Consumer complaint received 2025-01-20 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — Delays with the closing process
Company: MortgageOne, Inc.
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
Hello, First, my account auto-filled my name as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I tried to change it, but could not find out how to. 

My wife and I originally submitted this complaint to the AG 's office, but they said the complaint was under the CFPB jurisdiction. They said they had sent over all the documents we had shared and we received an acknowledgement of documents received from CFPB on XX/XX/XXXX, but have not heard anything since. I wanted to be sure a complaint had been properly lodged, but could not find any email address to check with, so I am formally filing a complaint here in order to ensure the process has started. Here is a summary of the issue : My wife and I have had a disastrous experience with Mortgage One loan company in an attempt to buy our first home with an FHA XXXX loan, which never went through. The following is a brief timeline of the events. I have also attached a more detailed explanation with supporting documents. Since the sale fell through due to the gross negligence of Mortgage One, we have been trying to obtain compensation for our losses, but were met with hostility and now are being ignored by them. Most communication in this process occurred over email and text. These messages are available for forward upon request. Please reach out when you have been able to review this document. 

Timeline ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : XX/XX/XXXX : Sellers accept offer on house XX/XX/XXXX : Loan goes to underwriting ( expected completion time : 5 days ) XX/XX/XXXX : Sellers agree to the XX/XX/XXXX deadline. 
XX/XX/XXXX : On XXXX XXXX advice, we wire {$5000.00} into escrow XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX informs me the closing commitment he made of XX/XX/XXXX will not be kept. He informs me it will be approved by XX/XX/XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX informs me there were XXXX more conditions added by the underwriter. He assures me we will close by the XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX informs me we can not close. There is no reason given. XXXX XXXX informs me that the loan will be clear to close XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : At XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX informs me there are no conditions on the loan and it should be clear to close on the day ( the XXXX ). At XXXX, XXXX XXXX informs me that the underwriter has not given a clear to close, despite no conditions given. When I ask for an explanation, He says he does not see any point in contacting the underwriter. XXXX XXXX states that he does not have any way to contact the underwriter. He says the loan will be clear to close first thing in the morning. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX informs me that the underwriter has added another condition. The house needs a second appraisal, which should have been caught right at the start of the loan process. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX informs me the underwriter has issued a clear to close. However, we can not close the following day because the underwriter still needs to finish getting the numbers right. We eventually schedule the closing for XXXX XXXX on Friday. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I ask XXXX XXXX if we are on track to close the following day, as he promised. He does not respond. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX informs me at XXXXXXXX XXXX that the closing team has begun to work on the closing documents. The closing does not occur. Later on, XXXX XXXX says that all documents have been completed. This is later revealed to be untrue. At least the CD was missing at this point. 
XX/XX/XXXX : My wife and I meet with the notary at XXXXXXXX XXXX after she finally receives the documents. There is no lawyer, no upfront explanation of the cost, and no office to sign in. We meet in a XXXX XXXX  The closing costs jump from {$19000.00} to {$18000.00} to {$25000.00} in minutes with no explanation. Seeing that these documents and financial figures are being handled recklessly and carelessly, my wife and I walk away from the transaction without signing. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX leaves me a voicemail requesting to talk and admitting that the situation was caused by his company. 
Since this, we have sent XXXX communications to the business owner, XXXX XXXX, attempting to recover our losses. After the first communication, XXXX XXXX accused us of trying to extort him. He has not responded to the second communication. 

