Consumer complaint received 2023-05-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: INTERFIRST MORTGAGE COMPANY (FL)

We applied for mortgage with interfirst bank upon recommendation by XXXX XXXX. The app was completed XX/XX/2022 & at the same time, I uploaded the signed contract, legal description of property, and received a loan estimate. XX/XX/XXXX, loan officer XXXX says looks good, normal turnaround time 45 days, so closing date of XX/XX/XXXX would be fine. XX/XX/XXXX, loan officer tells our realtor that interfirst has limit of 10 acres but would not cause a problem in our case of 19ac because the house was on 10ac and other 2 adjoining lots of 9 ac total were underwater and not buildable. Later that same day, email rec 'd from XXXX, congrats we received conditional approval. Conditions then received from loan officer XXXX. They had nothing to do with acreage, just normal evidence documents of money and appraisal, selling current home. XX/XX/XXXX loan officer XXXX confirms receipt of title commitment showing XXXX acres. & says underwriting reviewing conditional items final review. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX sends appraisal payment form & fee is {$490.00} and is paid same day. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX says appraisal will be {$920.00} I mention that's higher than loan estimate. She then credits diff as goodwill gesture. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX says title company wants new survey & cost is {$4000.00}. I say loan estimate has XXXX estimated for survey. Realtor steps in says he will pay and we reimburse him at closing. I ask XXXX to credit that amount back and she says mgt will have to review. We extended loan approval date to XX/XX/XXXX and seller says she will not extend beyond that date. I advise XXXX we need to get appraisal done asap. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX says it appears loan will be denied due to the property acreage exceeds 10. I sent several emails to XXXX, XXXX, and quality assurance manager XXXX via XXXX but no one responds. XX/XX/XXXX we receive an email from XXXX saying the loan is denied. Attached to the email was a letter stating it is denied due to unacceptable property. XX/XX/XXXX advised XXXX we took out appraisal contingency and that I would be contacting cfpb and/or atty if we could not get this worked out. Spoke with several other lenders who confirmed the property would be acceptable under XXXX XXXX  guidelines that Interfirst mortgage uses, but it needed to be explained to underwriting that it had to be done manually showing property over 10 acres was unbuildable. This was supposedly easy to confirm because the acreage was under a lake. I also spoke with an appraiser who also said that as long as the acreage couldn't be built on, it was done all the time. I have emails to support all of these items and dates showing that InterFirst were well aware of the acreage at the very beginning of the process, and we even discussed it mid-way through. They failed badly on their loan estimates, which may have caused them to change their decision instead of correcting them properly. These errors of ignoring the size of the property and underestimated fees on the loan estimate had resulted in us losing the deal, the money we spent on due diligence, and lost mortgage interest rates as they were rising quickly.