kduncan4090
Jun 26, 2012, 02:02 PM
My refinance saga with Wells Fargo began on January 18, 2012 and it ended today, June 26, 2012 with an appraisal that was $40,000 less than my original appraisal 4 plus months ago. Why the two appraisals you ask? What are my options here?
• My initial application for a loan refinance was going along smoothly until I received a call from Tim the branch manager (not my loan consultant Betty) stating that he was denying my application for refinance because I did not have enough funds to close. I was stunned because I had a conversation with my loan consultant that very morning and she stated that everything was looking great and we had enough funds to close.
• Based on the phone call from Tim, I sent an email to my loan consultant asking if she would refund my $500 application fee as a result of the news that I received from the branch manager. She replied stating that the loan Wells can do the loan and that she just needed to clear up some confusion on her end with Tim. Betty determined, then communicated to me that the branch manager made a decision to deny the loan without considering the terms of the deal which included a slightly higher interest rate pay down some of the closing costs associated with my loan.
• By this point, I was simply ready to move on and find another lender. I wasn’t angry. I was just a little concerned with the lack of process which may or may not have an impact on my credit score.
• However, Betty outlined the issues that I would now face finding another lender and that I would avoid those issues if I just stayed in the process with Wells Fargo. The primary argument that she made, which ultimately drove me decision to stay with Wells Fargo was that I will have to wait 90 days to resubmit a loan application to another lender and that the denial of my loan by the branch manager will my impact my ability to secure a loan from another lender. She also stated that I would need to redo the process of gathering asset and dept information.
• At this point I felt I had little to no choice but stay in the process with Wells. This is a decision that I will regret for the rest of my life. The date of this decision was around March 22nd.
• The issue described above pales in comparison to the shear horror Wells Fargo has caused in my life between late March and today.
• My loan consultant indicated that they would need to resubmit my loan application since my loan was denied in your system by the branch manager. As a result, I had to perform another round of collecting the various asset and debt documentation. In addition, I had to write and sign letters of explanation for various asset and debt information.
• During this process my employer called me while I was engaged in a consulting project at a customer site to ask if I was having financial issues. They were concerned as Well’s Fargo contacted them 3 to 4 times to verify my employment. This was more than the usual employment verification contacts for refinances and my employer became alarmed. I did my best to assure my employer that I was not having financial issues, but still felt ashamed as I would never know if I was convincing enough in my explanation that I am simply going through a painful refinance process. I spoke with Betty about the issue and she stated that they would clear up an “process issues” that caused this to happen.
• On March 27th I submitted a document to demonstrate proof that my student loan was paid off. On March 29th I received an email from Betty stating that she has not received my student loan pay off information. I had to call her to determine why it wasn’t received. She said it may have been deleted from her email, so forwarded my email from March 27th and followed up with another phone to make sure that this item was closed for good.
• Between March 29 and May 17, I was asked to provide up to date asset information countless times. I was told each time, we are almost there, our processor will be looking at it soon and will sign off. Rearranging my life to perform countless trips to the bank, embarssingly asking for just one more update the day account statements and asking my bank teller to sign and stamp each page. It got to the point they started to charge me for the document requests. They would litterly have a look of disgust whenever I walked through the door. Rearraning my life to attend meetings with the loan consultant to sign documents, etc. There were so many times I just thought about pulling out and going another direction, but I always got the same speech. “We are almost there.” “You have come this far and it is almost over, you will have to start all over if you pull out now”
• On May 17th I emailed my loan consultant and stated that I was simply worn out, frustrated, hurt, confused and depressed because of everything that this process has done to my life. I wanted a closing date or I was moving on. Betty replied and finally agreed to escalate.
• Betty called me a couple of days later with bombshell. There was a mix up on the Wells Fargo end and apparently my loan application was never touched. They had lost much of my previous documentation. I had to perform another round of asset and debt document collection etc.
• In the meantime, my home was hit by hail and I had to open a claim with Allstate to have it repaired.
