Hunter Financial Group Artificially low Appraisal Fee on written Good Faith Estimate (GFE), attempted to boost by $250 at last minute. Tempe, Arizona

As the title says, who sends income docs before a GFE? As anyone in the mortgage business knows, borrowers ALMOST NEVER send income documentation and mortgage docs before they receive an estimate and a GFE is required immediately after a verbal application is taken.

At BEST this was a mistake between a loan officers appraisal quote. Good Faith on an estimate is exactly what it sounds like, a good effort to provide an accurate quote and that is exactly what the client received.

A "Change of Circumstance" (COC) for the purposes of Good Faith Estimates must be something that changed since the initial disclosure and could not reasonably have been known at the time of initial disclosure. Unless this mortgage company can demonstrate this, they are not allowed to change the fee.

These rent schedules that they are asking you to pay for are not required if you have enough income to qualify for the mortgage without the rental income for the property. So if the mortgage company was basing your loan on what you stated as your income and your actual income, when verified turned out to be less, this could be a valid COC.

If they had your income documentation before disclosing to you, this would NOT be a valid COC.

If, (as is most likely the case) they just mistakenly disclosed with a standard appraisal fee and realized their mistake after the fact, this is NOT a valid COC.

If a company was trying to bait and switch you they would have quoted you a rate substantially below market or a loan with $0 fees and added on a point to your estimate, I highly doubt they would try a "bait and switch" for a mere $250 on an appraisal, a fee that is 3rd party and not even of the mortgage company.

They quoted you a "standard appraisal fee" which was then changed to a "2-4 unit multi-unit income producing property" appraisal fee as soon as the additional fee was discovered.

You paid $0 fees, $0 obligation and were able to cancel without penalty as soon as the higher fee was determined from the vendor.

Best wishes,

This company is in the mortgage business and knows full-well the cost of the appraisal, yet they still put an artificially-low price on their written good faith estimate (GFE).  They then tried to defend the increase with the a "change of circumstances" reason, which is their out to not honor their GFE, when there was absolutely no change of circumstance at all.  I believe sleazy, underhanded, and dishonest dealing, and probably illegal!

It sounds like they immediately notified you as soon as there was a discrepancy of the fee from the appraisal vendor. It sounds like you did not wish to pay the additional $250 fee that was requested by the appraisal company so they cancelled your application as you requested and I'm sure you received a timely refund from the vendor with $0 cost to you.

Not sure what more you want.