I am looking for help. I have become a victim of a predatory lender, Castle Point Mortgage. I was contacted mid-April by Josh Shaw telling me he had received my information from Lending Tree. He proceeds to tell me that he had multiple options to help us. He asks me what we are tying to get out of this. I tell him I am trying to get out of an adjustable rate mortgage that is set to reset on July 1st of this year. He gathers some information (ss#, income, what we feel the house is worth, etc). He tells me he needs to run some numbers and he will call me back shortly he feels like with good news.
Josh Shaw contacts me back about a half hour later informing me he had good and bad news - first we were denied for a 30 yr fixed but he got us APPROVED not qualified APPROVED for a 15 yr fixed for the same amount we are currently paying - WOW who wouldn't jump at that! I told him to let me call my husband to inform him of the rates, monthly payment, etc and I felt sure we wanted to proceed but let me just run it by him. I called Josh Shaw back and told him yes let's proceed. And could he fax or email me a good faith estimate etc. (All documents state we are APPROVED). I went home that evening and faxed him all the documents that he requested to proceed (w-2's, insurance docs, mortgage docs, etc. After all we were APPROVED not qualified we were APPROVED!
Friday morning he calls me to get my credit card number for the appraisal fee which he tells me is $350 - then low and behold he charges me $450. I immediately call him as this is not what he quoted me and that is more than I was prepared to give him. He tells me that oh its an FHA appraisal - my bad it is more in-depth -Uh ok that is still not what you quoted me - at this point I have the worst gut feeling you can imagine! I just got that I am about to get screwed feeling.
Anyways the appraiser comes out on Tuesday and I am making small talk telling him I am concerned that because of the foreclosures in my neighborhood that I am not going to get what I need. The appraiser asks what I need - I told him $180K-$185K which is what I told Josh I felt we could get appraised at. The appraiser told me he felt I was right on but of course he had to finish up his research.
Over the weekend my husband and I Google this company to see what we can find (hoping for the best but preparing for the worst) We find many many complaints of people telling of giving this company their appraisal money and the loan not closing or the terms changing at the closing or the loan not closing at all.
Thursday I get a call from Josh letting me know that the appraisal came in at 180K - Well I'll be that is precisely what I told him a week ago when he took my money. He then proceeds to tell me that they can only loan 97% of the loan and my husband and I would need to bring $5K to closing - Well if I had $5K lying around I would not be inquiring on refinancing I would be trying to pay off debt so I could go with a local lender. I called him on the fact that he lied and misled us on our loan and they never intended on fulfilling their obligations - I told him about all the complaints I had read and he immediately got defensive with me and rude telling me what else do you want me to do - your house did not appraise - that is not my fault - Ummm well I told you it was going to appraise for around 180-185 you chose to inflate on the docs that it would appraise at 190K. You misled me and got my hopes up that you all were helping us I am now trying to dispute the charge with my bank since they charged me for a service under the presumption that this was all that was holding us closing in 15-20 days and they did not deliver on their end of the deal.
Now I am going to potentially lose my home as my mortgage pymt is raising $300-$500 next month. I am out the $450 dollars for an appraisal that should have never been done since I informed the loan officer that it would come in at 180-185K and after reading all the complaints against this company he never intended to close the loan to start with.
I have emailed multiple consumer websites to warn consumers. I dont want anyone else to get screwed and taken advantage of like happened to us.
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