DNJ Gateway Mortgage

DNJ Gateway made the entire home buying experience such a great success. I worked with [redacted] out the Greenville NC office. She was very professional and knowledgeable about everything. There were no circumstances that popped up that she hadn't seen before. She had answers to all of my questions. I wholeheartedly would recommend this company to anyone looking to purchase a home.

We were promised certain services that were not provided, misled, never given proper documentation, and lack of communication.DNJ states on their website that closing on a home in 25 days is possible and their guidelines for this states, "Applies to purchases ONLY and requires a that a pre-qualification process has been completed." Well, my fiancee was pre-qualified in October and we have yet to close on a home as of February 19th! Once I presented them with this information, I was told that is a special program that requires a checklist and goals that need to be met. None of this is stated on the website which seems a bit misleading. The first issue we have is the lack of communication. Our loan officers [redacted] and the CEO [redacted] (I have escalated to him) never return calls to resolve the issues that present themselves. My real estate agent also never gets returned calls in a timely manner. Granted, I know these people may be busy but timeliness is important in real estate transactions and emails are also left unanswered, or returned very late without pertinent information we had previously asked. In the beginning, my fiancee had a credit card with a balance. We were told specifically by [redacted] to pay off the card, but DO NOT close the account. In January, two weeks before our first scheduled closing the account had a 0 balance. Our January 15th closing date is now approaching and a few days prior, we receive a call stating we would need paperwork from AmEx stating it was indeed paid off-this delayed our first closing because we could not get the paperwork in time due to lack of communication. We later were called by a third party requesting a 3way call to confirm the card closing with AmEx. Secondly, we were told that we must now CLOSE the card account (after being told we would not have to with surety) but that's not an issue. Knowing how our previous interactions went my fiancee asked [redacted] would her providing the same paperwork be sufficient to which he replied "Yes". We later found out we needed yet another 3way call.Apparently, we are still in the stage of getting loan paperwork "processed" after 4 months yet we have no missed 3 closing dates. After talking with the CEO, we should have never been given actual closing dates because the loan was not yet in approved status. With that being said, the seller was close to pulling out the deal so [redacted] spoke with him Friday (2/14) to reassure him we are closing that following week (2/16-2/22). This was a complete lie as we have now received communication from his assistant [redacted] that we cannot close this week and he should never have said this. Also, my fiancee had to call them in order to get this information because we knew something was wrong when we had yet to receive closing information by Tuesday of our closing week.The big item is undisclosed documentation. We received a GFE 12/31 stating we would need $2600 to close, but after our 2nd missed closing we were presented with a GFE stating we would now need $3900 to close! Apparently, [redacted] knew about this for a month and never disclosed this information. His claim was, "Once the price changed, that changed the fees. Also, he was focused so much on getting the loan approved-he forgot". After pulling the information, I noticed the prices were in fact the same, but the seller contribution changed by $700 which is common with these loans. $1300-$700=$600, where did this extra money come from suddenly? I will admit, DNJ did a lender credit for some of the funds but the nondisclosure was a blatant RESPA violation.After 4 months of dealing with this company and no closing we are drained. No home, a few thousand dollars lost, and A+ credit score declined due to closing a credit card. We have absolutely nothing to show for all the trouble and this company has destroyed us emotionally and financially.Desired SettlementThere is really no settlement that can be made. We will lose our earnest money and the home if the deal can not be salvaged. Our sellers have stated they will pull this week if the deal does not close and we have been told that it will in fact not close.Business Response /[redacted]/March 19, 2014RE: Complaint Case #: XXXXXXXX Consumer: [redacted] Case Opened: XXXX-XX-XX To Whom it may Concern,Thank you for contacting us on this matter. In reference to the above borrowers, we have researched the file. During the loan process, we stayed in constant contact with the borrowers. Everything the borrower states in his complaint was done voluntarily on his behalf in an effort for them to strengthen their prospects of purchasing a home. Towards the end of the process when DNJ Mortgage and the borrowers were successfully getting towards the finish line to purchase a home, DNJ was informed of one major qualification issue that the co-borrower, [redacted] unfortunately did not inform anyone until the last few days of the transaction. She informed DNJ that for over a month she was now working part time instead of full time at her current job. As we all know the ability to pay back the mortgage being granted is the largest decision we make on a file. In this case, with the co-borrower's income cut in half, they no longer qualified to purchase a home. Therefore, the hard work on both sides between the borrowers and DNJ were all for not since the ability to repay was gone. As you can see the co-borrowers choice to work part time was not DNJ's doing. This was something that was not foreseen or offered to us as a possibility during the loan process. Solution:DNJ Mortgage prides itself as a company that can help borrowers achieve home ownership. In this case we did collect and pay a fee the appraiser to appraise the home. This was the only fee ever collected from the borrowers on our behalf. We understand the stress that all borrowers face with or with not all the "perfect" attributes to obtain a mortgage in this industry's constant changing guidelines environment. We would be willing to reimburse the Appraisal fee of $400 to the borrowers as an act of good faith. As long as all parties acknowledge that the reason for not closing was only due to the borrower's inability to qualify due their last minute change of income.