• More paperwork requests from Wells while we were waiting for the contractor to perform maintenance: letter’s of explanation, asset documentation regarding insurance check deposits, more paystubs, VOE with new employer, etc.
• Then Betty told me that Wells Fargo wanted to do an “inspection” to insure that the storm and subsequent decision on repairs did not diminish the value of my home.
• To provide you with the insurance claim back story - I chose to replace all items per my insurance claim accept for the partial roof replacement over the back portion of my home. Two contractors told me that the damage to that portion of the roof was purely cosmetic and I may very well diminish the value of my home by having just one half new and the other old. Therefore, I replaced the roof over my garage per the claim and all siding identified by the insurance identified by the adjuster. Moreover, I reallocated the money from the insurance for the cosmetic (and not viewable with the naked eye) partial roof replacement to expand my vinyl fence line from just around the pool to enclose my backyard. So another appraisal would be ordered once my contractor finished repairs.
• I informed Betty of my decision on allocation of claim dollars and provided a letter of explanation which she stated would suffice.
• In the meantime, Betty alluded to the fact that there was internal discussion on whether to perform a full scale appraisal or just a “drive by inspection” as she called it.
• Betty was continually putting pressure on me, to put pressure on my contractor, in order to speed up repairs so they can perform the appraisal and close asap.
• I told Betty that I have done all that I could and that the contractor had done all he could to move us up in the process.
• She asked for his number to see if she could speed the process along.
• On June 1st I received a phone call from my contractor that scared the living hell out of me. My contractor stated that Betty had asked him to falsify documentation, essentially perform insurance fraud, and send it to her to say that repairs were done on my home that were in fact, not performed. She wanted to apparently circumvent the new appraisal request from underwriting with signed document from the contractor! I told him to immediately stop all communication with Wells Fargo and not to act on any request from Wells Fargo going forward.
• I called my contractor back on June 2nd and apologized again for what Well’s Fargo had asked him to do. I considered what if anything I could or should do with regards to the incident. To this day I thank God that my contractor had a moral conscience and chose to follow the law. If it was another contractor, with less character, I may have been an unwitting party to an act of insurance fraud. My stomach sinks every time I think about it. At this point, I was out. No more. I called Betty and expressed my utter disgust and my intention to withdraw from the process. She indicated that what she was asking for was not within the grounds of insurance fraud and that the contractor may have misunderstood her request. Without having in-depth knowledge of either the insurance fraud statutes and/or mortgage lending practices, I was left confused with regards to how I should proceed. Again, I heard the chant of “we are right at the end and it would not be smart for me to stop at this stage given having to start over with another lender.”
• A short time later Betty told me that my original appraisal was null and void because it had been more than 120 days and a new appraisal needed to happen. The “drive by inspection” was off the table and a new appraisal had to be ordered. She stated that Wells Fargo would cover the cost.
• Looking back, I can assume that the impetus for her engage in insurance fraud was driven by the impending lapse in the original appraisal.
• A few weeks ago I was on the phone with Betty expressing my frustration and absolute exhaustion with having to constantly round up financial information, over and over again, for 6 months. In a passing remark she stated, don’t worry about the checking account statements I can get those. To which I replied with the question, “what do you mean by that?” She stated that she has gone to my bank and procured my checking statements. Betty went to MY BANK and somehow was able to get access TO MY CHECKING statements without my knowledge or consent! I was sickened, flabbergasted, deflated, angry and I was litteraly notious. All of these feelings rushed over me at once. They made me numb, virtually immobile without any ability to think clearly. I have never had this type of feeling in my life. I was overrun with so many emotions at one time that I litterily short-circuited and could not think or feel. I was sent into depression. I told Betty to deal with my wife from now on. I have been so immobilized by this trauma that I cannot get my bearings straight to figure out what I should do…can do. To this day, I keep telling myself that all of this cannot be happening to me. How can this person, Wells Fargo, create so much stress, anxiety, exhaustion and depression in my life?
Finally, today, I was told that the new appraisal was finished and that my home appraised at $40,000 less than the appraisal 4 plus months ago. This virtually eliminated any chance of covering closing costs and in fact, stated that I am severely under water in my mortgage. 40 k in depreciation since my original appraisal just over 4 months prior? After improving my home since the insurance claim?
