Consumer complaint received 2020-09-28
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: Mortgage Research Center, LLC (AL)

in XXXX I was XXXX XXXX military and took out a VA Home Loan. Recently I had heard about the IRRRL option to refinance. I did some research before calling anyone since we moved out of the home in XXXX and use it as a rental property now. I found that I still qualified for the IRRRL even if I didn't live in the home presently and rates have been extremely low. I also have service connected XXXX so I don't have to pay the VA funding fee. My previous rate was 3.5 %. I had several friends who had refinanced recently as well and I hadn't heard of anyone lately get over 2.5 % with their refinance. I googled best companies for XXXX and Veterans United Home Loans showed up. I read a few reviews and saw they primarily focus on VA Home Loans. I figured they would be the easiest to work with for my refinancing. I hadn't even reached out to my current lender since they aren't a veteran focused lender. When I applied online for the refinance everything seemed to go smoothly. they asked for some information to pull my credit, to confirm the address of the property, etc. I was assigned to XXXX XXXX 's loan team NMLS # XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX I received a text from a person named XXXX XXXX with no information on job title. The text read " Good morning, this is XXXX with Veterans United. Thank you for taking the time to fill out the pre-qualification online about doing a refinance, is there a good time for us to talk today about the next steps of the refinance? '' attached was a phone number with an extension. I called the phone number and XXXX answered. I told her that I have a VA home loan and want to do a IRRRL and that my long term goal is to pay the least amount of money over the life of the loan, I didn't care if my monthly payments went down because we are renting out the property. She then told me that unfortunately I didn't qualify for the IRRRL since I wasn't currently living in the home. I then told her that the VA states that the only requirement with that was that I had to have priorly lived in the home. Which we did for the last 4 years. She said that maybe other lenders have different rules on it but Veterans United didn't allow that. We got off the phone. I went to VA.gov and double checked the rules, then went to Veterans United and double checked their rules, which stated the same thing as VA.gov. Their website also said that the current IRRRL rate was 2.65 %. I called XXXX back to tell her that the website said I did qualify and she said she was just reading that on their rules so I did qualify so she would work on getting a Loan estimate drawn up for me. I don't recall if she ever even apologized for telling me I didn't qualify for a veteran benefit that I was qualified for. This is a tough pill to swallow for me coming from a company that says they primarily focus on VA Home Loans but they don't know the few requirements that a IRRRL has. my wife texts me that they had sent over a Loan Estimate and the interest rate was for 2.99 % and {$3300.00} in closing costs. keep in mind I had told XXXX my main goal was to pay less over the life of the loan. Not only did she first tell me I didn't qualify for a benefit I am qualified for but then she sent over a Loan Estimate that would cost me more over the life of the loan than if I didn't refinance. I immediately called her to ask why I was quoted 2.99 % and she said that the requirement per VA guidelines is that all they have to do is lower my interest rate by .5 % .... So now she is saying that they are only doing the bare minimum even though their website said the current rate was 2.65 %. I told her I was not expecting a quote above 2.5 % and she said that I could buy down the rate to 2.65 % if I wanted. I asked why I would have to buy points to get to the rate they quote on their website and she said that It depends on credit scores if you qualify for that rate. I have a XXXX credit score with over {$90000.00} equity in my home and only {$1000.00} in other debts which is our car which has 3 payments left. She said she would write up a new quote and sent it to me with a 2.5 % rate. I never received it. 

My current lender and another lender both reached out to me the next day and offered me 2.25 % with {$4600.00} in closing costs. I decided to refinance with my current lender which isn't even veteran focused ... 

