I got a call from a young lady in Oregon today who asked me a simple question:
“Hello, I am about to close my loan tomorrow on a FHA loan and I think something is wrong. Throughout the whole process, my loan officer told me that I was going to get a 5% fixed rate and just today he told me that I could only get a 5/1 ARM at 5%, but that because it was an FHA loan, I could refinance with the FHA streamline program 3 months from now with no cost. Is it true that I can refinance in 90 days with no cost at 5%?”
A siren went off in my office and a red flashing light turned on.
I was on the phone with a potential victim.
Someone who had not-yet-been-taken-advantage-of, but was about to.
Now was my moment!
Forget about the FHA streamline program, this poor young lady needs to get the rate she was promised!
“Maam, I don’t know a nice way to say this, but you just need to put your foot down. You were promised a rate and you might have to work a little bit to get that rate. The good news is that I can pretty much promise that if you do what I am about to tell you, you will get a 5% 30 year fixed rate and not have to worry about the future of whether-or-not you can do an FHA streamline.”
What To Do If You Have Been Promised A Rate But Are Getting Something Else:
- Ask to speak to the manager. Explain to the manager what has happened and that you were promised one rate and now that it is close to closing you are getting something else. Be nice, but firm. Do not, do not, do not back down.
- If the manager won’t help you get the rate that you were promised, ask to speak with the company owner. Yep, the company owner. The company owner will be able to help you.
- If the company owner won’t help you – it is time to call in the government. Each state has some form of governing authority over mortgage lending and now is the time to find out who this is and how to contact them. Hint: Google can help you. Call them, tell them that you wish to file a complaint and see if they can help you. Chances are that they will just take your information for now – but depending on what state you live in, they may be very actively involved in investigating claims like yours.
- Call your local tv station and ask them for their “XYZ news channel on your side” reporter. Tell them how you have been taken advantage of by a mortgage company and there is a good chance that they will not only help you, but maybe you will even get the “bad mortgage company” on tv for promising you something that they refused to deliver.
The above scenario is just one of the many reasons to use Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace. If this poor young lady would have used ZMM to start with, she could threaten her loan officer with something way more powerful than any of these 4 items — she could just threaten him with negative feedback.
Will my friend from Oregon get the rate at the table that she was promised?
I don’t know.
But I do know that her loan officer isn’t all that worried because she didn’t use Zillow Mortgage Marketplace to find him, so she can’t leave any negative feedback.
I bet that with the recent jump in mortgage rates, there are many people in this same situation.
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