Here is a more detailed and full explanation of events : My wife and I have been trying to purchase a house in XXXX at the address XXXX XXXX XXXX. We contacted XXXX XXXX at Mortgage One to begin the process of obtaining an FHA XXXX Rehab loan. The house is not in livable condition, so we needed the rehab loan. We were pre-approved to make an offer on the house on XX/XX/XXXX. We made an offer for {$100000.00} and it was accepted on XX/XX/XXXX. Over the next 9 weeks, we completed all of the requirements for closing on the house. We needed multiple extensions on the contract because mortgage one requested documents in a very disorganized way, asking only for random documents here and there with no explanations. The loan application went to underwriting on XX/XX/XXXX. We were told the process would take 5 days. Instead, it took XXXX weeks. Amid this time, the sellers of the home were growing impatient with the lengthy process and were unsure whether they wanted to extend the contract with us for closing. We came to an agreement with the seller that they would sign an extension to our contract under the condition that we put an additional {$5000.00} into escrow. They also asked that the house be closed by XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX said that XX/XX/XXXX was not a realistic closing date, but promised me that the house could be closed by XX/XX/XXXX. Based on this, I put the money in escrow and signed a contract that we would close on XX/XX/XXXX. Upon hearing no updates by XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted XXXX XXXX and he told me that they were nowhere close to closing on the house. He told me that it would have to be the following week, probably the XXXX of XXXX. When I contacted him on the XXXX, he said there were more conditions put on the closing by the underwriters, all conditions that should have been completed far earlier but were missed due to negligence or incompetence. When we satisfied those conditions, XXXX XXXX assured us that we would be clear to close by Friday the XXXX. I called him on the XXXX and there were more conditions, which we satisfied. He assured me we would be clear to close the XXXX. On the XXXX, we did not receive the clear to close because the loan was still under review by the underwriter, with no explanation of why it was not complete. 

At this point, I contacted XXXX XXXX 's boss, XXXX XXXX, who said that all conditions were satisfied and he would be very surprised if the loan did not receive approval first thing on Monday morning, XX/XX/XXXX. I stayed in contact with XXXX XXXX and XXXX via text throughout the XXXX, and by close of business, the underwriter had still not completed the closing. XXXX told me we would be clear to close first thing in the morning. On XXXX the XXXX, I received a message from XXXX XXXX that the underwriter came back with another condition. The house is a flip : We signed the contract on the house less than 180 days after the seller had bought it and it was sold to us for more than the buyer had bought it for, so it needed to have XXXX independent appraisals done instead of XXXX. XXXX XXXX ordered an appraiser to come redo the appraisal. XXXX XXXX should have caught that at the start. When I checked on XXXX, I saw that the house had been re-listed as of XX/XX/XXXX. The sellers were extremely generous and patient in waiting for this loan to go through, but it appears even they had enough. Several times we have had to resubmit documents, such as bank statements or pay stubs re-verifying our income because they were no longer up to date due to the long period of underwriting. 
Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX sent an email to the relevant parties in the sale ( the seller, me, and both our realtors ) that the underwriter had issued a clear to close. The seller responded asking if we could close the next day, Thursday the XXXX. XXXX XXXX responded that not everything would be ready by then and we would have to close Friday the XXXX. We tried to agree on a time. The original proposed time was XXXX XXXX but the title company ( XXXX XXXX from XXXX XXXX ) said XXXX was too late and would miss the wire cutoff. XXXX XXXX expressed concern that they still had not received the closing documents from Mortgage One. I called XXXX XXXX and asked him if everything was complete with the underwriters and if we would be ready to close. He said that they just had to get the numbers straight and that we would close Friday. I asked him what we would do if the closing did not go through on Friday to which he emphatically said several times well close on Friday. 

The next day, our realtor emailed back and forth with XXXX XXXX trying to find a time that would work to close, tentatively settling on XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX expressed that it was unlikely the documents would be ready to close by then. On Friday, we had to reschedule the closing, as XXXX XXXX was not ready by then. We pushed it back until XXXX, a time XXXX XXXX agreed on. When my wife and I arrived at the office to close, we received an email from XXXX XXXX saying that he had canceled the notary because he had still not received the closing documents. He said the seller agreed to extend the closing until Monday and we would have to close then. At this point, no one scheduled a time for the closing. My wife received a call from a notary, XXXX XXXX, who said she had been contacted by XXXX XXXX and asked to set up a new closing time with us. We did not know when we would be able to close, so we told XXXX XXXX we would call her back to set up a time. 

