Consumer complaint received 2017-01-19
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker — 
Company: AMERISAVE MORTGAGE CORPORATION (GA)

As part of my attempt to refinance the mortgage on a property I own, I applied with Amerisave back in XX/XX/2016. My loan advisor, XXXX, ran my application, my income/debt numbers, my credit report etc., and advised that I would be approved at a certain rate/payment for a XXXX fixed-rate loan. He then advised me to pay for the appraisal -- this is what I am now disputing. I feel that I was scammed by Amerisave into paying for an appraisal as part of a refinance that never had a realistic chance of going through, despite what I was told initially by XXXX in attempt to get me to pay for the appraisal. I was led to believe that, after the appraisal was completed, everything was done and we would be closing the loan promptly. Instead, I was advised by an assistant to XXXX, after the appraisal was paid for and completed, that my application had not even been reviewed yet, and that they were running behind, and it would be at least a month before I would hear anything. Several weeks went by before I finally received an email advising me that my application had been submitted to a processor, XXXX. I exchanged emails with the processor and immediately answered any questions and provided any documentation requested of me. Several more weeks went by, with me being under the impression that everything was done and that the next step would be closing. Suddenly the processor advised me that my debt-to-income ratio was not workable for this loan due to my student loan payment obligations. He explained that they were required to use an insane calculation of XXXX % of my total student loan balance ( which would equate to approximately $ XXXX ), and counting that against my XXXX. In actuality, my monthly payment is approximately {$1200.00} per month for all my student loans combined, and I provided substantial evidence that that has been the case for years, and will be the same for the life of the loan. Nevertheless, Amerisave would not budge. I questioned XXXX about this and asked why he did not use this calculation in the very beginning to tell me that I would not be approved with this XXXX calculation. XXXX responded that XXXX changed the rules in XX/XX/2016 requiring this calculation. Firstly, if that is true, I applied in XX/XX/2016 so there would be NO excuse for him not using that calculation in the beginning of the pre-approval process, in which case we both would have quickly realized I would not be approved, we would n't have further wasted each other 's time, and I would not have paid for the appraisal. Instead, he lied to me, got my hopes up for the refinance, and so I paid for the appraisal and then nothing happened. Secondly, when I recently researched Amerisave online, I learned that other people had fallen victim to this same type of scam whereby they were initially promised the moon, paid for the appraisal, and then nothing happened thereafter. Accordingly, I believe Amerisave should refund my appraisal due to their dishonest business practices. I contacted XXXX at numerous points beginning in about XX/XX/2016 when it became clear that this loan was not going to close, and I advised him of my displeasure with the process and the lack of transparency. XXXX stated that Amerisave would not refund the appraisal because loans are never guaranteed to go through until they clear underwriting. I explained to XXXX that I totally understand that process ; however, the problem is that this issue could have and should have been disclosed to me at the very beginning BEFORE I wasted my time and money. When XXXX asked to run my credit again in late XX/XX/XXXX, I officially closed out the loan process.