I am doing an FHA Streamline Refinance for a lovely couple and once all is said and done they will be saving over $300 a month on their monthly house payment. Needless to say they are very happy and ready to proceed.
Everything is moving along swimmingly UNTIL I try to order the FHA Case Number. Guess what!? The FHA case number is being held by another bank, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.
OK, this in and of itself is really not that shocking..quite common actually. Mr. FHA Refinancer had tried to get his mortgage refinanced earlier this year through XYZ Bank. XYZ Bank never called him back after he left repeated messages so he decided to explore other options. This is were I come in to the picture.
We called XYZ Bank to request the FHA case number to be transferred to us so that we could finalize our processing. The Loan Officer came on the phone and demanded that we explain how we were able to do the refinance and they were not. Rude and surprising to say the least! After some unnecessary posturing on both our parts she agreed to release it sometime next week.
To top off this great story of unprofessionalism...the Loan Officer from XYZ Bank then proceeded to call my client to reprimand him for trying to refinance with another lender. She told him that no one could do it...and if they did it would cost him over $8,000! Crazy Lady Alert!
I looked into what can be done when banks hold FHA Case Numbers hostage just because they are sore losers. As of yet no one seems to know what to do. If you have suggestions please share here in my comments section.
Banks should be forced to respond and comply to this very simple request (this takes less than 5 minutes) within a 48 hour time frame so that locks and deadlines are not jeopardized.
An FHA Streamline refinance is an awesome and inexpensive way for FHA home owners to take advantage of lower rates. It's simple and not much is needed; no appraisal, no verification of employment, assets or income.
How do I get a case number?
Streamline Your FHA Mortgage
Melissa "The Mortgage Maven" Breeland
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I am curious to know what can be done. I have had two instances lately where the buyer changed lenders midstream for good reasons, but we had a hard time getting the original lenders to relinquish the case number. We did finally get them released but it wasn't easy.
Seems like the borrower ought to have ownership of their FHA case number with maybe a few protections for lenders who get appraisals and things like that. The lender should be allowed to recover expenses like that before releasing a case number.