Consumer complaint received 2016-02-02
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

We were attempting to combine our existing XXXX mortgage through Bank of America with our XXXX, interest only loan with XXXX on a XXXX property we own in XXXX. We went to BofA to see if we could do such a thing. Our loan agent told us it was only possible if the appraised value of our home was sufficient. She explained the bank could only refinance an amount that was XXXX % of the value because it was a second home. That would mean the value for our home would need to be in the {$460000.00} range. Our loan officer checked with a local realtor to get an idea of the comparable properties and that person estimated the value of the home somewhere between {$430000.00} and {$480000.00}. Based on those estimates, our loan officer proceeded with the application. She assured us that this was a fair estimate and that she had confirmed with her manager that BofA felt comfortable proceeding with the application. She did tell us that the estimate may not be the actual appraised value but felt comfortable proceeding with the mid range of the estimate. Once in process, our loan officer accelerated the pace. We had to produce tax documents, income statements, credit information, everything within 5 days. She initially noted that only the most basic documents needed to be filed and we could produce the others at a more reasonable pace since it was XXXX and XXXX week ( our accountant was on vacation ). However, she called us nearly daily, insisting she had to have everything right away, threatening us that the loan application would be dropped if we did not comply. After I complained about her badgering, a new document admin contacted us and behaved much more reasonably. The first loan officer pressured us into locking the rate immediately with the caveat that we could adjust should interest rates drop close to closing ( we later discovered that this was not true and that there would be additional charges to adjust the rate ). We still had faith that we would be able to move forward. We arranged to gather {$32000.00} in cash to pay down some of the HELOC with XXXX so the total owed on the home was under the XXXX % CLTV threshold. XX/XX/XXXX, we received notice from BofA that the loan was approved pending appraisal so we made arrangements and paid for an appraiser to come to the house. We took valuable time off work and paid for plane tickets to go down to XXXX from XXXX XXXX to meet him at the property. We were excited to see what the value of our home was. After returning to XXXX, we got a call that same day from the Loan officer with the bad news that the appraisal was too low for the loan to be approved. We needed the value of the home to be somewhere between {$430000.00} and {$480000.00}. His appraisal was {$370000.00} ; fully {$100000.00} under the initial estimate on which we based our decision to proceed with the application. We were very upset and felt we had been the victims of not only ineptitude but also fraud. Our valuable time and resources had been a complete waste. We went to see a loan officer at XXXX that day and within 5 minutes, he advised us not to proceed with any loan application because his resources revealed the value of the home to be too low. We confronted both the Loan Officer with BofA and her manager and they both said that we were at fault for believing the initial estimate ( simplified summary ) and that the expenditures and time spent were not something they could compensate us for. We spent over {$1000.00} and took valuable time off work for this application based on their " expert '' estimate of our house value and feel we were duped or the victims of gross negligence and incompetence. We would like to report BofA for such horrendous and unprofessional behavior.