We recently purchased a house and ran into a crooked mortgage lender,
Because of their deceptive and dishonest practice, we were tricked and
forced to use them for home loan or at risk of losing the house. this
merely is a warning if you are choosing a morgage company. we also
welcome any consumer advise in any possible action we might be able to
take against them.

The company is Allstate Funding, also known as Allstate Home Loans,
previously known as First Finance located at Scottsdale, Arizona.

The main issue here is their dishonest business practice, but they are
also high cost, bad service, and incompetent. I will give examples in
each category:

1. Dishonest business practice: We were purchasing a 1031 Exchange
property, which normally is a investment property. They first made
falsely promises that they would finance it as a second home, thus give
us a lower interest rate. Then after almost a month, one day before the
closing date, after I called and told them we are at risk of losing the
house if the signing paper still don't go to the title company, the
branch manager called me and dropped the bomb and told us the interest
rate is going to be 0.5 higher - knowing well at this time we had no
choice but to go with them or lose the house. For the whole month, they
didn't tell us the real interest rate, knowing fully well we'd go with
a different lender. Because of their deceptive practice, we were
tricked and then forced to use them as the mortgage company or risk
losing the house, thus incurring financial loss with a higher monthly
morgage.

2. High Cost: their actual processing fee is about $600 higher than
what they give us in the 'good faith estimate' - several fees didn't
appear on the good faith estimate such as 'documentation preparation
fee of 200 and 'funding fee' of 200. Their processing fee is $795,
which is several hundred higher than other companies. All together,
they charged us $1600 for processing the loan - not including 1% loan
origination fee. They also required some uncommon additional insurance
from the title company, so our title fee ended up $300 higher than
expected.

3. Incompetency: It took over a month for them to finally fund the
loan. 3 weeks after we turned in the loan application and required
documents, they requested an additional paystub which should have be
requested much earlier. One day after the closing date, I was still
required a missing signature and had to go to the office to sign it.
The funds didn't arrive until 4 days after the closing date stated on
the contract.

4. Customer Service: Their customer service got worse the longer they
had the loan application, knowing we are not going anywhere with the
closing date near. For one and half weeks before closing, they didnt'
give us any information - no phone calls or emails were returned.
During that time, the title company, the seller, teh sellers realtor,
and I have repeatedly called them, without getting any responses. When
I complained to the branch manager, the branch manager, who is in his
twenties, yelled at me over the phone, these people acted like my best
friend before they get the business, but simply ignored us after they
got our business.

This past month has been a nightmare with this mortgage company, we
learned to be much more careful selecting a mortgage company the next
time around. Because we were forced to accept the loan at the higher
interest rate, we are considering taking action against them either via
state attorney generals office or some legal measures. Any further
advise is appreciated.

Mike