Consumer complaint received 2020-08-17
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: BBVA FINANCIAL CORPORATION (CA)

We were solicited by BBVA to refinance our house because of a special program of the bank geared toward developing positive relationship with physicians in a small neighborhood in XXXX, California. They promoted a loan that had no fees. We completed the application requirements in a timely manner especially considering the Pandemic going on. 
We were contacted by the appraiser by phone to arrange for and opportunity to come by the house to complete and appraisal. I spoke personally with the appraiser explaining that we wanted to do a modified visit where I would walk him around the home to see the amenities and that we could look into windows because my wife was strictly isolating because of health concerns in relationship to XXXX XXXX. He agreed to get back in touch with me to complete this process, I explained all this to the Mortgage agent. Several weeks went by with me regularly checking with the agent concerning the appraisal. She reassured me that all was well and that they were just very busy. Then all of a sudden we were contacted by the underwriter that we were ready for closure. I still had not talked to anyone about the appraisal. Upon contacting the agent again she stated that the appraisal had come in and that all was well and we were going to closing. The appraisal did not take several factors into consideration by doing just a drive by appraisal with no input from us the owners. Specifically he made no mention of the 480 sf fully contained Pool House in the backyard, the patio coverings, the pickleball court, the higher walls, stucco fencing around the yard, to say nothing of the custom features within the home. He even only mentioned one of two fireplaces. 
It was not until the day of closing that it was brought to our attention that we were going to have to pay 1.125 % in loan origination fees, amounting to {$8800.00}. The agent stated that must be a mistake when I called her and she would get back to me. She did call me back and stated that the house had not appraised high enough and thus there was not enough equity to do the loan any other way. 
My wife had already signed as I assured her they were going to work this all out. I was signing outside of the hospital when I got this information. We were told that if we did not sign we would have to start the entire process over again with no guarantees that the loan would be completed with the same terms and that we would have to get another appraisal. 
We recognize that we did not HAVE to sign but we felt like we were only given this option at the last minute with no real explanations in writing. We felt like it had been a type of bait and switch process to take advantage of the conditions. 
We tried to resolve this with the bank through talking with local management and her supervisor. The supervisor was of no help. Would not return calls and left it up to the agent to tell us that there was nothing they could do. We asked for : 1-Some written documents describing the community outreach program guidelines. 2-Some information from the underwriter showing us how far off the appraisal was from being able to not pay fees and an explanation why there was no communication about other things that could be done, i.e. getting another appraisal or even putting more money down. This failure to communicate was of course to their advantage. If we went through with the process they would get paid the up front fees. If we did not go through with the process they might be able to charge us additional interest on the loan. Everything to their advantage. 
We of course would not like to pay those fees unnecessarily and would like to have them returned. We would also like to understand their checks and balances concerning appraisal types and feedback on percentages necessary to accomplish different levels of participation.