We (my spouse and I) are actively involved in a rent to own property. We contacted Steel City Mortgage based upon the ability to help people with bad credit. We called simply to seek answers on what more we needed to do to secure a loan the following January or February (this was in June).
The loan office pulled our credit and advised that while still not great our numbers had gone up 30 points each from a previous inquiry 6 months prior. He advised us that we could be approved and would even receive $ back from our current landlord since we paid the entire years lease out right. WOW GREAT NEWS! Things were going well! We filled out all the paper work, provided bank statements, 2 most recent pay stubs, insurance paper work, tax forms from the past 2 years~everything they asked for.
We even signed our good faith paper work and were told we could close by mid July since we had a PRE APPROVAL from the actual lender. We were impressed told all of our friends and family how fairly we were treated... Even told our landlord we were moving ahead w/the purchase.
Fast forward a week later... All of a sudden our interest rate DOUBLES! Why? Nothing had changed... We were still paying the same amount in bills and paying on our good credit lines. Oh and NOW only my husband who makes LESS $ than myself could go on the loan! Oh and the best part... We were to originally receive aprox. $7500 at closing... We would now IF LUCKY receive $1000 back.
Then the owner of Steel City call and asked if I would mind stating that I lived with my parents for the past 2 years so I would have to prove my rental history! WHAT? I wrote the checks for the rent how is that possible! Plus since I was no longer on the loan why would it matter? Finally after researching "sub prime" lenders we realized that all these practices were 1. Illegal 2. Geared to make a bank forclosure a very real possibility and 3. A way for the mortgage broker to make more money.
Finally we pulled the plug. Only to recently be contacted by the company... Conviently the original broker was no longer w/the company and the new gentleman advised that our loan was "mis handled" What a joke. So I advised him we had gone to the BBB already... But he assured me he could fix everything. Well I called today and got the "well the owner is handling this matter but I will call you back" Guess what... They did call back... Only to yell at my husband for reporting them to the BBB.
Stay away. There are other companies who can legitimately help those w/really banged up credit. Don't jump on what ever offer they give you, and certainly don't risk lying on financial records just to get credit. We did it to ourselves, and will fix our mistakes ourselves. We just wanted to let you know to stay away from this mortgage company!
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