• My initial application for a loan refinance was going along smoothly until I received a call from Tim the branch manager (not my loan consultant Betty) stating that he was denying my application for refinance because I did not have enough funds to close. I was stunned because I had a conversation with my loan consultant that very morning and she stated that everything was looking great and we had enough funds to close.
• Based on the phone call from Tim, I sent an email to my loan consultant asking if she would refund my $500 application fee as a result of the news that I received from the branch manager. She replied stating that the loan Wells can do the loan and that she just needed to clear up some confusion on her end with Tim. Betty determined, then communicated to me that the branch manager made a decision to deny the loan without considering the terms of the deal which included a slightly higher interest rate pay down some of the closing costs associated with my loan.
• By this point, I was simply ready to move on and find another lender. I wasn’t angry. I was just a little concerned with the lack of process which may or may not have an impact on my credit score.
• However, Betty outlined the issues that I would now face finding another lender and that I would avoid those issues if I just stayed in the process with Wells Fargo. The primary argument that she made, which ultimately drove me decision to stay with Wells Fargo was that I will have to wait 90 days to resubmit a loan application to another lender and that the denial of my loan by the branch manager will my impact my ability to secure a loan from another lender. She also stated that I would need to redo the process of gathering asset and dept information.
• At this point I felt I had little to no choice but stay in the process with Wells. This is a decision that I will regret for the rest of my life. The date of this decision was around March 22nd.
• The issue described above pales in comparison to the shear horror Wells Fargo has caused in my life between late March and today.
• My loan consultant indicated that they would need to resubmit my loan application since my loan was denied in your system by the branch manager. As a result, I had to perform another round of collecting the various asset and debt documentation. In addition, I had to write and sign letters of explanation for various asset and debt information.
• During this process my employer called me while I was engaged in a consulting project at a customer site to ask if I was having financial issues. They were concerned as Well’s Fargo contacted them 3 to 4 times to verify my employment. This was more than the usual employment verification contacts for refinances and my employer became alarmed. I did my best to assure my employer that I was not having financial issues, but still felt ashamed as I would never know if I was convincing enough in my explanation that I am simply going through a painful refinance process. I spoke with Betty about the issue and she stated that they would clear up an “process issues” that caused this to happen.
• On March 27th I submitted a document to demonstrate proof that my student loan was paid off. On March 29th I received an email from Betty stating that she has not received my student loan pay off information. I had to call her to determine why it wasn’t received. She said it may have been deleted from her email, so forwarded my email from March 27th and followed up with another phone to make sure that this item was closed for good.
• Between March 29 and May 17, I was asked to provide up to date asset information countless times. I was told each time, we are almost there, our processor will be looking at it soon and will sign off. Rearranging my life to perform countless trips to the bank, embarssingly asking for just one more update the day account statements and asking my bank teller to sign and stamp each page. It got to the point they started to charge me for the document requests. They would litterly have a look of disgust whenever I walked through the door. Rearraning my life to attend meetings with the loan consultant to sign documents, etc. There were so many times I just thought about pulling out and going another direction, but I always got the same speech. “We are almost there.” “You have come this far and it is almost over, you will have to start all over if you pull out now”
• On May 17th I emailed my loan consultant and stated that I was simply worn out, frustrated, hurt, confused and depressed because of everything that this process has done to my life. I wanted a closing date or I was moving on. Betty replied and finally agreed to escalate.
• Betty called me a couple of days later with bombshell. There was a mix up on the Wells Fargo end and apparently my loan application was never touched. They had lost much of my previous documentation. I had to perform another round of asset and debt document collection etc.
• In the meantime, my home was hit by hail and I had to open a claim with Allstate to have it repaired.
• More paperwork requests from Wells while we were waiting for the contractor to perform maintenance: letter’s of explanation, asset documentation regarding insurance check deposits, more paystubs, VOE with new employer, etc.
