Guidance Residential

One of the worst! I have 2 houses with them, so I do have a good insight about their business and customer services. There are only few Islamic mortgages out there, so we are limited in options. But, Guidance's customer service is horrible. They do not answer phone calls/emails after they lock you in and you have to keep chasing. My closing is in less than 7 days and I am going through a nightmare situation trying to get hold of them. Avoid them! The rates are pretty high also.

ZERO STARS
Sad to see an Islamic organization is not trustworthy. Working with them was a complete disgrace. You will pay the HIGH-interest rate with them as compared to any other traditional bank (I found the word interest in every document they sent). Also, the people that work there have a glaring lack of competency and professionalism.

I had a great experience with Guidance Residential Islamic Finance company. I studied all Islamic finance companies and found that this is the most authentic halal company among all of them. Their process was easy and fast. My only problem was with the builder which had nothing to do with Guidance. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Of course the only way you will select them is if you are looking for islamic alternative. But the whole process was vague to me, Some of the problems I have with them (Just some):
1. They promised me to match ratings, I got 2.75 regular financing, at the end, they gave me 3.125 %, guess what with $4000 up front fees, that $4000 kept going up and up, $800 more in the last day (after their fake lock rate). A total of 15000-20000 extra on the loan
2. The LLC fees mentioned here by many, its 18.75 you pay extra every single month, they did not disclose about it, apparently it should be their fee for co-partnership, very greedy and annoying, avoid them if you have any other alternative

October 16, Dear [redacted] ; Thank you for taking the time today to discuss your complaintFirst of all, let me apologize for any inconvenience and your frustration regarding the fees charged in relation to your recent home purchase and your mortgage with Guidance ResidentialI want to assure you that I accept your explanation and will take the appropriate steps to ensure your complaint is voiced to our Human Resources Department and appropriate members of our Executive Management CommitteeSecond, I will have our Accounting Department prepare a check in the amount of $to resolve the misstatement of fees and to bring closure to this matterWe at Guidance Residential appreciate your business and hope that we can assist you again in the futureBest regards, BillBill MSrVice President

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved] Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: Each statement in your response is a lie MrE [redacted] never, ever, not once, requested an employment letter I advised him that I may work remotely These conversations all occurred via email and I have all the records He then advised me to send all of my financial documentation, which I did He then disappeared Can you tell me why he wanted my bank statements, employment records, and social security number if he intended to use it and disappear? I advise you to inquire as to why your employee, MrE**, feels the need to tell bold faced and blatant lies I also question why you defend a business practice of ignoring client calls, no matter your perceptions Your Revdex.com status should be revoked and you need to stop labeling yourself as Islamic After repeated inquiries, I received this email from MrE [redacted] on July 17th:"Eid M [redacted] ,yes, I'm working on your filethe corporate will email you the disclosures on Tue inshá Allah."After I did not hear back from him, I was assigned a new case manager, Nejat, who told me MrE [redacted] was "busy, I don't know what happened to him" so she was assigned my file This was after repeated complaints to MrN [redacted] Can you tell me where in that conversation anything regarding an employer letter came up? I told both MrEid and MsA [redacted] that I would provide whatever documentation was necessary, including any letters from my employer Further, I was putting down 20%, whether the conversation was about a primary residence or an investment property Check my applicationMsA [redacted] told me "don't worry, we will make it work either way" and "you need to connect your utilities within a week to show that it's your residence." Your continued incompetence is a testament to the sham of a company that you are I refuse to accept the continued lies that you make about my file and you need to be held accountable The complaint has also been lodged with the Federal Trade Commission.MsA [redacted] and I had one conversation, after I had to chase her down I am happy to provide the audio of that call Either invest in better employees or stop covering up for the lies that they tell.Regards, [redacted]

