Complaint Review: Amerisave - Internet

This is in response to Mortgageman's Rebuttal:

3) Amerisave no longer has a formal float down policy

Yes, you are right.  However, company like, Aimloan.com does have a formal policy on their site and it states:

At the time we are ready to draw your loan documents, if our posted rates are at least .25% lower than the rate you locked (for the same or less points, or the same or more rebate), you may float down your rate to the current rate plus .125%.

Do people really want to work with a company like Amerisave that hides behind emails, jargons and deceptive offerings or a site that FORMALLY declares everything on their website?

If you read the full complaint and looked at the included pictures of the emails, you would understand my situation.  I fully understands how the float down works which was not delivered to me as promised.  My locked in rate was 5.375 with 9300 in surefee.  On September 1st, it dropped to 5.125 with a surefee of 8200.  Where was my promised float down?  Please explain that to me.  Not only was I ignored via emails, I called with no response back.  Not only did I not get a response, my loan advisor drew up the loan documents earlier than expected with the original rate lock, knowing full well I was asking for a float down.  The slap in the face was getting a response back AFTER I had signed the loan documents!!!  Please explain that and please see the attached photo.  

Why drew up the loan documents early?  Because, Amerisave wants to make sure you pay the higher rate!  That is the culture of the company.

That is also DECEPTIVE.

4) It is true that we do a lot of our communication via email but if you let your adviser know that you want to speak on the phone then they should have contacted you via phone.

I was good with email communication until, I tried to get a float down rate.  Normally I would receive an email response within hours.  When I started asking for the float down, it was days.  With emails, they can easily ignores you until they need soemthing from you.  When I do get a response, it was a just to say they were asking for permission from the investors.  Nothing definitive as mortgageman described.  See photo for their final answer on my float down rate AFTER I had signed the loan documents.  They also drew up the loan document and 1-Day express it to Escrow on the same day I had asked for a float down.  I was told, I had to sign it in two days or they can't close the loan.  What are you going to say to that when you want to buy a house?????

I was forced and deceived!!!


Mortgageman, I can agree with you on your other points are industry practices.  However, please explain to me and everyone here what happened with my float down rate.  All I was asking for was the rate to be lowered to 5.25% from 5.375%.  Rate had significantly dropped to 5.125% with a lower surefee than mine.  When I asked, the loan documents was rushed and forced to sign earlier than the expected closing date.  That is deceiving and bad  practices.  There is a culture of screwing the lenders and if you don't believe that, then you are just fooling yourself. 

1. I don't know any bank that is locking in loans without A) collecting for an appraisal/application fee or B) having the appraisal in hand or C) both. Over the past 3 years home values have declined significantly and mortgage banks can no longer assume that the value of a home will be enough for the loan to be approved until the appraisal is in our hands, and even then the underwriter picks those appraisals apart and ask for secondary opinions. The fact is that Amerisave actually is only charging for the amounts that we are charged, other banks charge an "application" fee of over $350 or more, the Amerisave "application" deposit is only $35 and is refunded at closing. Most banks charge more for the appraisals than they pay out. The bank does NOT, again does NOT make any money on the appraisal.

2) Banks cannot lock in loans without the appraisal because they come in so low that the transaction cannot be completed, there is a concept known as "pull-through" in our industry, that is the ratio of loans closed to the number of loans locked in. Investors started to enforce these "pull through" ratios in early 2008 because a lot of loans were being locked (money set aside) for loans and those loans were not being delivered to the investors either because borrower relocked with another bank or the loan was denied. Appraisals are the biggest reason why loans are denied in todays market so banks decided not to lock in loans until the appraisal comes back. Amerisave has the ability to lock in before the appraisal comes back if there is ample evidence that the home is worth what the borrower says it is via on line valuation sites and also if the loan is low enough so that a 10% change in value of the home doesn't have a material change on the pricing of the loan. If the LTV is 30% of the value of the home we may be able to make an exception to lock in immediately, if the LTV is 70% then we are close to the 80% threshold of having PMI and rate pricing changes so we will not be able to lock in early. If this is the case then the borrower will be subject to market rates until the appraisal comes back, the great thing about Amerisave is that our borrowers can track rates 24/7 on our website so you know we are not making up rate changes, this is why we are an upfront lender and why our customers choose us.

3) Amerisave no longer has a formal float down policy and the way the float downs normally work is when the rate changed more than .25% then it would be possible to lower the rate slightly, however it would not end up at the market rate because we have to work with our investors to get the rate lowered. What I mean by a .25% drop in rates is if you locked in at 5.000% with $5000 in fees then you should have been able to float down if your loan is fully cleared to close if the rate before closing was 4.750% with $5000 in fees or less depending on the loan and the investor. There is no "pay the difference" on the float down, the rates have to make a full 1/4 point movement in order to even be eligible for a discount on the loan rate.

4) It is true that we do a lot of our communication via email but if you let your adviser know that you want to speak on the phone then they should have contacted you via phone. Email is easy and convenient, we can send you an email at all times of day but can only call during normal business hours. Some customers don't answer the phone when I call but respond to emails ASAP. Sorry about that.

5) The STANDARD mortgage guideline for ALL mortgage loans written to Fannie Mae/ Freddi MAc/ FHA guidelines is that we MUST use the MIDDLE credit score for the LOWEST scoring borrower to determine rate pricing. There is no negotiation for this, however, in some cases if the co-borrower is not adding income to the loan then the co-borrower can be taken off completely and we can use the main borrowers score only. This is the only way around this. If the co-borrowers income is needed then the lowest scoring borrowers credit score will be used with whichever bank you use. Anyone saying otherwise is not informed.

I hope this helps in giving you the answers you were looking for, unfortunately mortgage loans are much more difficult to approve in todays market and what you went through on this transaction is standard for todays market. If the last loan you got was between 2004-2007 then that loan was super easy, locked in right away, and a low 700 credit score got the best rates available. This is just not the cast no matter who you work with now.