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Sent to a friend On November 16th of this year, my mother, Barbara Williams, purchased her first home in Washington, DC w/the financial assistance from Bank of America/Countrywide Home Loan Mortgages. I must say that day marked a personal and satisfying goal in both of our lives. I also will say that the long road made that day not as enjoyable as we thought because of the thought of knowing this lending institution would still be apart of our financial lives.My mother began searching for a property to purchase in early July. She went through a pre-approval process with another lender and signed a sales contract for a home she liked. Unfortunately the relationship with the first lender was strained and she decided to search for a more stable competitor. I was first introduced to Masoud Hosseini at the Frederick, MD office in late July. Masoud was professional and attentive in the pre-screening for an appropriate loan for my mother. I was very pleased with his candor and professionalism. As Masoud and I finalized what type of product would be best fitted for my mother’s wants and needs her referred me onto a colleague, Matthew Mills, which specializes in the arena of 203K and home improvement products.
As like Masoud I was initially impressed with Matthew as he helped me understand the complexities of home improvement loans and congruent products that my mother could utilize. I contacted Matthew on 7/31 to get detail information on closing costs and heard nothing from him. As days went by I did not hear from Matthew and tried to contact him through phone and email and became concerned. Overall Matthew was reachable but in the most extremes cases he wasn’t reachable and seldom had answers to questions posed.
Two weeks (8/13) later he finally responded informing me that Branch Manager, Kathryn Edelen, would contact me within 30 days to answer all of my questions. Kathryn manages to call me within several days and coaxes me into getting a HUD consultant opposed to using the inspector that my mother had already used to inspect the property. When I told her that I had already informed Matthew that an inspector already viewed the property and gave a report and he never told me that a HUD consultant was needed, she said I don’t know why he didn’t and left it at that. I was lead to believe that if we didn’t use the HUD consultant that the reserve fee would be higher than if we did, which my mother was ok with doing. In another conversation she posed the suggestion as a definite factor in which we would not be able to utilize the home improvement loan if we didn’t use one. She referred a HUD consultant who to say the least was unprofessional. In short, he gave the same report the inspector gave (because I gave him a copy), inspected an almost 4,000 sq ft home in 30 mins and was never reachable when I tried to obtain my report from him. When I finally contacted him his demeanor was arrogant and he was very rude. His work looked like a feasibility study and I asked him to do the work based on the scope of work not by allowance, he refused. I asked Kathryn was this acceptable and she never responded. My mother was approved for a $25,000 home improvement loan but only received $24,000 because of the contractor’s allowance which has shorted her on some of her wants when improving the home. Kathryn’s response was intermittent, when she did respond her answers were either vague, quick in response or off subject of what was asked of her. She constantly ignored calls, emails from me, my mother and realtor when trying to pinpoint an estimated settlement date.
I was then introduced to Nancy Somers of the Fairfax, VA office who to say the least customer service skills were sub par. She constantly asked for documents that I was already sent to her office. At one time in particular I had to maneuver her through and email with an attachment that I sent to her to find a document that she kept informing me that I did not send to her. Another time the termite technician had to contact her to give her information that I already gave to her and he called me after their conversation to reveal that her attitude was foul with him.
I will reiterate that my mother settled on her property 11/16, it is now December 15, 2009 and renovations have not begun. I called the Escrow offices in Texas to within the last two weeks and never received a call back until December 14th. I was informed on three different occasions by two different people that the paperwork was sent by FEDX to the purchased property on 11/23 by one representative and 11/27 by another. I informed them I had been by the unoccupied house and no mail was there. When I asked for the tracking number I was told they didn’t have one and finally that it wasn’t sent by FEDX but by USPS and returned to there office that same day. My mother was able to receive the bill for her first mortgage payment at the unoccupied property but not the renovation paperwork.
Though my mother purchased this property, I was her voice and performed the leg work on her behalf. I was enthralled with the transaction from start to finish and will be thereafter. My mother and realtor have endured this unnecessary battle with the lending institution that we are giving business to but receive less than satisfactory customer service from in return.
Posted 2 years ago
Rating:0.00
Comments
- I would say it sounds like you may have been had. If country wide and bank of america were involved the chance your mother could have been defrauded. When you have that level of issues with responding to request for information someone is hiding something. Some times these people all work in conjunction with one another but it may appear they don't. They all know what to do to pull the wool over someones eyes. Many time people are lead into a situation that is designed to put them in default down the line, that is predatory lending and listening to the problems you are having reaks of that. I would take them to task and have the mortgage papers put through a forensic audit. The FDIC 2006 Inspector Generals report found that 83% of bank mortgages contained fraud. The paper work is the crime scene and should be treated as such. A company called endlessfrauddetection.com can provide that level of audit. They can even provide all the litigation support paper work based on the violations to take to any lawyer. When he sees what has been brought to him including the detail of the audit he will see 90% of his work is done. Now he has not need to charge large fees, you can pay by the hour or on contingency. The auditing firm is certified by the national association of mortgage underwriters and the national association of mortgage processors. When ask if they have ever done an audit that had no violations and the answer was NO!
Posted 2 years agoReport
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