Consumer complaint received 03-01-2017 about Mortgage (Other mortgage) with AMERICAN FINANCIAL NETWORK INC. (PA).
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker

Complaint: I contacted XXXX XXXX a Sales Manager with American Financial Network , Inc. ( AFN ) based on a referral from a relative in late XX/XX/XXXX early XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted XXXX as I was looking to refinance my mortgage for a lower interest rate. In the beginning, we spoke about the streamline FHA refinance and on XX/XX/XXXX I received an email saying, Congratulations on this new loan, please send in the list of documents for the FHA streamline loan. The information was sent in and then he decided that maybe a Conventional loan would be a better option even though I have an FHA loan. This process went on for a few weeks and he assured me that if we pay for an appraisal, we would get a better loan and the price of the appraisal would be credited back once the loan closed. I agreed to have the appraisal done after he convinced me that this would be a better option. On XX/XX/XXXX I paid {$440.00} dollars for an appraisal that took all of 5 minutes. During this time, I was sending him pay stubs, bank records, tax records and any additional information requested. He also advised to skip the XX/XX/XXXX mortgage since we are close to closing the loan. On XX/XX/XXXX I sent a follow up email asking for the status as it is now the end of the month and as instructed, I had not paid the XX/XX/XXXX 's mortgage. He responded and said to now pay the mortgage as he is still trying to find a program to fit me in due to my student loans not being deferred even though I was still in school. I paid the mortgage late with a {$45.00} late fee which did not make me happy as I 'm trying to save money and not pay unnecessary late fees. XXXX then advised that due to the student loans, I would need approx. 2k to close the conventional loan. I expressed to him how upset I was as this situation with the student loans should have been anticipated before I spent the money for the appraisal fee. AFN ran my credit multiple times and was well aware of my student loans which has since been deferred as they should have been at that time. After going back and forth with this and XXXX advising me that they really do n't deal with small loans like mine and he was doing me a favor, I get an email update on XX/XX/XXXX that from his assistant advising that we should be ready to close by the end of the week. I continued to reach out to XXXX with no response and on XX/XX/XXXX reached out to his assistant who advised that they are now working on this as a FHA Streamline where we started in the beginning. I expressed that I was upset as I spent the money for an appraisal that is now useless but XXXX assured me that once the loan closes, I would get a credit for the cost of the appraisal. Well, the loan never closed. This went on and on for months. XXXX would disappear for weeks at a time and them contact me again to restart the process and since I had spent money and received nothing in return, I continued. Each time we re-start the process, he would advise to skip the mortgage payments. This happened at least 2-3 times in which I would then have to pay a late fee. He would reach out to restart the process and then I would n't hear any thing for weeks. I seemed to me that when sales were down, they would reach follow up with me again. This went on and on with each time promises of closing the loan. They then had XXXX XXXX reach out to me starting in XX/XX/XXXX and pretty much the same thing. He would start the process again and then disappear. They would disappear for months and then start calling and emailing me with updates and promises of closing the loan this time. In XX/XX/XXXX an email from XXXX advising he did not forget about me but working on getting everything in line. I did not hear from him again until XX/XX/XXXX when he sit a keep in touch email? I ask for reimbursement & why AFN ran my credit multiple times without my permission. No response

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief