Complaint Review: Castle Point Mortgage

Thank God I found this!! I am being told the exact same thing and I am scared to death now. $450 is a lot to lose for nothing!

Well, first of all, this is the FIRST I'M HEARING ANY OF THIS. All I was told was that there were many foreclosures in my area and that's why I was not approved.

I didn't 'overinflate' the value of my home, I just simply gave him the figures that were done on an appraisal that was all of 30 days old. That's it.

Why did their guy INSIST I was approved? Why did he tell me I was DEFINITELY approved? And yes, I did have to pay an additional $200 because THEIR GUY REQUESTED I have the name changed on the appraisal because, once again, I was 'definitely approved'.

Maybe if they actually trained these people to explain EVERYTHING to the customer I wouldn't be so upset.

Because NONE of this actually was explained to me at all. And As far as I'm concerned Castle Point owes me $200.00. Or get me the mortgage you insisted I was approved for....

We here at Castle Point Mortgage first and foremost respect Tom from New York's opinion and understand his grievance. In response to his complaint, we would like to make the following response:

Mortgage programs and rates are based upon three main factors: home value, credit scores, and income. The home value in this case was obscured from the beginning.

Unfortunately, Tom paid $450 to have an appraisal done by a separate mortgage company when he was in the process of refinancing with them; this $450 was not a fee charged by Castle Point. Since this appraisal was not conducted by Castle Point Mortgage, we could not use it to find a program for which to qualify Tom. He then had two choices, either have the company which performed his appraisal release it to Castle Point, or he could do another appraisal using one of Castle Point's appraisers. The company which performed Tom's first appraisal charged him $200 to release the appraisal to Castle Point, but again, this was not a fee charged by Castle Point Mortgage! It's from the first mortgage company.

Before the appraisal was released to Castle Point, Tom gave us the value of his home. However, he did not use the value which the home was appraised at a few weeks earlier, which took into account comparable properties in the area. This is the most appropriate valuation approach for a property and the method which mortgage companies base their programs. Tom used a different method, called a value by cost approach, which takes into account the replacement cost of equal land and home.

We created a program based on Tom's value by cost approach, but when the real and valid appraisal was released to Castle Point, it turned out to be $4,000 lower in value. Lowering the home value by 6.5% made us unable to provide Tom with a program for which he was eligible.

Had we been provided with accurate home value information from the start, we would have created a program for which Tom was eligible, or told him we couldn't help him until his credit scores improved. However, Tom inflated the value of his home, and it was only after having him pay the $200 appraisal release fee we realized we could not find a program which would provide him with the cash out he desired, based on his home value, and credit scores.

We here at Castle Point Mortgage pride ourselves on exceptional customer service, and strive to have our customer service differentiate us from our competitors. We are in touch with our clients every step of the way, and a team is assigned to each of our customer's cases. This team continuously monitors the status of the loan to alleviate any last minute surprises or delays in the process.

While we are far from perfect, we've enjoyed a stellar reputation with our customers, the Better Business Bureau, and all regulatory agencies. We feel for Linda and her current situation. However, we cannot accept responsibility for claims she has outlined in her posting.

I think that the major problem here is that the "refi monkeys" that many direct lenders have hired to keep up with the huge volume, are basically taught to say "Yes!" "No Problem!" to almost everyone.

Many of these people were selling used cars last month before being given a set of guidelines and a telephone and told to talk with homeowners.

THAT, coupled with some homeowners that are "dumber than a box of rocks" (present company excepted), is a disaster just waiting to happen.

I have refi'd people out of loans where it was OBVIOUS that there were screwed right up the wazoo by some greedy loan originator. If there is no benefit(to do another refi) to a client, then I just tell them "deal with it" for a few years, then lets talk again. Keep your credit up and NEVER miss a mortgage payment.

I know this next statement is going to irritate some, but if a homeowner got into a bad loan, then they were greedy, stupid or both by signing loan docs. READ and UNDERSTAND...get some help if you need to.

Thanks Steve for your help! I should have been more specific in my 'rant'! But, what you outlined is EXACTLY what I applied for. Even the amount was the same! I had originally applied for a HELOC then, following THIER advice, switched it to a regular mortgage for $50,000. Of course that TOO was denied. My REAL beef is all the bull I had to go through and money spent for NOTHING in return......when they knew what my situation was.

Tom, you didn't indicate exactly which type of loan you were trying to obtain, so let me toss out a couple of ideas for you.

I am an experienced mortgage broker, NOT associated with either of these 2 companies.

>>>>>"So, just to re-cap, that's $450.00 for the original appraisel and another $200.00 for the 'update' and STILL no home equity loan...."
Are you trying to obtain an euity line also known as a HELOC? This is a loan on your home that is used just like a credit card (basically)in that you can draw money against the account, pay interest only for a period of time, then pay it all back. If you have poor credit,
Try it this way. Look for a DIRECT LENDER, and ask about a new 1st mortgage of whatever their minimum amount is, so long as it gets you what you need. It will probably be about $50,000. Out of this $50K, you will have cash to you of maybe $44-45K after you pay all the fees, points, prepaid taxes, insurance, etc. OR pay a higher interest rate and dont pay any of the points, fees, etc.

Use some of that money to "fix" your credit problems, work on the house, whatever. THEN, pay down the mortgage with whatever money you didn't "need". Just be sure that your new mortgage does NOT have a prepayment penalty written into it.

You can get this done, wish I could give you some advice on a few lenders.