Consumer complaint received 2021-09-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: Better Mortgage, Inc. (VA)

Hello, I attempted to get a conventional home mortgage loan with Better Mortgage for {$470000.00}. I worked with XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ) and XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ) on the loan. In speaking originally with XXXX, I expressed that we worked with a previous lender and it was stated that a co-borrower was needed to move forward with a conventional loan with 5 % down. I wanted to shop with other lenders to see if I could be approved without needing a co-borrower. My credit score and DTI was within the XXXX XXXX limits. I hadn't finished my loan application or submitted a hard credit check, however, XXXX stated that I needed a co-borrower based on the desktop underwriting software they used. She continued to mention the need for a co-borrower. As I did not know she was doing a desktop underwriting on my file and it was incomplete, I was unsure as to why this information was stated. She mentioned the issue was my credit score. I requested a new home advisor and filed a complaint with the company. I was assigned to her manager, XXXX XXXX who stated he didn't see an issue with my credit score but my DTI was too high. He stated he would call me in a hour to discuss my options. I emailed him my DTI scenarios and that I was under the max 50 %. The primary concern he had was that my DTI included my student loans which were in deferment and on an income-driven repayment plan. I was informed they could use my minimum payment but may have to use 1 % of the loan amount which was slightly over {$1600.00}. I had been pre-approved for a loan for some time with Better Mortgage with no issues regarding my credit. Upon his return call to me, he stated that I was denied the loan due to my credit score. When I asked for details, he would not provide me with specific details on what the issues were and said they would give me a desktop underwriter cover letter. He stated my initial approval was based on my income being listed at {$56000.00} a month. Having access to my original file in XXXX XXXX, that was untrue. He then stated that he calculated my student loans by adding the {$530.00} that I owed under my current repayment plan for one of the loans and 1 % of the amount due for the other loans as standard practice. I stated that my payment plan has me at {$530.00} for all three loans and that taking 1 % of each loan which would over {$1600.00} was not standard practice. With the two aforementioned discrepancies I was very concerned that they were not being honest and incorrectly entering information into the system which resulted in my loan application being denied. I asked if manual underwriting could occur and XXXX stated it could not until the desktop underwriting was approved. I went to the website and it stated that I said in conversation that my credit card balance was at {$0.00} and one of my student loans with an amount of {$25000.00} was at {$0.00} which was untrue. He stated he did that to get my DTI down. As conveyed there have been multiple mistruths stated in to me directly and I have not been given information to verify, again, if the information input was correct or incorrect. It appeared to me they did not want to approve my loan and stated the only path to approval was 20 % down, a co-borrower or using a FHA loan. The FHA home purchase price limit for the area I am purchasing a home is lower than the home purchase price. The home is in XXXX County in Virginia. Furthermore, the previous lender only needed 5 % down to approve me for the loan which is a four times less than what Better Mortgage requested.