September 28,Dear [redacted] :I have received your complaint, have interviewed MrNabil E**, and have reviewed the disclosure documentation provided with your application and mortgageI find that the early disclosures are consistent with the final charges at settlementOn July 6,at the time of your pre-qualification, you were provided with an estimate of settlement charges that showed charges totaling $1,for Underwriting, Application, Processing, and Administrative Fees as well as an additional charge of $for an Appraisal Fee, (copy attached)On July 10, at the time of your application, you were provided with a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) indicating your origination charges would be a total of $1,(copy attached) On July 10, at the time of your application,you were provided with a second estimate of settlement charges that showed charges totaling $1,for Underwriting, Application, Processing, and Administrative Fees as for an Appraisal Fee, well as an additional charge of $(copy attached) On September 1, at the time of settlement, you were provided with a Settlement Statement (HUD-1) outlining fees consistent with the prior disclosures; an Underwriting Fee of $a Processing Fee of $390.00, an Administrative Fee of $565.00, of $99.00; at total of $1,This statement also shows that you paid and an Application $outside of Fee the closing for an Appraisal Fee(copy attached) On page one of the Settlement Statement (HUD-1) line number shows that the application fee of $was refunded as agreed upon the successful completion of your transactionOn page two line number shows that you were given a credit of $10.00, the difference between the Appraisal Fee that you paid after authorizing your intent to proceed after application and the actual cost of the appraisal by Evaluation Zone in the amount of $Also, on page one of the Settlement Statement (HUD-1); line shows that you were given an additional credit of $for timely submission of your underwriting paperworkIt appears that you may have mistaken the agreement to refund the Application Fee upon successful processing of your application with a refund of the Appraisal Feelt also appears that at no time did we disclose any less than $1,in origination fees.We are sorry for any confusion and trust that our explanation and the enclosed documentation help to clarify the details of your transactionRegards, William MSenior Vice President

RE: Complaint # [redacted] Complainant: [redacted] - Guidance Residential Contract No***Dear [redacted] :In response to your correspondence received October 11, 2016, have reviewed [redacted] ***'s ComplaintThe Complaint Concerns fees charged in advance of closing, processing time for her application, the property value listed in the Completed appraisal report and the change in rate and points due to the appraisa report property value[redacted] Submitted an application for financing with Guidance Residential, LLC ("Guidance") on August 17, On August 18, 2016, we sent an initial disclosure package to her with information about the transaction including the fees, processing time and requirements, [redacted] signed and returned the document package to us on August 18, As part of the package, Ms [redacted] provided a signed intention to Proceed with Transaction document confirming that based on the information provided in the package she wanted to proceed with the processing of her application,In the complaint, [redacted] states she had never paid a lock fee, appraisal fee or condominium questionnaire fee prior to closing in previous transactions with other financiersThe timing of the payment of these types of fees is not uniform across the industry and there is no regulatory provision requiring these fees to be paid at closingGuidance is not unique in requiring these fees to be paid prior to closingThe initial disclosure package provided to the customer at the time of application provided information about these feesAfter receiving the document package, Ms [redacted] provided her written intent to proceed with the transaction.Regarding the profit rate lock fee and the time to process the application, Guidance provided an informational document about locking the profit rate in the initial disclosure packageThis document informs the customer that the average processing time for a transaction is business daysThis document further explains that Guidance does not charge a fee to lock the profit rate unless the customer opts to lock the profit rate prior to approval of the transaction ("early lock")There is a $fee to early lock that is refunded to the customer at closingCustomers often choose this option to reserve a low rate that may not be available later in the processing of the transactionOn August 24, 2016, Ms [redacted] opted to early lock her transaction with a day lock period and pay the $feeConsidering this lock periodchosen, the transaction needed to close on or about October 8, 2016.Regarding the profit rate lock and the appraisal, ** [redacted] submitted her application advising an estimated property value of $540,Because the transaction was early locked and the appraisal report had not yet been completed, the estimated value stated by the customer was used to lock the rateFollowing the [redacted] ***'s payment of the appraisal fee on August 24, 2016, the appraisal was ordered from an independent appraiser through an appraisal management Company ("AMC")The lock agreement provided to the customer on August 25, states that if any of the terms or characteristics of the transaction change, then the terms of the lock agreement could change as wellOn October 4, 2016, the Completed appraisal report was reviewed by our underwriting departmentBecause the report listed an appraised value of $499,000, a decrease in the value of $41,Compared to the estimated value reported by the customer, the loan-to-value percent ("TV") of the transaction increased, changing the characteristics of the transactionThis lower property value increased the LTV to 80.65, Because the LTV was now over percent, mortgage insurance needed to be added to the transaction pursuant to federal and investor requirementsThe rate and points needed to be reworked due to the increased LTV and to accommodate the cost of the mortgage insuranceOn October 6, 2016, our account executive reached out to the customer with options for reworking the rate and points that included lender credits to reduce the impact of the increased pointsThe account executive also advised that we were contacting the appraisal management company to have a secondary review to assure there were no errors in the report including the comparable sales used to determine the valueOn October 6, 2016, the customer emailed the account executive rejecting the possible options and requesting the transaction be canceled and the lock deposit refunded.Additionally, [redacted] stated in her complaint that the house next door to her sold for $534,which she felt should have caused her house to appraise at a greater valueShe also implied the appraiser worked for GuidanceThe property referenced by ** [redacted] sold AFTER the appraisal report was completed and provided to Guidance so it was not considered as a comparable sale to determine the value in the report [redacted] cancelled the transaction before we could have a secondary review by the AMCThe AMC Selects the appraiser who visits the property and completes the reportAll selected appraisers are vetted by the AMC to make sure there is no relationship with Guidance.While the lower property value that caused the change in rate and points was not within the Control of Guidance, we do understand that the reduced value did significantly affect the transaction and the Customer's willingness to move forwardAs a result, for customer service reasons, we will refund the customer's early lock fee as she originally requestedA check for the $early lock fee will be mailed to the customer within five (5) business days of this letter.We believe our response should bring closure to this complaint.Susan P

