Alexander Harb, of "The Knights Team"/Keller Williams at the Lakes, has been talking to me lately about his problem child that he has mentioned here on AR. I spoke to this client earlier this week to start gathering the information that I needed.
So, let's get into the details. Before this file was sent my way, the client was working with a broker who qualified the client for $x. The client was also trying to get down payment assistance through the state. The broker was also telling the borrower to go for a 6% seller concession on top of all this. Then there were employment issues regarding a second job. This broker built the borrowers expectations up so high, that they rubbed off on the real estate agents that were involved.
Fast forward a several weeks to a month, there is no more communication between the broker and agents and the borrower. Alex reaches out to Marc Blasi, who mentions our company Knightlines Mortgage Services, LLC. Was it fate that we were meant to get together with us both using "Knight" in our names? Who knows? Anyways, I offered to take a look at the situation.
Upon talking to the borrower, I found out that his second job (started about 6 months ago) was in the same industry as his current job (has been in the industry for almost 5 years). His current job was moving his position to a full time job. So, now he may not qualify for as much down payment assistance, if any at all. I asked him to please forward me copies of his pay stubs along with the letter from the county showing the down payment assistance award, so I could start working on getting this money together for him. Now, here is the catch... the borrower wants his payment to not exceed $y (a figure less than what they may actually qualify for).
With my new found information, I started my qualifying. Based on the income situation and what he is comfortable (wants to) paying, I came up with a figure of $z (almost $50,000 less than what the other broker was quoting). This was also assuming that he no longer qualified for down payment assistance. If he did qualify still, we could increase the amount up from there accordingly. I told the client, let's assume that you no longer qualify to be safe on the side of caution.
So, now I have been waiting a week for the borrower to forward me all the information. I told Alex that once I got this information from the client, I could work on the preapproval, so they could go shopping. The client has no longer returned my calls, Alex's calls, or Alex's partner's calls. Apparently, the client is upset because he can no longer get the house that he has been eyeballing. So, am I at fault for loosing this client because I was doing the right thing by qualifying them for what they want to pay versus what they might be able to pay (still don't know if they qualify for down payment because I cannot verfiy the income to give to the county to get state money)? Is this client being unreasonable for throwing everything away because we were watching out for his best interest? What would you have done if you were in my shoes for determining what the borrower would qualify for (want to pay versus qualified to pay, assuming want to pay is less than what the may qualify for)?
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