Gateway did not give us proper notice of mortgage rate lock.On November 13, 2013, I initiated the process for obtaining a new mortgage through [redacted] at Gateway Bank. This was at the recommendation of my real estate agent, [redacted] We were pre-approved for the loan and put $3500 deposit on the new home. On November 25, 2013, [redacted] sent me the application and documents for the loan and included the Good Faith Estimate with our rate @ 4.25%. At the top of the page in BOLD RED lettering it said "Please have your completed documents back to us within 5 business days in order to honor your rate lock. If we receive them later than 5 business days, we can't guarantee your rate lock. If an extension is required, you will be responsible for the extension fees on your loan." Later in the loan document, on page 35 or so it had a page that stated the rate was not locked. We understood that it was not locked at that point in time, but with the bold red statement we understood it that after completing the document that it would be locked. We digitally signed the documents the very next day, November 26, 2013. As we continued the process, never once was there any mention of rates, that our rate wasn't locked or that our rate needed to be locked as rates were going up. We were set to close on our old house on Monday December 30th at 9am and purchase/close on the new house on December 30th at 11am. [redacted] was still asking for documents the week of Christmas - I kept asking to make sure the loan was going to be approved, and he assured me that there were no problems and it should be. Again, NEVER one word about rate lock. On Friday December 27, 2013, at approximately 2pm, I received an e-mail from [redacted] as well as a Docusign with a rate lock agreement. "[redacted],I am sending to you the lock documents. Once you sold your home and were moving forward the market had taken a turn for the worse and rates jumped - approximately .375%. We watched the market to try and ride it back down as far as it would go. As a result we are eating .125% of rate and the discount to get you to a lock rate of 4.5%. Rates are actually around 4.75-4.625% now and have been for a couple of weeks. I've locked this on a 5 day lock as well, the shortest time period to get the lowest rate. The total payment is approx. $1741.17 now once the insurance is updated in the system. That's only approximately $10 off from our original estimate. I'm sending the lock documents to you via Docusign, so please look for them in an email shortly.[redacted]Vice President Mortgage LendingDirector, HomeBenefitIQGateway Bank Mortgage, Inc2235 Gateway Access Point, Suite [redacted]Raleigh, NC XXXXXVoice: XXX-XXX-XXXXCell: XXX-XXX-XXXXFax: XXX-XXX-XXXXNMLS ID: XXXXXXwww.gatewaybankandtrust.com"From the e-mail, it is clear that he knew the rate wasn't locked for awhile and he was gambling with our rate/money without our knowledge. We declined to sign the 4.5% rate lock agreement. Also, he was misinforming us. I negotiated a lower rate for our homeowners insurance - The difference in the mortgage (principal/interest) itself was over $40 a month. We were in utter shock and disbelief! How could this be happening the Friday before closing!? Our house was packed and movers were coming at 8am on Saturday. We called our real estate agent and asked what we should do. At this point we decided we couldn't move. We were going to be out thousands of dollars. Gateway and [redacted] would not return our calls. We contacted our real estate agent about it and told him to contact everyone - we weren't moving. How are they allowed to do this to people? No notice? FIVE BUSINESS HOURs before our closing? It put us through a lot of turmoil. We were just devastated. Our real estate agent, [redacted] offered to pay approximately $4800 to buy down our rate to 4.25% in order to keep things moving - even though he was not responsible. [redacted] had a 5 year relationship with [redacted] and Gateway and fDesired Settlement. [redacted] had a 5 year relationship with [redacted] and Gateway and felt that it was a mistake/oversight and that they would make it right. He contacted them Monday morning and spoke directly to one of the owners, [redacted] and they refused to do anything. Our loan documents were not correct. Our closing kept getting pushed later and later as Gateway did not have the paperwork done. Our 11am closing was not done until almost 4pm. AT this point we had to pay the movers $270 extra because of the delay. Sears tried to deliver our refrigerator, but because of the delay they couldn't and we lost over $450 in groceries. Please investigate Gateway Bank, [redacted] and our case. This should have been a happy and exciting time in our lives and instead it was greeted by a lot of tears and sadness. Gateway failed us in their duty to timely disclose the rate information as required by their contract and the law. They were deceitful and devious in