Consumer complaint received 2018-06-01
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: Pacific Residential Mortgage (CO)

We ( my fiance and I ) were first-time home buyers who got caught in a bait and switch scheme. I was pre-approved through XXXX when we were referred to a real estate agent who was XXXX approved through XXXX XXXX. Her name was XXXX XXXX. We signed a buyers agreement with her on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX steered us into dropping our pre-approved lender to go with a local lender. She stated that the Colorado market was difficult to navigate and a local lender would be more responsive and preferred by sellers. She set us up with her husband, XXXX XXXX, with XXXX XXXX XXXX/Pacific Residential Mortgage. I told him immediately that we wanted a 30-year VA fixed loan. We had more than 20 % for a down payment and my credit score was XXXX. XXXX XXXX promised us a great rate. He falsely disclosed that we needed to sign an initial form that stated the our interest rate would be 5.25 %, " just to get the ball rolling '' and that he promised that it would be much lower when we would " lock the rate in '' together. We went under contract on a dream house. We completed inspection, appraisal, and were a week from closing. We were waiting on XXXX to go over the great interest rate and point options he promised. He delayed and kept delaying. XXXX sent us another disclosure with the rate still at 5.25 % with less than a week before the closing day. The national mortgage interest rate was less than a 4.8 % at the time. He stated that he had locked us in at 5.25 %. We were shocked. We asked him how he could do that with the national rate being much lower and without consulting us. He then said and then kept repeating that we could refinance down the road and that it wasn't that bad. He stopped responding and was unreachable. XXXX XXXX, our realtor, then started saying the same things. She said it was too late to switch lenders and that we should just take the loan. We had already called several other companies at that point and had multiple other offers of 4.25 % par or lower. We complained to XXXX XXXX 's manager. He agreed to drop it to 4.8 % only after we stated that we would file a complaint with multiple regulatory agencies. The owner of XXXX XXXX XXXX  stated that there was nothing more that he could do and that we would need to buy the rate down to 4.25 % if we wanted to. We were caught with an unjustified high interest rate and were being rushed to sign or lose the house. XXXX XXXX and her manager were " unable '' to convince the sellers to push the closing date, which was set on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX had previously pushed the move the closing date sooner instead. XXXX told us that if we didnt sign the loan disclosure on XX/XX/XXXX that  we would lose our earnest money as well as the money that we had put down for inspection and appraisal. We decided to file this complaint because we do feel like we were victims in a predatory lending scheme. We were deceived by being outright lied during this process, a process we were nave to as first-time home buyers. We will lose thousands ( estimated {$15000.00} + ) over the course of paying off our mortgage and the money used to buy down an unjustifiably high rate. We were naive first-time buyers who trusted what our realtor and lender were telling us. We hope to help stop this scam for other buyers in the future.