August 19, 2015Dear [redacted] :According to MrE [redacted] you originally inquired about purchasing an investment property in the Chicago areaMrE [redacted] advised you that the purchase of an investment property would require a down payment of at least 20% as well as additional assets for reservesMrE [redacted] was subsequently advised that rather than purchasing the property for investment, you would transfer your employment to the Chicago area and the property would be owner occupiedYou indicated to MrE [redacted] that you would provide documentation from your employer that you were being transferred to IllinoisYou continued to call MrEi*, but failed to provide any documentation regarding an employment transfer to the Chicago areaMrE [redacted] refused to take any further calls from you unless that employment documentation was providedYou registered a complaint with the National Sales Manager, Abdullrahman N [redacted] , and your inquiry was forwarded to a different Account Executive, Nejat A [redacted] MsA [redacted] obtained information from you to perform a pre-qualification and obtained your verbal authorization to obtain your credit reportYour inquiry with her was for a second home, rather than an investment or owner occupied propertyAfter reviewing the information provided, including outstanding obligations from your credit records, MsA [redacted] advised you that you would not qualifyAs stated in my prior letter, we regret that Guidance Residential will not be able to help you at this timeRegards, Bill MSenior Vice President

RE: Complaint IED [redacted] Our file ***Dear Mr [redacted] :We are responding to the consumer complaint forwarded to us on September 5, The complainant previously raised this issue with Guidance Residential staff and received explanations on November and 10, The complainant is asking Guidance Residential to refund the appraisal fee paid of $and to reimburse the earnest money he paid to the Seller totaling $We have reviewed the issues raised by the complainant and our response follows.The Complainant contacted us regarding financing to purchase a residential property on or about September 13, The complainant later provided a residential purchase contract and financing addendum with an effective date of September 21, The purchase contract stated that approval of financing included both buyer approval and property approval from the lenderRegarding the Contingency date, the contract stated the Buyer could get a refund of earnest money paid by providing written notice to Seller within days after the effective date of the purchase contract.As part of the pre-approval inquiry, the complainant reported verbal financial informationBased on this information and a single bureau credit report, it was determined that the complainant may not be able to qualify on his ownIt was suggested that a qualified co-signer may assist the complainant in qualifyingThe complainant provided his brother as a co-signer who contacted our Account Executive and verbally provided informationA pre-approval letter was issued on September 27, based om the information provided by the complainant and co-signerAs stated in the Pre-Approval letter, a full application needed to be submitted along with any requested documentation in order to evaluate and verify the application information and to determine if a commitment to finance could be issuedThe complainant submitted an application with a co-signer on September 29, Initial disclosures, including a required documents list and an intent to proceed document, were sent through a secure website the following dayPer federal law, no further processing of the application could take place until we received the complainant's and the co-signer's intention to proceed with the applicationWe received the complainant's signed intent to proceed document on October 1, and the co-signer's on October 5, Required documentation requested from the complainant and co-signer on September 30, was received from the complainant aroundOctober 5, The documentation was reviewed and found to be incomplete Income information for the co-signer was missing and was requested again on October 7, We received illegible income information for the co-signer on October 18, and a legible copy on October 20, The file was immediately sent to our underwriting staffUntil