I wanted to people know about Homefield and how dissatisfied I am in the refinance I did in May of last year. Homefield has to be the most unethical lender I have ever come across. I bought my home in 2003 for $220,000. I refinanced it in 2005 and had an interest rate of 4.85% and a loan amount of close to $221,000. So my payment up until I worked with Homefield was around $1250. That is with principal, interest and property taxes impounded. Homefield mailed me countless times really low rates and what seemed like lower payments. Countless times I didn't bother to call, but decided to call just to learn more about it. I figured anything I might save is a good thing.
So I talked with the loan officer and she discussed the loan with me. No mention of negative amortization, but she just said it would be a good loan because her brother had it. She also, because I said I often consider starting a business, said that it is even better for that, however my intention for calling and inquiring about the loan had nothing to do with me often thinking about starting a business. I was merely inquiring, as I said, about the low payments.
I received loan documents a few days later and I reviewed them and had some real concerns based on what I read. So I called my loan officer and told her that I want to make sure that I do not get myself into a negative amortized situation so lets please review the documents. I figured the best way to ensure that I would not get burned and lose my house in 3-4 years would be to go over the payment schedule year by year as stated in the good faith estimate. So I asked the question, If I pay based on the payment schedule shown here, for the next three years, (I said three years because of the three year payment penalty) would I still be able to refinance for the new loan balance after fees of $231,000? She said, Yes I then went ahead with the loan because I had verbal confirmation that the concerns I had were taken care of. I was not going to have to refinance some huge amount of money later. I even stated my relief in the phone call.
I then received my first payment from Countrywide and was shocked to see that the full-amortized payment was over $1800 dollars. Amounts that were definitely not documented in the paperwork. The loan statement from Countrywide then stated that if I just paid the minimum payment, which more closely matched the numbers in the payment schedule, my loan amount would go up. I immediately then called the loan officer, which I have logged by Verizon Wireless.
I told her my anger and frustration over this because she knows I clearly stated what I would find acceptable and not, and she blatantly took advantage of me. So now I am faced with no choice but to lose my home in three years or fight in court. People ask serious questions during the loan process because what is at stake is huge. Lives are broken apart and people go homeless over issues like this. I worked very hard to buy my home and the unethical lending practices of Homefield might result in me losing it because of either an inattentive employee or deceptive employee who saw a chance to take advantage of someone and make a lot of money. There will be a class action lawsuit that I will be joining if the matter is not resolved to my satisfaction. I have already secured the lawyer who will be working on contingency.
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