Complaint Review: Ameriquest Mortgage AKA AMC

As a former employee of AMC, I know for a fact the the appraisers do recieve extra $$$ if in fact the deal goes thru or they jump over the hoops for values. I've seen first hand when appraisers walk thru and turn deaf ear on certain things, so I beg to differ on the matter. I've seen cut and paste, forgeries, hud bait and switch and other abnormalities. That's why I'm glad they let me go, in fact it was the best choice for all, considering I was collecting $600 a week on unemployement and didn't have to lie to another sole about their home or finances. I applaud all who come against AMC.

This goes out to all of you people that think this company is not evil. I know that there appraisers are on there payroll. Why would they send a crook all the way from CA.TO MN to do a walk threw appraisal.

THE crook that did mine was from the Orange CA area. Also AMC BOUGHT back our home in forcloser and paid 89,000.00 dollars for a home that is also on the market in a short sale for 38,500.00, does this make sence. If so tell me how and why they would want to inflate an appraisal for 50,000.00.

They have also said that my husband signed a deed to have his name put on the house which he has had his signature on the mortgage back in 2003.(WHICH THE OTHER COMPANY LOST) Please tell me if I am wrong but I feel this company needs to be investigated by the Feds. tm

I never said all lenders or even all AMC employees.
O.K. They may pay the appraisal fee...
But (often) bill the borrower twice, once at the door and again on the settlement sheet!

I can prove to you AMC (employees) have personal relationships with appraisers. AEs who give proposed valuations to the appraiser, who in turn meets this value for the collect at door appraisal proceeds only to bill again later.

I did not miss the whole point you just didnt make yours. The lender is at fault for not having management go over the checklist and double checking... or for hiring management who turns a blind eye for $$.

I told you to google fraud docs and if you do you will see. Although i think you have! You seem to be following my posts and trying to make arguments to discredit them. Your roadrunner antics dont work people see things for what they really are...

You can tell me how much i know when the network news channel runs their story, you will probably still be a jackass but a more informed jackass about how YOUR industry does business.

I suppose there is no money in using 401ks that dont belong in the loan either, perhaps even fake stated income letters, w2s, phony payoffs, forged signature authorizations, notarized unsigned by the borrower qc deeds,and more but hey what do i know about your (Christians)INDUSTRY.

BEEP BEEP!

Christian,

I feel that your last statement to Bob needs to be expanded a little. You said:

"....get it through your head over appraised propeties (sic) are worthless to eveyone (sic)...."

You forgot to add: "....except to the AE who got his commission based on the amount of the loan, and AMC who collects more interest for the higher loan amount."

This is where the trouble is. AEs have "buddies" who do the appraisals (even if they are not on AMCs payroll), and the appraisals are often times overstated. That's so that the AE, and AMC, can collect more money. The money AMC gets in interest far outweighs any loses due to foreclosure. This is how AMC operates, and it is wrong.

AMC and all lenders do not issue kickbacks...they may pay the appraisal fee.

Lenders choose to do business with certain appraisal compnaies over others. This is because there are many appraisers that do not know what they are doing. They black list appraisers that turn in fraudulent reports

you miss the whole point...why do they want to over lend on a property when they will not get the money back....foreclosure on a property costs every mortgage company money.

Stick to what you know. You know nothing about this industry no matter how many times people explain it to you....get it through your head over appraised propeties are worthless to eveyone

Whoever you people are stating the appraisers are seperate your crazy.

Per request of the ae the value is usually met to the dollar, many cases well over $20.000

The appraisers are certified by AMC and solely used in return kickbacks are given, Google or look up Ameriquest Fraud Docs, or just fraud Docs on the internet, this will take you to my site where i will prove you wrong a number of times.

Christian...of course you are right. There is no desire of any lender to foreclose on someone's home. They do it out of necessity. The borrower has defaulted for a period of several months.

I have been a mortgage broker, and currently a wholesale AE for a major lender. Nine years in this business has shown me time and again, that lenders want to buy and sell money! They do not want to be in the real estate business even for a short period of time to "flip" a property.

It ALWAYS costs more to foreclose that what they can reasonably expect to make at a courthouse sale. No matter who owns the property, the prevailing housing market is going to dictate the sales price. If it didn't work for the homeowner, it sure isn't going to work for the lender!

Homeowners need to take some responsibility when they refinance their homes. Know the values, read your contract thoroughly and make an informed decision.