all of the required documentation was received, we could not verify and correctly evaluate the customer's and co-signer's creditworthiness to determine if the financing could be approvedEven though a customer's debt to income ratio may have been high, until full documentation was received and evaluated against our investor's guidelines, a denial of the financing was prematureAfter verification and evaluation, we found that the complainant could not meet the investor requirements concerning debt-to-income ratio with or without a co-signerThe file was denied on October 31, with a letter to the complainant on November 3, 2016.At the time we received all of the information needed to verify the application, the period for the complainant to request a return of his earnest money had passedWe received no request from the customer to withdraw his application nor does it appear the complainant requested an extension of the contingency date from the SellerWe moved forward with evaluation but were unfortunately unable to approve the application for financingHad the income and other documentation been received in a timely manner from the Co-signer, the determination could have been made within the time frame needed for the complainant to receive a refund of the earnest money paid.Regarding the appraisal services, it is our practice and procedure to order the appraisal, with the Consumer's consent, once we receive the consumer's intent to proceed with the transactionThe Complainant provided consent to order the appraisal and paid the upfront appraisal feeWe had no indication from the complainant that he wanted to delay the appraisal orderIn fact, both the Complainant and his realtor were asking about the status of the appraisal order as early as October 3,2016.Based on the information above, we will not be reimbursing the Complainant for the earnest money he paidWe processed the complainant's application as expeditiously as possible in light of when the required documentation was receivedThe complainant did not request to terminate the application due to not having a full approval at the time the contingency period ended nor does it appear he requested an extension of the Contingency dateAlthough we followed our process and procedure concerning the appraisal order, we are willing to refund the appraisal fee paid by the complainant as a good faith gestureWe will be issuing a check for $to the complainant and mail to the address listed in the complaint within business days of this letter.We trust our response will bring closure to this complaint,

July 30, 2015Dear [redacted] :I have investigated your complaint and find that you did apply for a housing refinance and your application was denied because your property does not meet our financing guidelines; more specifically, more than 10% of the units in your condominium project have a single owner based on information obtained by the property appraiserThat information was not available to us at the time of your application.However, it appears that our Account Executive may not have fully explained that the appraisal credit would only apply upon a successful completion of your mortgage transactionBased on that possible misunderstanding, I have instructed our Accounting Department to issue you a check, under separate cover, in the amount of $which represents the amount you were charged for the appraisal.I trust that my apology and this refund will resolve your complaint with Guidance Residential.Sincerely,Bill M.Senior Vice President

October 16, 2015Dear [redacted] ;Thank you for taking the time today to discuss your complaint. First of all, let me apologize for any inconvenience and your frustration regarding the fees charged in relation to your recent home purchase and your mortgage with Guidance Residential. I want to assure you that I accept your explanation and will take the appropriate steps to ensure your complaint is voiced to our Human Resources Department and appropriate members of our Executive Management Committee. Second, I will have our Accounting Department prepare a check in the amount of $395.00 to resolve the misstatement of fees and to bring closure to this matter.We at Guidance Residential appreciate your business and hope that we can assist you again in the future.Best regards, BillBill M.Sr. Vice President

