On July 22 12:02 AM EST, I was solicited by an internet email I received to apply online for a mortgage from Money Tree Mortgage. Since my credit rating is not so good I decided to explore this opportunity further.
The email was very specific in claiming that financing was already approved as the particular wording in the subject line read as follows: Your Home Loan Is Waiting, Financing Is Approved.
Upon further review of the email, it stated in a header graphic Judgements Bankruptcy Tax Liens (with a flashing) NO PROBLEM! This really caught my attention since I had some judgments and tax liens against me. Then below the above graphic it once again indicated my approval in big red letters as follows, APPROVED!!! Just below this big red approved graphic, there is a line stating in a politically correct phrase Money Tree Mortgage is a National Lender Specializing in the Credit Challenged!!! I thought to myself finally here is a company willing to work with people like myself that dont have the greatest credit and could use some help to get their life back on-track and moving forward.
So I decided to click on the link graphic that says APPLY ONLINE NOW! The link took me to the Money Tree Mortgage Online Application page. I then filled out the online application and received a confirmation email back indicating my online mortgage application was received by your company.
This is now where the worst nightmare in my life begins. Over the dates of July 25 at approximately 6:30 PM EST - September 2 12:00 noon EST I have had many conversations with persons in the Olathe, Kansas branch office consuming many hours of my time with several people including up to the alleged vice-president Todd Webster.
Since the beginning of first contact with the company when I received the soliciting email that specifically and falsely promised me and my family that our financing was already approved, we were led to believe that all we had to do was fill out the online loan application to get our already pre-approved loan and we would soon have a new home with a new mortgage. However, through the whole process and leading up to the last conversation I had with Money Tree Mortgage and Deborah Eisenhower many bad things have transpired. Some of the bad things I believe to have happened range from false or misleading advertising leading to financial gain, advance fee loan fraud and telemarketing fraud.
James Derry of the Kansas branch office contacted me via telephone and asked me to give him $300 in order to secure my pre-approved not pre-qualified mortgage loan, stating the reason of Money Tree Mortgage only wants to work with serious buyers at this time and this would show my good-faith and willingness to work with Money Tree Mortgage as a lender.
So in good faith I gave him my bank ABA and checking account number along with a check number to use in order to process an electronic check. After he processed the check, I was told to immediately being looking for a house since Money Tree Mortgage would like to close on the mortgage in 4 7 weeks. During this conversation I asked several times to be clear and sure that we were pre-approved and not pre-qualified as I know there is a difference. I was also told that I would receive a pre-approval letter to give to my realtor for their use and a confirmation letter for our commitment. I thanked James for helping us and the call ended.
My wife and I began looking for a house right away. I traveled to a nearby city, Fredrick, Maryland where we would like to live and began searching for our new home in that area. I contacted a realtor there and asked the realtor to compile a listing of available homes that my wife and I could weed through to narrow down the list. I then took the listings back to our apartment along with many other real-estate catalogs and over the next several days we spent many hours going over the listings to determine which homes we wanted to look at.
I patiently waited for my pre-approval letter to come and it never came. I made several calls to James and never received the letter. Later I received a phone call from Deborah Eisenhower. Deborah was notifying me that she was sending me a loan application in my email. I explained that I filled one out already on the internet and that James had already called me and told me I was pre-approved for up to $200,000. And also that he took a $300 payment from me on the first night he called me as a good faith payment that would be applied to my closing costs to prove I was serious about accepting his loan offer. Deborah then advised me that I was not pre-approved yet! I explained that James already said I was and had me out house hunting so that we could close the loan in 4-7 weeks from that day! She divulged to me that James was a salesman with their company, not a loan processor. I told her the only reason I gave him the $300 was because I was already pre-approved and ready to buy a house. James apparently has lied to me, just to get me to give him $300. Deborah said that she would check with her manager about what James told me and we could go from there.
After all that transpired up to this point it became clear that I was being scammed by James and Money Tree Mortgage. I have since had numerous time consuming conversations with Money Tree that have ended with no acceptable reconciliation as far as I am concerned. I have repeatedly asked for my $300 back since I am now very nervous about doing business with them for fear of losing more money in what could be a very big scam. As of today I still have not received the $300 back. It has now come to the point that I find myself daily doing something in order to try to get my money back. I am losing very valuable family time and potential money from where I could be doing IT consulting each time I have to deal with this issue.
The indignation, humiliation, mental anguish, stress and loss of hope are just some of the very real feelings that me and my family are experiencing right now. Please believe me when I tell you there are many other negative feelings we are experiencing because of this debacle. We really feel that our hopes and dreams were driven into the ground as we were put on a roller coaster ride going from dreams come true to having our dreams dashed.
In closing it is my analysis and belief that Money Tree preys upon people that are called members of the sub-prime lending market and their intentions are not to help them, but to take advantage of them knowing that they will jump on any opportunity that would show some promise of making their life better. Just because I am one of those members does not give Money Tree Mortgage the right to take advantage of me. I am a person too and just need a break that would enable me to help myself. I work for a living, I am not looking for a free handout. Watch out for these guys!
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