A few days later on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX texted me saying I still needed to sign my initial loan estimate. I responded back saying " you guys gave me a XXXX interest rate on an IRRRL ... you were the only place that didn't offer me a XXXX ... definitely not going through you guys in the future. '' XXXX responded with " would you like me to withdraw your file? make sure you check their fees ; most lenders are offering 2.25 % ( we are as well ), but they just don't disclose the cost up front like we do '' My problems with this response is if you are offering 2.25 % and my goal was to save money over the life of my loan and you are my loan officer, shouldn't you have mixed the numbers together to get me a rate and closing costs that actually saved me money over the life of the loan, not just give me the mandatory .5 % reduction and charge me MORE over the life of the loan? That seems predatory to me. Knowingly giving me a refi that doesn't meet my goals and knowing that you COULD do better in your offer? Not the way I would imagine a Veteran focused company treating a Veteran. Secondly, it's illegal for a LO to not disclose the costs so for him to say that other LO 's are doing something illegal seems very unprofessional and doesn't speak well for the industry. Third, for just coming out and saying that other lenders are doing something illegal and to not realize that his own quote doesn't meet safe harbor QM guidelines of having a 3 year break even period is kind of outrageous. The breakeven point was 3 years and 7 months. Though it's not illegal, its definitely not encouraged to offer that as an option. Especially when my goal was to save money long term not be charged more, Veteran focused Lender that doesn't listen to what the Veteran wants and doesn't do what's best for Veterans doesn't make sense ... XXXX tried to explain to me on the phone that my monthly payment would be lower to try to make it seem like it was a good deal. I didn't care if the monthly was lower, I wanted to save money long term. This seems as if Veterans United was trying to make money off of me and just doesn't feel right. 

I responded with what the closing costs and rate were for my current refinance with my current lender and the breakeven point is 1 year and 10 months and would save me {$25000.00} over the life of my loan. XXXX 's offer had a break even point of 3 years 7 months and would cost me an additional {$2000.00} over the life of the loan. Basically XXXX wanted to refi my home with Veterans United and charge me {$2000.00} more than current loan would charge me. They were willing to take over my loan to make money at the expense of a veteran ... 

In my eyes, that is Veterans United knowingly giving me a bad loan estimate to try to skim {$27000.00} off of me over 30 years. I don't believe that a company that specializes in Veteran Home Loans wouldn't be able to compete with a non veteran focused lender and miss the mark by {$27000.00}. That seems like fraud and abuse to the veteran community. I was never apologized to for being turned down initially by XXXX and he never even said sorry that Veterans United couldn't make an offer to compete or match. he simple just said he would withdraw my application and best of luck. I can't log in and see the loan estimate anymore as it was removed from my account but thankfully I had a screenshot from my wife of the loan estimate. This really is frustrating and mind boggling to get over. I figured going to the " top rated VA Home Loan lender '' would be a good experience and choice which is why I didn't talk to my current lender first. Turns out It was a big mistake and I almost got ripped off {$27000.00}. There definitely needs to be more training done for Veterans United employees on what goes into Veteran Loan Programs and also training for the Loan officer who clearly offered me a predatory home loan offer that was above what he should have and could have offered and it didn't meet safe harbor QM guidelines. Thankfully I did my research and knew It wasn't a good offer. I feel that Veterans United should have their current refinances of IRRRL loans overlooked to see if they have been overcharging Veterans with a higher interest rate. By having the name Veterans United it would imply that they are there for the best interest of veterans, leading Veterans who reach out to them for a home loan or refi to just assume that they are getting the best offer, especially when the LO for Veterans United says that other lenders will do illegal practices like not disclose costs up front. It makes you want to believe that Veterans United is the best choice without shopping around. Definitely think their should be some sort of audit to verify that this was a one time occurrence and that they haven't been skimming hundreds of thousands off of other veterans by making them believe they are the best option when in reality they are far from it. 

As a loan officer, XXXX 's interest should have been to help the borrower, not only did him and XXXX not listen to what I said I wanted ( to pay less over the life of the loan ) but they offered me a interest rate that is above their stated rate on their website and is above what I should have been offered with my current credit score and history. I don't feel that XXXX or his team had me as a best interest and it leads me to believe that there might be some sort of incentive for Veterans United Loan Officers to offer  higher rates. That is the only conclusion I can come to for the offer I received. It doesn't make any sense why else i would have been given the loan estimate at the " bare minimum requirement to lower my rate '' and not make an offer that matched what the market could offer and what XXXX himself said they were offering. With closing costs rolled into the IRRRL lowering the interest rate with higher closing costs makes sense. This must be why XXXX tried to explain that my payments would be less. That's what they wanted me to focus on. This scam didn't work this time. I knew what I wanted, lower cost on the lifetime of the loan. XXXX said it himself they could have offered me a lower rate but didn't, why? To get more money out of me long term. Frustrating and shameful.