Hello,We have researched this complaint and have responded to the customer with an e-mail and a refund of both the application fee and appraisal fee per the attached copy of the e-mail to the customer We trust that this matter is now resolved.Best regards,Heidi P [redacted] Guidance Residential, LLC

RE: Revdex.comID#***; Guidance Residential file #***Dear *** ***:We have received and reviewed the customer's response to our March 6, communication on the issues he presented in his original complaintThe Customer had previously determined to move forward with the transaction which is scheduled to go to closing on or about March 31, 2017.The customer originally applied with us for financing of an investment property on January 25, and confirmed his intention to move forward as an investment transaction on January 26, On January 27, 2017, the customer requested to change the transaction from an investment to an owner-occupied residential transactionRegardless of whether the transaction moved forward as an investment or owner-occupied transaction, an appraisal of the property was requiredThe Customer paid $for the appraisa report on February 1, The appraisal was completed and the appraisal report was provided to the customer on February 6, As requested, the transaction was reviewed as an owner-occupied propertyIt was determined that we could not approve the owner-occupied transaction for the reasons detailed in our prior response to you on March 6, The customer was provided the option of moving forward with the transaction as an investment property or as an owneroccupied transaction with the requirement that funds be held in escrow until the customer provided proof of occupancy (i.eutility bills, address change, driver's license change, etc.)Once the occupancy documentation was provided, the escrow funds would be refunded to the customerThe customer informed us he wanted to move forward as an investment transaction on February 18, Two additional appraisal reports ($each) were required to complete the review of investment transaction totaling $The additional cost would be charged to the customer at closing as part of the closing costsThe customer agreed to the additional appraisal costs on February 24, We also asked the appraisal company to expedite the reports at a cost of $which Guidance Residential paid and did not pass on to the customerA copy of the upgraded appraisal was provided to the Customer on March 3, 2017.The customer has stated that we misrepresented our requirements regarding the listing for sale of his current property in order to process the transaction as owner-occupiedOur account executive suggested that the customer list his current home for CGuidance Residential, LLCsale since the customer stated he was going to occupy the new property.** *** *** *** *** ***Reston, WA ** ** **, USA te|| ***) fax *** www.GuidanceResidential.com AS we detailed in our prior response, we have addressed this issue with our account executiveThe customer listed his property as "for sale by owner" at *** rather than list with a real estate agent/brokerFor sale by owner at *** is a free serviceThe listing is totally within the customer's control to maintain at that siteThe customer has the option of acting on or ignoring any inquiries about his propertyIt does not appear that the customer incurred any expenses or harm by utilizing thisfree listingRegardless of whether the Current residence was listed for Sale or not, our underwriting and risk assessment would have the same result as explained aboveWhen presented with the options, the customer determined to move forward as an investment transactionWe do not believe that a refund to the customer of the appraisa fee is warranted based on the above information and the Customer's determination to move forward with the transaction as an investment propertyHowever, we are willing to pay for one of the additional investment property reports equaling $as a good faith measureWe will credit this amount to the customer's costs at closingIf the transaction does not close, we will refund this amount to the customer by checkWe believe our response should bring closure to this complaint.Please contact me if you have additional questions,Heidi P

Hello,
We have researched this complaint and have responded to the customer with an e-mail and a refund of both the application fee and appraisal fee per the attached copy of the e-mail to the customer. We trust that this matter is now resolvedBest regards,
Heidi
P***Guidance Residential, LLC