Gene

Your comments are the same as the lady before you.Irresponsible. I worked in this industry for 12 years (not with AMC. I worked for a conventional bank.) Read this carefully NO MORTGAGE COMPANY WANTS YOUR HOUSE. Get it out of your head, this is not a big conspiracy theory to own your home. Especially in a market that has resale problems such as yours or hers.

You have blatently admitted to accepting the appraisal so that you could get your loan. You are no better than your own accusations .You used your "own" appraiser why cant they?

Understand that an appraiser is an independent contractor that "brackets value". They are NOT EMPLOYED BY THE LENDER. THEY WORK FOR ALL LENDERS. They do not accept kick backs it is against the law (federal time in the pen).

Lets do some math. Say you make a loan on a house for 80k and the house is worth 95k. Two years later you owe 74k and you want to sell it. the appraisal on the house is now (two years later) 70k. ooops you are 4k short. That goes for you and your mortgage company. Well how did that happen? Maybe the economy? The market in your area fell? The area became less attractive for people to move into?

Yes all of the above. If the lender loses 4k why the heck would they want your house? If they lose 4k, how did they make money?

Take responsibilty for a situation that you put your self in. Also read some books on the lending industry before you make absurd claims.
There are at least 20 reasons why a mtg co. does want your home that I did not even metion. Mostly reasons concerning the secondary markets.

Cut youe losses and move on

I couldnt believe my eyes when I read some rebuttals from these people who claim to not have ties to AMC. I doubt that is true. For you to say she is to blame for her troubles is really outrageous to say the least.
I know for a fact that the appraisers are on AMCs payroll, and they take kickbacks.

When I refinanced with AMC a few years ago, I did bring my own appraiser in. I got a call a week later from AMC telling me the house didnt appraise out enough for the loan to go through, but not to worry, they were bringing in thier own appraiser the next day. He said, and I quote, " dont worry, it will appraise out at 100 % at what they need to push the loan through".

He was right. it sure did , 20,000.00 more as a matter of fact! Did I care, hell no. I got my loan through. It only made a difference when it came time to sell the house, which I couldnt do like a normal sale, considering the buyers were bringing in thier own appraisers, and it didnt quite compute!

Spare the lady your lectures, unless you have knowledge to do so. You need to realize your not dealing with " normal" lenders, but rather cutthroats who will do any and all things to get your home.

I have noticed alot of people complain about Ameriquest having there home "over appraised". Keep in mind that an appraisal is someones professional *OPINION* on what a particular home *SHOULD* sell for on the market. Just because a home appraises for a certain amount, doesn't mean it will actually sell for that amount. It could go higher or lower. Lenders use an appraisal to set a value on the proposed collateral (your home) so that they have a limit to what the should lend towards it.

Not only that, but you mentioned that you got the CMA some time later (less than a year). Are there alot of people in your area that now have their home for sale that didn't when you first set up the mortgage with Ameriquest? That effects the CMA. If there is an abundance of homes similar to yours for sale but not many interested buyers, (supply high, demand low), that can have a serious effect on the current suggested selling price of your home. Maybe the market wasn't in that condition a few months ago when you set up your mortgage. I realize that the realtor said that the value in your area was at all time lows, but if there was/is a spike in people trying to sell and not many trying to buy, that could make those all time lows even lower.
Regardless, when you refinanced, you agreed to borrow X amount of money using your home as security. You paid off your existing mortgage and got cash out. You used that cash to pay off other debts or whatever you wanted to do with it. Now you want to sell but don't think you can because you owe more than it's worth. Ameriquest is not to blame here. You are. You agreed to borrow X amount. You used that cash out for whatever you used it for. And if you didn't do a cash out refinance (ie your mortgage before Ameriquest was at a balance near what you owe now), you were in the same situation before Ameriquest came into the picture. Now Ameriquest's collection dept is wondering where there payment is (which you legally owe them, and the fact that your house is for sale doesn't change that) and you tell them to contact your realtor. Unless your realtor is going to pay your mortgage payment for you, they have no reason to talk to him/her. I fail to understand how Ameriquest is a "band of thieves" in this situation.
I've noticed that the majority of people that submitted rip off reports about Ameriquest are in similar situations. Now dont get me wrong, there are some valid complaints against Ameriquest on here, but this isn't one IMO. What you people with stories similar to this have in common is that none of you want to take responsibilty for your actions.

