fantastic ) was apart of the department for the repair loans and Escrow stuff. I asked XXXX " If I find a way to pay the {$7500.00} would it lower my interest rate or no '' He was honest he wasn't sure, but he explained things as is we couldn't get the approval. XXXX Emailed me a thank you, XXXX XXXX XXXX ( loan officer ) and XXXX 's boss that I had a question about this and to reach out asap. XXXX was never responded, and the sellers walked away from the deal. I got my XXXX money back, however this was a horrible experience. 

I don't think NACA is bad.

I think there's bad employees at NACA. However, this is serious stuff and frankly people shouldn't be this incompetent in the field of people 's livelihoods.