• Then Betty told me that Wells Fargo wanted to do an “inspection” to insure that the storm and subsequent decision on repairs did not diminish the value of my home.
• To provide you with the insurance claim back story - I chose to replace all items per my insurance claim accept for the partial roof replacement over the back portion of my home. Two contractors told me that the damage to that portion of the roof was purely cosmetic and I may very well diminish the value of my home by having just one half new and the other old. Therefore, I replaced the roof over my garage per the claim and all siding identified by the insurance identified by the adjuster. Moreover, I reallocated the money from the insurance for the cosmetic (and not viewable with the naked eye) partial roof replacement to expand my vinyl fence line from just around the pool to enclose my backyard. So another appraisal would be ordered once my contractor finished repairs.
• I informed Betty of my decision on allocation of claim dollars and provided a letter of explanation which she stated would suffice.
• In the meantime, Betty alluded to the fact that there was internal discussion on whether to perform a full scale appraisal or just a “drive by inspection” as she called it.
• Betty was continually putting pressure on me, to put pressure on my contractor, in order to speed up repairs so they can perform the appraisal and close asap.
• I told Betty that I have done all that I could and that the contractor had done all he could to move us up in the process.
• She asked for his number to see if she could speed the process along.
• On June 1st I received a phone call from my contractor that scared the living hell out of me. My contractor stated that Betty had asked him to falsify documentation, essentially perform insurance fraud, and send it to her to say that repairs were done on my home that were in fact, not performed. She wanted to apparently circumvent the new appraisal request from underwriting with signed document from the contractor! I told him to immediately stop all communication with Wells Fargo and not to act on any request from Wells Fargo going forward.
• I called my contractor back on June 2nd and apologized again for what Well’s Fargo had asked him to do. I considered what if anything I could or should do with regards to the incident. To this day I thank God that my contractor had a moral conscience and chose to follow the law. If it was another contractor, with less character, I may have been an unwitting party to an act of insurance fraud. My stomach sinks every time I think about it. At this point, I was out. No more. I called Betty and expressed my utter disgust and my intention to withdraw from the process. She indicated that what she was asking for was not within the grounds of insurance fraud and that the contractor may have misunderstood her request. Without having in-depth knowledge of either the insurance fraud statutes and/or mortgage lending practices, I was left confused with regards to how I should proceed. Again, I heard the chant of “we are right at the end and it would not be smart for me to stop at this stage given having to start over with another lender.”
• A short time later Betty told me that my original appraisal was null and void because it had been more than 120 days and a new appraisal needed to happen. The “drive by inspection” was off the table and a new appraisal had to be ordered. She stated that Wells Fargo would cover the cost.
• Looking back, I can assume that the impetus for her engage in insurance fraud was driven by the impending lapse in the original appraisal.
• A few weeks ago I was on the phone with Betty expressing my frustration and absolute exhaustion with having to constantly round up financial information, over and over again, for 6 months. In a passing remark she stated, don’t worry about the checking account statements I can get those. To which I replied with the question, “what do you mean by that?” She stated that she has gone to my bank and procured my checking statements. Betty went to MY BANK and somehow was able to get access TO MY CHECKING statements without my knowledge or consent! I was sickened, flabbergasted, deflated, angry and I was litteraly notious. All of these feelings rushed over me at once. They made me numb, virtually immobile without any ability to think clearly. I have never had this type of feeling in my life. I was overrun with so many emotions at one time that I litterily short-circuited and could not think or feel. I was sent into depression. I told Betty to deal with my wife from now on. I have been so immobilized by this trauma that I cannot get my bearings straight to figure out what I should do…can do. To this day, I keep telling myself that all of this cannot be happening to me. How can this person, Wells Fargo, create so much stress, anxiety, exhaustion and depression in my life?
Finally, today, I was told that the new appraisal was finished and that my home appraised at $40,000 less than the appraisal 4 plus months ago. This virtually eliminated any chance of covering closing costs and in fact, stated that I am severely under water in my mortgage. 40 k in depreciation since my original appraisal just over 4 months prior? After improving my home since the insurance claim?