Consumer complaint received 2021-04-21
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: AMERISAVE MORTGAGE CORPORATION (IL)

We applied for a mortgage with Amerisave and originally worked with XXXX XXXX ( Loan Originator NMLS ID # XXXX ) to select an FHA mortgage with a projected closing date of XX/XX/XXXX. We paid {$500.00} for the appraisal and received a certified pre-approval letter. The appraisal was completed on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Then we heard nothing for weeks. As this is our first time every buying a home, we are unfamiliar with the process and so assumed we were good to go for closing. However, two weeks before our closing date our attorney reached out to Amerisave asking the status on the clear to close, and then all of a sudden it was like someone finally looked at it and said they needed all this documentation because it was " new construction '' ( it is not, the building was built in XXXX and remodeled in XXXX, remodel was finished Q1 of XXXX ). There was a typo in the condo association name that was approved for FHA with HUD, so the seller 's attorney had to work on fixing that but it only took a week for it to be rectified. 

In the meantime, every other day I would get new task request to upload new documents - and multiple documents that they have already received. I am getting requests to upload documents ( i.e. IL Lock Agreement ) without being given the document to sign in the first place. It has been two months since we submitted an offer and I don't have time to chase people down every single day about half of a task. They told our attorney that we are near closing multiple times, yet every day new things keep being requested. The condo unit just below us submitted an offer AFTER we did, and have ALREADY closed on their FHA mortgage - as these are so highly regulated by the government, there should be no reason that their mortgage lender did not require all this " new construction '' documentation while Amerisave does. 

We have never once heard from our loan processorXXXX XXXX  XXXX ( AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation XXXX ID # XXXX ) throughout this whole process. On XX/XX/XXXX there is a new task in the online account stating that an additional {$8900.00} is needed in cash to close and, because we only have {$8100.00} in our checking account currently, they want us to furnish them with 60 days of prior bank statements. However, our most recent loan disclosure estimates the total closing costs at {$20000.00} ( including down payment ). We have already paid {$500.00} for the appraisal fee, {$690.00} in homeowners insurance, and {$12000.00} in earnest money for a total of {$14000.00}. Using the same estimate for closing costs of {$20000.00}, that should leave a remaining cash to close of {$6300.00}, however this does not even include the sellers credit of {$1000.00}, so at most we should really only need {$5300.00} to close. When I realized that they had understated their cash to close estimate by {$4000.00} only to notify us more than a week after our original closing date and nearly 8 weeks after our initial application, I sent an email on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX threatening to file a complaint with CFPB if we did not hear from someone and we got a call back from XXXX who tried to assist with some of our questions but was unable to answer most of them since he just originates the loan. 

The next day we received a call from XXXX manager named XXXX. He told us we would really only need around {$7000.00} in cash to close XXXX still {$2000.00} more than their original estimate ). I was willing to take this hit if it meant we could get the clear to close. Yet there was still the issue with five different documents Amerisave stated they needed regarding the FHA mortgage they are still not understanding that the building has already been FHA approved. The level of incompetence is not simply irritating, it is severely harming both me and my wife. My wife is working to get in to law school and had to drop a class because she has spent so much time dealing with this. The lease on the apartment we rent is ending and we will soon have nowhere to live. The seller is now starting to get angry and threatening to relist the property since we are technically not in compliance with our purchase agreement because this has now taken two months and is still not close to finished. We will lose the {$13000.00} in earnest money if that happens. Our XXXX  health is declining and we are in a constant state of anxiety. Amerisave is not responding to our attorney, the sellers attorney, the listing agent, nor us. XXXX voicemail says to call someone else at Amerisave if the matter is urgent, but when you call the number he says to on the voicemail it just goes right to that persons voicemail, except his mailbox is full and can not accept messages at this time. 

This is textbook predatory lending and bait-n-switching. The entire reason we went with Amerisave was because the closing costs were so much lower than other lenders, but now that turns out not to be the case and they are hurting us financially and physically due to all the stress.