their practices with full knowledge that they were trapping us and we would not have time to find a new mortgage company or shop around for rates with only 5 business hours before closing. We would like them to refund the rate buy down to our realtor, [redacted] as well as the additional monies for the delay they caused in our closing.Business Response /[redacted]/It is very unfortunate that the client feels this way. We always strive to have satisfied clients and while this client feels differently our bank went above and beyond to satisfy the client and approve a very difficult loan that would have been denied elsewhere.To the clients own admission, they signed multiple documents as part of their loan disclosures that their loan was not locked. It was also stated clearly in these documents that the client must initiate the loan lock with the bank, of which the client did not do at that time. Once the client signed the loan documents and returned the application they put the loan on hold. They put the loan on hold since they were selling their current home and did not have a contract on it at that time. If they could not sell by the end of the due diligence date on their purchase then they were going to cancel the purchase contract. Over a week and a half went by before they decided to move forward with the purchase loan. In the Revdex.com complaint, the clients reference a document checklist that is provided with the loan application documents and disclosures. On this checklist, it request the client return ALL of the documents, including the items needed to underwrite a file (income documents, asset documents, etc) within 5 days or a loan lock is not guaranteed. However the rest of the documents go on to clearly state that their loan WAS NOT locked, the interest rate and other numbers were an estimate (the Good Faith Estimate) and the lock must be initiated by them. They signed ALL documents acknowledging their understanding of this. Eleven days after returning the initial application documents we were still requesting documents from the clients from the initial document checklist. Interest rates are a constant moving target and are not guaranteed until a loan is locked due to this volatility. Unfortunately the market changed and rates went up slightly. A little background on this loan. Once the underwriter received the file he wanted to deny the loan. The clients are self employed and he did not feel the income calculations were meeting Fannie Mae guidelines. We were able to escalate this issue to our COO and review the full file with him and the UW. After our meeting with the COO the income issue was cleared up and the file could move forward. Another issue then came up during the underwrite that again was causing the UW assigned to the file to recommend a denial; this time for more concerning reasons. Again, our COO was involved and reviewed the full file with the UW, loan officer and others. It was determined that a conference call was needed with the client to have them explain and elaborate on the items concerning the initial underwriter. After this conference call, the COO was satisfied and personally underwrote the file. The loan and components of the loan were still marginal to receive an approval but we all felt confident in the file to move forward. The loan was subsequently approved. As mentioned above the clients did not opt to lock their loan (as stated in the documents they initially signed). The market was still slightly worse than originally estimated. To help our clients the bank ate .125% in rate and absorbed the discount fee to get to a rate of 4.5%. All of this was done on a marginal file that was personally underwritten by our COO to help a family move into a new home. In the end, the total mortgage payment was $10 per month higher than originally estimated. Just as the interest rate is an estimate, the insurance and taxes listed in the GFE are also estimates. Once all of the final numbers were in, the payment was $10 higher per month. Closing documents were generated and sent to the closing attorney Friday afternoon for a Monday closing.In response to the agent paying down the rate for $4800 and a request to pay him back; the agent communicated to our bank on Friday night that he committed to the client that they would get a 4.25% interest rate and our bank would honor it. Unfortunately the market did not support an interest rate at that level and could not be obtained without a discount. We had already locked the interest rate below market and were paying for that discount and could not/would not honor a rate quoted by the Realtor (the Realtor is not a licensed loan officer nor an employee of our bank). On Monday morning, the day of closing, the Realtor, LO, and bank CEO were all on a conference call together. It was explained to the agent, again, the situation and that clients did not lock in the rate previously and signed papers giving their understanding