rippedoff
BELLINGHAM,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, February 05, 2012
I was ripped off by Home Funds Direct. Not everyone knows you can visit this site and make a report. So, I can guarantee that there are many, many others ripped off by that company.
The agent promised me one thing and gave another. He promised to change anything that wasn't what we agreed to over the phone - after I signed, because - "you will lose all the work we've done due to the amount of time that has lapse and we will have to start over."
He assured me that all changes would be made with a phone call. The interest rate would be 5.5%, the payment would be $550 and the closing costs would be no more than $2500. All LIES!
The interest was 6.5%, the payment $689 and the closing costs almost $9,000! Plus, he paid an appraiser $450 that did not appraise my home, counted two of my jobs twice and inflated my income by 12 times!
Home Funds Direct would not be out of business if they were honest and everything claimed by the ex-employee.
They ripped me off and now I am facing foreclosure 6 years later - 6 years of struggle to make that high payment on time every month.
The very worst part was how they refused to cancel the loan and took advantage of the fact that I was out of town on an emergency and didn't have the paperwork with me. I stupidly trusted him and I know I wasn't the only one ripped off.
I still hope there is something that I can do. I only wish I had known that I could have called the Attorney General, because that would have stopped it - especially since the paperwork wasn't filled out to legal standards and was changed AFTER I had signed and notarized it.
Susan
This City,#3Consumer Comment
Fri, May 25, 2007
Some sales guy told you something, then at closing when you signed off on the 30 year mortgage, you expected him to change it to 40 years later? Mortgage's are done with banks. Sales people can't change your mortgage after you sign it. What you should have done before signing was ask the mortgage company what your monthly payments would be. A sales guy is selling a house. You can tell him A,B & C and he can guess but you either sign with the rate from the mortgage company, find a different mortgage company or walk. You signed on a 30 year mortgage that monthly is only $75.06 more than the 40 years mortgage the sales guy talked about. Sounds to me like you won.
Lisa
San Antonio,#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, May 24, 2007
First I would like to say to the four people that had bad experiences with Home Funds Direct, I am very sorry to hear your experiences. I have been a mortgage professional for over 15 years with both direct lenders and mortgage brokers. In my time I have seen people work with integrity and work unethically. It is the individual that makes that choice. Home Funds Direct/Accredited Home Lender is a huge nationwide mortgage banker with 100's of employees. The fact that there are only four complaints considering they have been in business for over 15 years, while it is very unfortunate for those individuals, in the scope of a large company it is a very small percentage of the people they have been able to help, and certainly a small percentage of the loan officers who work there and keep their word and do practice a high degree of ethics with their clients. It is a shame to call an entire company "unethical" etc. when the issue is really with four loan officers that are most likely not with the company anymore. I hope that people keep that in mind when they look at working with any company. Do you trust the individual you are speaking to? Do they consistently keep their word even for the most simple of things such as calling you back? Do their actions match their words? If they don't find someone else and walk away. All of those people could have canceled their files when they found things were not as they were told. That is what the rescission period is for, to protect the consumer. Be pro-active and protect yourself, and stop just trusting who ever talks a good game.
