Consumer complaint received 2018-11-26
Product: Mortgage — Other type of mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: PulteGroup, Inc. (TX)

I was purchasing a to be built home through XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX Texas. Their lender of choice is Plute Mortgage. I decided to use Plute Mortgage because they would not give me the discounts on the home unless i went through their mortgage company along with the XXXX member discount that they offered. I got pre-approved for the amount we requested. Within a few weeks it was brought to my attention that the contract was not written correctly with the few add on 's that i requested for the home was not added to the sales price. The builder corrected the contract. This whole process started about XXXX - XXXX time frame of 2018. I opted for a USDA loan as being a first time home buyer my funds were limited for down payment. When the process started out the closing cost was approximately {$3900.00}. My credit nor my girlfriends credit changed during the process, if anything it only got better. I was honest with the lender and explained i had bought a engagement ring that was not on my credit. Gave the lender documentation for this new debt. Everything was still fine at this point. Then he came back a few months later ( he never worked the loan until it was time to close ) and said we need to have reserves due to my girlfriends score being the minimum USDA required. At this point the reserve was {$3000.00}. So now the cost has gone up to {$6900.00}. I am fortunate that my parents were considering gifting me the money so I could obtain this home. I should say my mother is a XXXX XXXX of 25 years so she was trying to help me with this transaction as well. It was her that encouraged me to file a compliant. The loan officer XXXX XXXX # XXXX never communicated with us until we repeatable called him. My mother kept telling to us to lock because rates were going up. He keep tell us not to because he would hate to see us pay for a rate. Rates went up and we had to buy down the rate to stayed qualified., My parents said they would gift us those funds as well, now the closing cost has gone up to {$5900.00} plus {$3000.00} in reserve. Then as we kept getting closer to closing and the home being completed the reserve jumped to {$5100.00} again no change in credit score or debt ratio as I had disclosed the new debt at the beginning. Again my Mom was going to gift us the funds. At this point she stressing trying to figure out where she can come up {$10000.00} in short notice. The agent went back to the builder and and he discount us {$2000.00}. So now we are down to {$8000.00} this all started at {$3900.00}. I finally told my Mom to forget it because this was crazy to cost this much to get into a XXXX   down payment loan. My girlfriend not know the difference between cancelling a loan or denying it called XXXX and said to cancel the loan. After speaking with my Mom she said no the loan was technically denied because you never had the funds to close, I should get my earnest money back. I called the lender he said that he can not do anything about it however to contact the builder. Of course the builder will not refund my earnest money unless the lender denies my loan. This whole transaction and left me dishearten in the mortgage loan process. All I want is my {$1500.00} earnest back due to the loan going from {$3900.00} to over {$10000.00} to close. I almost feel like I was a victim of bait and switch. Where they get you in the door telling you one closing cost amount and then they just keep increasing it. I am reaching out to you to see if there is anything that can be and to warn other consumers about this company.