that the rate was not locked, that they put the loan on hold, etc. etc. The Realtor then said he would pay for the discount to buy the rate down for the client. He was informed that this was very generous of him to offer and we would require a letter from his company stating this. It was further explained to him the process that would have to happen with our secondary department, underwriting department and closing department once the letter was received and that it would take additional time to get that through each channel and that closing would need to be late in the day since he was making a change. Around 1:11pm Monday afternoon we received the letter from his company and we could begin to update our systems and documents. At 1:48pm a new closing document set was sent to the closing attorney for closing. I am very sorry that the clients are upset about their closing. Our bank did everything we could to ensure they were approved and could purchase their new home. We put a lot of hours into this file in order to do so where others would not have. Thank you![redacted]Vice President Mortgage LendingDirector, HomeBenefitIQGateway Bank Mortgage, Inc2235 Gateway Access Point, Suite [redacted]Raleigh, NC XXXXXVoice: XXX-XXX-XXXXCell: XXX-XXX-XXXXFax: XXX-XXX-XXXXNMLS ID: XXXXXXFinal Consumer Response /[redacted]/(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I don't like to call people liars but I don't know what else to call [redacted]. He is trying to use salesman techniques by adding non facts smoke and mirrors and lies instead of what actually happened. We never put the loan on hold. We sold our house within 5 days of being on the market. The fact is that he didn't lock in the rate. And didnt tell us until 3pmFriday before closing. Because I spent hours on the phone with various insurance company [redacted] should not get the credit on it only being $10 more. Say erroneous info again [redacted]. Use shady math. Just what people want in a mortgage brojet. Someone that lies and manipulates. I think that our realtor broke a five year relationship with [redacted] after this says a lit. He is dishonest and untrustworthy. I would never trust [redacted] or Gateway bank with my mortgage. I'm the one called insurance companies, it has nothing to do with [redacted], I shopped around for a better insurance rate. [redacted] never licked in my rate, lied amd manipulated the situation. If it wasn't for an awesome real estate agent wet wouldn't be in the house. I don't except Davids lies in the response with not even an apology let alone any type of action taken.Final Business Response /[redacted]/Again, we apologize the client was unhappy. In response to the 4 items:1. After the initial underwriter brought the concerns up and wanted to deny the loan we escalated this to our COO and were able to determine there was not an issue and we moved forward. The next issue that was brought up by the underwriter was again escalated to our COO and determined to have a conference call with the client. We did not feel after talking with the client and the COO that there was a concern based on the underwriters initial thought. At that point there was no need to alarm the client on this matter because the loan was moving forward and there was not an issue.2. Each number provided initially is an estimate, as the documents indicated, and the final total payment was $10 different than the original estimate. The total payment was $10 more than the initial estimated on the good faith estimate, which includes an estimate for taxes and insurance. Once all items were finalized; interest rate, home owner's insurance, and property taxes, the final payment was $10 more than the estimate. The interest rate increased the payment approximately $40 per month and the taxes and insurance decreased the payment approximately $30 per month for a net of $10 more per month than the original estimate. 3. The clients acknowledge previously that they signed documents understanding their rate was not locked. 4. The client put everything on hold because they were unsure if they would sell their home. The agent notified us on Dec. 3, 2014 that the home was under contract, which was the first we knew of it. On Dec. 3, 2014 a voicemail and email was sent to the client inquiring about a contract on their current primary residence. The client did not reply until Dec. 4, 2014, via email, that they did in fact have a contract on their then current primary home. The contract on their current home was not sent to us until Dec. 5, 2014 by the agent.

DNJ Gateway made the entire home buying experience such a great success. I worked with [redacted] out the Greenville NC office. She was very professional and knowledgeable about everything. There were no circumstances that popped up that she hadn't seen before. She had answers to all of my questions. I wholeheartedly would recommend this company to anyone looking to purchase a home.","pos-1