Ken
Joplin,#5Author of original report
Sat, April 07, 2007
This is a copy of the letter I sent to the Missouri Attorney General. They tell me I have a good case and need a good lawyer to get it taken care of. I'm still looking for that good lawyer if there are any out there. July 30, 2006 Dear Mr. Nixon, On or about June 1, 2006, I was contacted by Mr. Luke Singen, of Home Funds Direct, in St. Louis, MO., in regards to an online request I had made for a home refinance loan. During the next three weeks, we discussed the loan and had it all worked out where our payment would be approximately $768.00 and some change. When we had the closing, on June 22, 2006, the papers were not saying what we had agreed to and the loan was not a 40 year loan as agreed, nor was the payment $768.00. The papers showed it to be a 30 year loan and that the payment was $843.06 and left a balloon payment of over $68,000.00 due at the end of the 30 years of payments. I've never seen, nor heard of such a thing. It's just not right to owe two thirds of the original balance after 30 years of payments. I called Mr. Singen on the evening of the closing and informed him that the papers did not read as we had agreed and of the discrepancies. He told me not to worry because one of the papers we would sign would give them permission to sign papers on our behalf so that the corrections could be made. There was such paper and we did sign it, given the promise that it would be taken care of and the contract would read as we originally agreed. The papers also did not show a credit life protection policy as agreed and did not show the $3,868.00 that we agreed that we would really receive in cash. In fact, we did not receive that at all! We only received around $2900.00. Mr. Singen then promised to send me a personal check for the difference, which I never received. That was when I found out there would be no changes made, as he had promised, in the contract and we were stuck with the payment of $843.06, as I mentioned above. The closing person also talked to him on the phone the evening of closing and he even argued with his closing person, who told us that this was not a good way for him to do business. He told Mr. Singen that he needed to talk to us and make good on his agreement if he wanted to salvage the loan. I had told him that we could not afford this kind of payment and he knew that from the beginning. Page 2 of 3 He started calling me a liar and a deadbeat the day after the closings waiting period was over when I told him there was no way we could make that kind of payments and that he had not held up his promises. He denied all of the things we had agreed to and told me what a lowlife I was for accusing him of lying to us and cheating us. This was when I contacted your office about what had happened to us and how we had been done wrong. He (Mr. Singen) also lied to my insurance agent and told them they were paying the premium for our insurance, but I don't remember the length of time. It was either six months or a year, I don't remember which. They have been in constant contact and were very rude, from what I've been told, to the agent and her employee's working on the collection of the premium. As of yet, they have not received the payment for the premium. I would like you to contact Sherrie, at the (Shelter Insurance) Traci Thomas Insurance Company for further information on this. The telephone number there is 417-624-2220. Sherrie is the office manager and has worked closely on this case with Traci and me to get this resolved. She has also been in contact with the Vice President of Home Funds Direct, and he also informed her that it would get taken care of, in emails and telephone calls. Sherrie has all of this information on file and would be happy to provide it to you. In summary, this has been one nightmare after another and has cause unwarranted stress and other health related problems for me and my wife and mother-in-law, who is on the deed and lives with us in the home, from worry and the fear of our losing our home over the deceitfulness of Mr. Singen. I am totally disabled and in a wheelchair, and so is my mother-in-law, and we have not been in good health for many years. Mr. Singen knew this and I feel he was just telling me what I wanted to hear, in order to secure the loan with us, knowing he was lying and making promises that he never intended to make good on. They are also charging $104,000.00 and some change for paying off approximately $98,000.00 plus a 5% early payoff penalty (presumably) which exceeded the amount we really owed in this case, a little less than $103,000.00. Then there is another $8,000.00 and some change that they charged us for the loan, with over $5,000.00 of it being a so-called Loan Origination Fee, and closing costs of over $2,000.00 on top of that, plus numerous other fees I had no knowledge of or understand. Our last loan only cost us around $3,000.00 for everything, and not this ridiculous amount we were charged this time. That loan was even through a broker and not a direct lender like Home Funds Direct is. All of this combined puts us in a position so that we can not make the payments and he knows this. I believe this was all done intentionally so he could line his pockets with the money he'd make from the loan, regardless of the damage it was doing to us. He knew our nearly $2,000.00 a month income could not stand this kind of payment and he never changed it to the original agreed to amount of $768.00, knowing that we had other payments of $409.94 and $283.51 per month for my handicapped van and Page 3 of 3 my wife's 2001 Durango, as well as our utilities, insurance, taxes, and food to live, to have to pay. With what we take in for income, we pay out almost equally as much, and he knew this. His lies and deceitfulness have put us in a position that we can not overcome, and will cause us to lose everything we've worked hard for all of our lives. Thank you for your time and I hope you will help us to undo the wrong that has been done to us and help us save our home and propery. This is not right, the way we've been done, and my health degrades more each day as I worry about what and how to do something about what he did to us. It's just more stress than I or my wife should have to bare.