My wife and I recently had the most terrible experience with Ruoff Mortgage. We were preapproved for a $190,000 loan via the Fort Wayne (Dupont) Ruoff office, and had all but closed on a house. This was a five week process. During week 1 we had two meetings and we were told "100%, you guys HAVE the loan." Like, there was ZERO question. We were given the complete green light. We kept busy by negotiating some house fixes with the seller, and provided all documents our loan officer asked for.
--Week 2, my wife tells me that I can't be on the mortgage with my current employment, as it actually put us "too high" and made us ineligible for a better rate structure. So I ask the loan officer if quitting one of my jobs would help our case, because then it couldn't be used in calculating our total income. My other job is a paid internship, which can't be used anyways. Makes sense, I guess.
--Still week 2. She said YES, so I QUIT ONE OF MY JOBS (I'm in school, so I have a good chunk of savings until next Spring when I get a singular, salaried position with my degree). But at her advisement, I QUIT MY JOB. Okay, so I do this, smooth sailing for a week. We have a closing date set, November 22nd. After consulting the loan officer at Ruoff, WE SIGN PAPERWORK BREAKING LEASE ON OUR APARTMENT IRREVOCABLY. We try later to get it back, but it has already been rented to another person(s). We had an excellent rate.
--Week 3 rolls around. I have lost half of my income, but my wife has a great job in a medical field. But it turns out, she is paid "contact hourly," which means she gets paid uniquely per service, similar to a contract employee, but she works 37-50 hours a week. This just throws a massive wrench in the mortgage proceedings. You would think the world was ending with the fit Ruoff threw. WE TOLD THEM FROM DAY ONE HOW WE BOTH WERE PAID. Our first meeting, probably the second or third question we were asked. "No problem" the loan officer said.
--Week 4 rolls around. We have to push out the close date, the seller is chill with this. Our loan officer is trying to figure out how to make my wife's pay work, but gets nowhere. We actually begin to realize how f****** we are, all at the behest of Ruoff. Ruoff loan officer asks my wife to get her employer to essentially FALSIFY her employment verification in order to secure this loan. My wife is incredibly uncomfortable at this point, and also crazy stressed because all the paperwork for everything is going through her because even after quitting my job, due to my necessary PAID internship, I can't be on the loan. We are living in a nightmare at this point. We send our info out to two other mortgage offices, and they amazingly tell us in ONE DAY that we can't be approved for a loan with my wife's pay structure. Ruoff casually asks if we know someone who can cosign or pay 20%. Yeah, okay. I'll get right on that?
Our mortgage officially fell through within 48 hours of our delayed closing date of the 30th.
--Week 5. I'm typing this at 4:13 AM on what should have been a very happy day for me, moving into my new house with my wife. Instead I am preparing to move into my in-law's basement with her (my wife) because our apartment is gone tomorrow, we are out $500.00 for inspection, we have wasted an entire month growing to love a house we can't get. We have to return a ton of furniture we bought for the house. I'm out one of my revenue streams (job), and we are resigned to our fate. Not to mention the poor seller, who had already moved his family out of the house and didn't find out about these issues until 3 days prior to closing.
Don't use this lender. Go somewhere else, with more qualified individuals that are less likely to waste your time, money, and tears. My wife and I are still shell-shocked but this. The only saving grace of this endeavor was our wonderful realtor, Christina. The loan officer was polite but outright caused us to make some of the worst choices of our adult lives but the advice she gave. I am absolutely astonished at how misplaced our trust was in a business that presents itself as professional. read more