August 19, 2015Dear *** ***:According to MrE** you originally inquired about purchasing an investment property in the Chicago areaMrE** advised you that the purchase of an investment property would require a down payment of at least 20% as well as additional assets for reservesMrE** was subsequently advised that rather than purchasing the property for investment, you would transfer your employment to the Chicago area and the property would be owner occupiedYou indicated to MrE** that you would provide documentation from your employer that you were being transferred to IllinoisYou continued to call MrEi*, but failed to provide any documentation regarding an employment transfer to the Chicago areaMrE** refused to take any further calls from you unless that employment documentation was provided.You registered a complaint with the National Sales Manager, Abdullrahman N***, and your inquiry was forwarded to a different Account Executive, Nejat A***MsA*** obtained information from you to perform a pre-qualification and obtained your verbal authorization to obtain your credit reportYour inquiry with her was for a second home, rather than an investment or owner occupied propertyAfter reviewing the information provided, including outstanding obligations from your credit records, MsA*** advised you that you would not qualify.As stated in my prior letter, we regret that Guidance Residential will not be able to help you at this time.Regards,Bill M.Senior Vice President

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
You have completely glossed over and disregarded the fact that I was working with Account Rep Nabil E** for months before Nejat A*** came in the picture after repeated, and insistent communication over phone and email You have ignored the dozens of email communications where I begged your company for a response about my file (July 1st onwards) as my closing date was approaching You have ignored that I was supplied a pre qualification letter based on an application submitted to Nabil E** and confirmed by A*** N*** Your response is arrogant, self righteous, and fradulent You did not address the fact that Nabil E** had my sales contract, personal financial information, and was working with my real estate agent for over a month before he completely disappeared And that the only response I received from your office was "He was busy." You are also lying about my prequalification being denied, because Nejat told me that I was qualified based on my income, and that I would need to move into my condo within a week in order to send the underwriter evidence of residency This was after you pulled my credit Why would she say that if I was not qualified? After I opened a Revdex.com complaint, I received a letter that I was not qualified based on income This is disgusting business practice, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Regards,
*** ***

July 30, Dear *** ***:
I have investigated your complaint and find that you did apply for a housing refinance and your application was denied because your property does not meet our financing guidelines; more specifically, more than 10% of the units in your condominium
project have a single owner based on information obtained by the property appraiserThat information was not available to us at the time of your application.However, it appears that our Account Executive may not have fully explained that the appraisal credit would only apply upon a successful completion of your mortgage transactionBased on that possible misunderstanding, I have instructed our Accounting Department to issue you a check, under separate cover, in the amount of $which represents the amount you were charged for the appraisalI trust that my apology and this refund will resolve your complaint with Guidance ResidentialSincerely,
Bill MSenior Vice President

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:You have completely glossed over and disregarded the fact that I was working with Account Rep Nabil E** for months before Nejat A*** came in the picture after repeated, and insistent communication over phone and email You have ignored the dozens of email communications where I begged your company for a response about my file (July 1st onwards) as my closing date was approaching You have ignored that I was supplied a pre qualification letter based on an application submitted to Nabil E** and confirmed by A*** N*** Your response is arrogant, self righteous, and fradulent You did not address the fact that Nabil E** had my sales contract, personal financial information, and was working with my real estate agent for over a month before he completely disappeared And that the only response I received from your office was "He was busy." You are also lying about my prequalification being denied, because Nejat told me that I was qualified based on my income, and that I would need to move into my condo within a week in order to send the underwriter evidence of residency This was after you pulled my credit Why would she say that if I was not qualified? After I opened a Revdex.com complaint, I received a letter that I was not qualified based on income This is disgusting business practice, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Regards,
*** ***

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:In the response, the agent clearly said that their representative miscommunicated their policyThe timing of this miscommunication is the problemHad it been communicated clearly and according to company guidelines, then I might have not invested more money in the appraisalBut the correct information was given to me after I paid for the appraisal. I had already paid for an inspection, and two appraisalsOne appraisal paid by my son when he tried to apply for residential financing (note: he was rejected yet they are requiring him to be on the title), and one paid by meSo we were already invested into the property over $1000.Also, me choosing to continue the application doesn't absolve guidance of their negligence in this matterThey clearly have a problem with communicating company policy to their representative. The fact that they are going to be making over $100,in profit from this business transaction yet they are unwilling to provide some sort of minute concession to address the undue stress that they caused me and my family is indicative of their lack of concern for the consumer.
Regards,
*** ***