Some of Lending Tree's partners are the real WTF. I used them for my last house, about 5 years ago. I got an offer from a organization I thought I could trust. (Mortgage arm of a large online brokerage).
Do all the paperwork, everything is fine. We have one odd bit- due to some timing issues, I need to formally buy the new house about two months before the sale of the old goes through. The old was sold- I had formal committment and good faith money down from the buyer. I was completely up front about this with the company, and had plenty of money in the bank to cover both the intial down payment on the new place and two mortgage payments for two months.
I get a letter saying the mortgage on the new place is approved. Great- I put down the $3k good faith for the new place and relax.
Two days before closing, I get a call from the mortgage broker; "We've declined your application since your debt to income ratio is too high."
Me: "WTF! I have a letter from you saying the application was approved"
Them: "Well, that was just preliminary: it hadn't cleared our review staff"
Me "WTF? There's a period after 'approved' There's nothing in the letter that says it was conditional"
Them: "This happens all the time. It's nothing big."
Me: "I'm going to lose $3k and a house and you think it's nothing big???"
Them: "Well, you can just tell us your old house has closed and you'll be fine"
Me: "But it hasn't closed. I'd be committing fraud by lying to you, and you'd even know I was lying" (Yes, they actually suggested this)
Them: "Sorry, there's nothing we can do. You don't meet our criteria"
Panic ensues- I can't find any lender that would offer me something on two days notice, I don't have enough to buy the house with cash so it's to the laywer I go. Best decision I ever made after he explains some of the differences in laws between Virginia (where I am) and California (where they are). Next phone call
Me: "Ok, I've spoken to my lawyer and real estate broker. Here's the deal. By denying me this loan after claiming it was approved, you are in violation of Virginia statue #XXX. I and my real estate agent will be seeing you in civil court shortly. We will also be petitioning YYY, the head of the VA department that regulates home loan brokers to have your license in the state pulled for fradulent lending practices. Enjoy"
Them: "Umm, wait. I think I need to talk to my supervisor"
Ten minutes later I had my mortgage. Amazing how fast they did a 180 when the legal hammer appeared. I was almost sorry- my lawyer was looking forward to it since he apparently gets a few of these a year and wins them all.
E
edremy
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RE: LendingTree WTF
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RE: A Daily WTF site WTF...
Opera is very agressive with caching by default: you'll see this behavior with a number of other sites such as a popular "not news" site
Tools->Preferences->History, set "Check if cached page is updated on the server" from "Every 5 hours" to "Always". Or you can just hit reload.