Ameriquest itself doesn't do the appraisal on your home. A licensed appraiser does. The appraisers are not on Ameriquest's payroll as some have indicated. The appraisers work for seperate legal entities who are in no way affiliated with the company for any other purpose. These appraisers and their companies are licensed and both as a business and an individual are responsible for their actions. We merely contact them to get the appraisal done, and you are also allowed to chose your own appraiser.

The appraiser has to have comparable sales in the area in order to come to a figure on value of the home, they can't just add $20k to value of your home because they feel like it. There has to be information there to support the figure. If the comparables are not there, they have nothing to back them up in order to inflate the property value, therefore it is unlikely they will risk their way of living to get your home refinanced. As with everything, their is good & bad out there. It is possible the appraiser did something shady, but if that is the case, you need to file the complaint about the appraiser or the the company the appraiser works for. Ameriquest is not licensed to do appraisals.

You yourself said value in your area was declining. How long ago did you refinance? It is possible that since the appraisal was done, value of your home did decline drastically, I've seen it happen before. There are multiple reasons this could happen.

Example: people in your community experienced loss of their job, therefore falling behind on their mortgages & into foreclosure, which would DRASTICALLY decrease the amount the home is recorded as sold for, and again sales of the homes in your area are used as comparables in determining value of your home. You can get foreclosure homes at next to nothing at the sheriff's sale. You also said that your home is now worth less than what you originally paid for it, that leads me to believe you are indicating the price of the home on purchase, not refinance. If that was the case at the time of the refinance, I can almost guarentee that no appraiser would be able to pull off such a drastic change in value of your home.

Also, I used to be a debt collector for another infamous mortgage company. It doesn't sound like you have anything further to discuss with the company & due to your bad experience, regardless who is to blame & I can't say that I blame you. Sounds like your just looking for a way out, I would too. What you can do though is send Ameriquest a cease & desist letter. Send it through fax or certified with signature receipt because it will mark the date & time they receive the letter. This letter should state it is a cease & desist letter & that they may only contact you via mail. This will stop ALL phone calls. If they do contact you, they are in violation of the FDCPA which is the law governing collection activity. But if you send this make sure you are at least sending them something on your payments, otherwise they are likely to initiate legal proceedings against you. This is with all mortgage companies, not just Ameriquest.

And the short sale idea, all mortgage companies do the short sale. If they don't they're stupid. Especially if you are behind on your payments facing foreclosure, doesn't matter how long you've been in the loan. Reason being, when they go to foreclosure, not only are they spending ALOT of money on an attorney, but also taking way less of a payoff at a sheriff's sale than what they would if they were to just accept a "short sale" payoff from you as the customer. It saves them thousands in attorney's fees, court costs, and futher loss on the collateral itself through the sheriff's sale. Your short sale proceeds will deffinatley be higher than the sheriff's sale proceeds.

i understand what you have gone through. It stinks. AMC as well as your self will lose money in this transaction.

You cannot blame AMC for your actions. You said you felt the amount seemed high but you did the loan anyway. you cannot blame the lender for property's decline in value. How is AMC the bad guy? they are going to lose about 20k in the short sale. That is not what keeps them in business.

Your comments are irresponsible. You are not accpeting the blame for what you have created. You are "poor victim" of a big bad lender. NO you are someone that does not accept responsibilty for their actions.

I have no ties to AMC and could care less about them. I read this web site every once in a while and see some very valid claims yours is not

Get off your pity potty and cut your loses and move on. Your situation would have happened with any lender, not just AMC.

I read this message and was curious to know how you managed a " short sale" so soon after signing the mortgage with Ameriquest. I thought the mortgage had to be paid on for at least 2 years before any action could be taken as far as selling your home. I believe your house was over appraised, as Ameriquest is famous for that tactic. It helps them in the future to secure the rights to the property.

I read this message and was curious to know how you managed a " short sale" so soon after signing the mortgage with Ameriquest. I thought the mortgage had to be paid on for at least 2 years before any action could be taken as far as selling your home. I believe your house was over appraised, as Ameriquest is famous for that tactic. It helps them in the future to secure the rights to the property.

I read this message and was curious to know how you managed a " short sale" so soon after signing the mortgage with Ameriquest. I thought the mortgage had to be paid on for at least 2 years before any action could be taken as far as selling your home. I believe your house was over appraised, as Ameriquest is famous for that tactic. It helps them in the future to secure the rights to the property.