I called XXXX XXXX Monday morning, the XXXX, and she agreed that she could do the closing at XXXX XXXX, but stated that she had not received any documents. When I asked her where we should meet, she suggested the public Library in XXXX, MD to which I agreed. I called the title company and asked XXXX XXXX if he could send the documents to XXXX XXXX. He said he had not received them from the lender yet and could not send them. He would try to contact Mortgage One and get the documents submitted to XXXX XXXX. At XXXX XXXX I received another call from XXXX XXXX, saying she still had not received the documents. I called XXXX XXXX and asked him why they had not sent the documents to her. He responded that they still had not received the documents from Mortgage One. The main point of contention was the closing disclosure. Mortgage One had sent 2 conflicting closing disclosures to XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX was trying to figure out the right one. Eventually, they found the one that seemed to be right and submitted it to the notary. By this point, it was XXXX in the afternoon and XXXX XXXX told me that she had another appointment and would have to postpone our closing. She would be willing to meet us at XXXX XXXX  to finish the closing. Given that we wanted to close that day, my wife and I decided to wait in the area and do the closing. 

As this was occurring, we were also receiving emails from the title company about closing costs and down payment. XXXX had led us to believe that we would pay about {$18000.00} on the day of closing. At XXXX on Monday, we received an email stating that we would need to wire {$19000.00} to the title company. At XXXX, XXXX XXXX sent a follow up email saying that the amount was corrected by Mortgage One and should instead be {$18000.00} due to the earnest money we paid at the beginning of the process. At XXXX, XXXX XXXX said to hold the wire as Mortgage One had changed the amount again. At XXXX, he sent another email saying that the amount to wire had increased to {$24000.00}. When I responded asking what caused the change, he said the lender had not given any reason, but that it should be reflected on the Closing Disclosure ( CD ). When XXXX XXXX had sent a draft CD to Mortgage One on Friday, Mortgage One did not confirm the amount and he had no further information. My wife and I were still eager to close and decided to pay the larger amount even though it was {$7000.00} more than the amount we expected. We scheduled a wire for {$24000.00} to XXXX XXXX as the wire cutoff had already passed. 

At XXXX XXXX  we talked with XXXX XXXX again, who said that we would need another meeting place, as the library was closing. We suggested the XXXX restaurant where we had eaten dinner while waiting for the appointment. She arrived and we began to look through the paperwork. XXXX XXXX expressed surprise and frustration with the lack of organization of the documents and missing documents in the packet of paperwork. We asked her to see the CD, which she produced. Looking through the costs, the payment was {$400.00} a month more than XXXX XXXX had led us to believe it would be over earlier phone conversations. I called XXXX XXXX, who said he had forgotten to send us the XXXX on Friday. I asked him to send me the CD and he sent me a version of it which was clearly a draft. I hung up with him and my wife and I decided that we felt pressured into signing these documents without any opportunity to review them in advance. I was not informed that I had a right to see the CD 3 days in advance until the notary informed me. We felt incredibly uncomfortable not to be signing in an office in the presence of a lawyer, but instead in a public library or sitting in a sandwich restaurant with a notary who had no knowledge of this particular transaction. No one was available to explain the details of the transaction to me and there was no attempt made to have anyone present. I told XXXX XXXX that we did not feel comfortable moving forward with Mortgage One and that we were not going to buy the house. 

We feel like we were taken advantage of because of our inexperience. So little was explained to us and things were changed on a seemingly random basis multiple times a week. XXXX XXXX assured me on at least 6 different occasions that we would be ready to close, but when the time came, there was no approval to close. If he answered my phone calls on these occasions, which he often did not, XXXX XXXX could give no reason why the approval had not been given aside from saying that the underwriter was still getting the numbers in order or continuing to review. The emotional toll that this process has taken on me and my wife has been high. We have been promised clearance to close and then let down so many times that my wife has been driven to tears on multiple occasions. I have had to return to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXOn the afternoon of XX/XX/XXXX, I received a voicemail from the president of Mortgage XXXX, XXXX XXXX. He opened the message saying It sounds like we dropped the ball in more ways than one. Because of Mortgage Ones complete failure to function in this process and because of XXXX XXXX advice, my wife and I have put {$5900.00} into escrow, which I am unsure we will be able to recover. We have paid additional fees of at least {$1200.00} for inspections and consultations on the house. We have lost the opportunity to buy this house despite the sellers long patience and willingness to work with us. Our contractor is no longer willing to work with us and we will not be able to work with them to buy another house on a rehab loan. After more than 4 months of trying to buy this house, my wife and I will be forced to go back to renting for what is likely to be at least another year. Our housing situation is now uncertain and we have lost a significant amount of money as well as our only opportunity to buy a house.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation