The following two columns of consumer statements are not the exception, -but unfortunately the rule: IF YOU HAVE BEEN VICTIMIZED, CONTACT ME AND YOUR STATE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL. Current frauds come in daily and will be posted bi-weekly.  Its hard to keep up.  Horton and the proper state authorities simultaneously get the tips of the ongoing predatory lending.  Horton has not changed its ways and has been less than accomodating, to say the least...... NOTE FROM THE WEBMASTER: The following recounts immediately below are current 2007 DHI Mortgage schemes after CEO Donald Tomnitz, Chairman/founder Donald Horton, the FTC, HUD, FBI and SEC have received USPS certified letters, faxes and emails of the nationwide federal crimes of predatory lending. As you read the first of the following 5 current frauds, remember that a significant change in borrower status must be communicated to the lender to close on this house. Not informing the lender and financial institution making the loan is a federal crime. Interest rate manipulation is a federal crime. 100% financing on a home where the homeowner has lost his job is the stuff the current sub prime lending meltdown causing the bankruptcy of dozens of mortgage companies costing billions of dollars across the country is a federal crime. Falsifying federally backed loan documents is a federal crime. D R Horton is truly desperate to sell this home at all costs to the taxpayer to meet shareholder expectations and make its interest debt payments. SINCE D R HORTON DID NOT WANT TO PREVENT OR CORRECT THESE FRAUDS, THEY HAVE BEEN TURNED OVER TO THEIR RESPECTIVE STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL. R?, Nevada, closed mid 2007: DHI Mortgage originated loan whereby $24,000 in closing costs for a $415,000 loan.  RESPA laws require that the lender not unecessarily increase fees for the borrower.  D R Horton offered 'incentives' to use DHI Mortgage.  These incentives were recouped....and then some......by D R Horton.  A clear RESPA violation.  The closing docs were independantly reviewed by mortgage brokers. J?, Nevada, closed mid 2007: Nearly the same as above however, the DHI mortgage broker paid the additional few hundred dollars to close escrow out of his own pocket so as not to add insult to injury. LI, Nevada, closed 2006: When my wife, and I went in to DHI. this guy had asked us if we wanted our Taxes, and Insurance taken out of our payments? Of course, we said yes. We assumed that our House Payments would cover, and include all this in the payments. Well, we signed a lot of papers, and we read most of the papers. This certain document was more than half way down through papers as thick as some Dictionaries, and this is not our first home that we have bought. We signed it without reading all of it. (Not careful enough)  Actually, this guy did take out the taxes,and insurance, completely. Just to get our payments low enough for us to make,  and to get higher Interest Rates for his own pockets. I knew then we were tricked. Of course, I did not find this out until the County sent me Tax Bills. I refinanced immediately, but I had to come up with $13, 000 out of my own pocket. TD, Illinois, currently closing?: Feb 13, 2007 my husband lost his job and we called D R Horton right away and stated we would not be able to buy the house. We were told by sales (Julie) that we would lose our 10, 000 if we backed out and she kept saying Adam will find a job. I then called DHI assuming there was not a chance they would approve a loan without my husband having a job. They assured my because last July we were approved we would still get the loan, but to talk to Cambridge/D R Horton because they are a good company they should give your money back!! Not the case. I talked about 3-4 times with Carol B. in regards of our options even mentioning what DHI said and she agreed with Julie that they would not give our money back. So our options were to extend our closing date month by month only guarantee one month possible two. I was told to send a letter/email to Carol stating our current HOME was not sold yet, nothing to do with my husband still not having a job and to ask for an extension. We also had to be listed with a realtor in order to get an extension. We did do that as well. We got the 1st ext. with a letter stating if we did not close on June 18th we would be charged $100 per day. Carol never mentioned this during any of our conversations and I sent a letter back with that information and did talk with her. We did get a 2nd ext of July 18th. We are not in a position due to past bills and paying cobra while my husband has been off work to take on 2 mortgages. Offered 10, 000 to go with DHI so we did, D R Horton told rate would be 6.5% our monthly payment would be around 1800.00 (July 2006) Now being offered 8.5% interest only – NO DOC loan making our payments somewhere around 2300-2400. We would have never bought the house if that is what our payments would have been last July. DHI has sent the loan to Kelly in Texas and we have not heard back since last week. D R Horton had the wrong loan amount and had us bring 10,000 to closing which is something we first talked about but quickly changed our minds once we found out what we could sell our town home for and did alert DHI and D R Horton of only putting our 10, 000 earnest money towards the house. About 12 days ago Julie called giving a different mortgage company that could get a better rate?? We called and met with them, only to find out they could get us7% vs. 8.5% and since it was at least 1 point difference Julie would apply to get us our incentives even though it was not DHI. But to our surprise this new company stated we would be getting our earnest money back to have cash to help pay our town home down until it sold and we would be financing 100% of the house. This sounded good to us, at least we would have some cash to get us by for about 7 months. Well the glitch was they wanted us to sign paperwork stating we make almost double our income and sign tax information to go along with this. We did not feel comfortable doing so and have been at a standstill since that point.  MZ, Arizona, never closed: SINCE D R HORTON DID NOT WANT TO PREVENT OR CORRECT THIS FRAUD, IT HAS BEEN TURNED OVER TO THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL. Portions of the letter that MZ just sent to the CEO, Senior VP and regional VP of DR Horton: I am writing to stress my deep dissatisfaction of dealing with DR Horton and it’s affiliated mortgage company DHI Mortgage Company. Back in January 2007 I made an offer on a condo in AZ. On the offer I clearly marked the property type as investment property. DR Horton offered me $4,500 credit towards the upgrade along with $2,500 credit if I chose to finance with DHI Mortgage. Soon after I started the loan process with a D R Horton representative, he notified me that I can receive a lower rate if I apply as a second home loan, which I did. In March 2007 two young students who were referred to me by DR Horton approached me to rent the condo, which my realtor started the process with them. This means that all along DR Horton was well aware that I am purchasing this property as an investment. One day before the walk though when I started seriously questioning the hidden fees. The D R Horton agents responded to me in the most arrogant manner to notify me that my rate is even higher because this is an income property. Therefore they offered me to either buy the property cash, or walk out. However that these people know about the property status, they offered me to purchase as a second home property. D R Horton referred me the tenants, then one day before the closing they rise the rate and offer me take it or leave it!! I even offered to change the lender and assured the D R Horton that I can get my lean approved within 24 hours, the respond was in that case not only I will lose the $2,500 credit towards the loan but the $4,500 credit for upgrade. I have lost 7 months of my time + $5,000 deposit + $300 appraisal fee, dealing with an angry tenant, just because people working for big corporations feel that they will crash a small consumer just because they can?? This type of behavior is un-ethical and I would like to assure you that I will pound the Media, FBI, FDIC and Arizona Department of Financial till I make sure my concern been heard. DC, TX, closed 12-03: SINCE D R HORTON DID NOT WANT TO PREVENT OR CORRECT THIS FRAUD, IT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO CONGRESS.  In December 2003, D R Horton sold DC, a divorced retiree, a defective home complete with an attempted DHI predatory loan package. D R Horton fraudulently induced her into the contract with ‘good faith’ promises of a low 5% interest rate which for some unknown reason ballooned to 9% at signing. If not for her mad dash to her bank, she would have either forfeited her deposits or would have already lost the home to foreclosure. Incidentally, the fixed term of her current mortgage was set to expire last year, but her bank in considering her financial and health conditions was gracious enough to extend the fixed term for an additional year which will again expire in November 2007. Yet another example of a bank and the taxpayers cleaning up Horton’s mess. After years of avoidance, and a long series of misrepresentations by D R Horton , DC is exasperated and her physical health is causally failing. In answer to the rhetorical question which is posed at drhortoncouldhavekilledme.com: “What if I had a heart condition…I would likely be dead……..how many other seniors has this happened to?……lets find out:” -I found one. D R Horton policies have very likely led to death. BOTH OF THE FOLLOWING HAVE BEEN TURNED OVER TO CALIFORNIA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL DW, CA, closed 06: DW had credit score problems and was referred to D R Horton’s “Home buyer’s club.” Once you join with a paid membership, your credit score improves so that you can qualify for a DHI mortgage brokered loan. Once approved, DHI gave DW $7500 in credit towards the down payment, and provided 100% financing. At closing, the costs were $9,925 with a high interest rate. D R Horton’s ‘credit’ did not cover the costs, and this financing is the stuff that the current sub prime melt down is about. BK, CA, closing? I'm going through same experience right now. My father is purchasing a D R Horton property right now. My close business partner in Citi Mortgage offered 6.25% in 15 year fixed loan. DHI Mortgage matched the rate and offered $10,000 builder incentive to pay for closing costs. My father and I decided to go with DHI Mortgage. After about 20 days of loan process, now they are saying there was a big market change (American Home Mortgage stock crashing etc...) and investors can't offer me anything better than 7%, 15 year fixed. Then, I searched D R Horton scam and found your site. Please give me advice on what I can do from here. Thank you for spreading this story and people should know what kind of company this is.	Predatory Lending- Immigrants, low English proficiency and the elderly are the prime targets for financial fraud. In the 2006 D R Horton Annual Report to Shareholders at page 33 and displayed at www.drhorton.com, the Board admits that it has a “94% captive business percentage.” The Supreme Court determined in 1945 that only a 70% market share is presumed to be anticompetitive. In other words, 24 of every 94 Horton home sale loans are presumptively predatory.  At least ¼ of Horton’s consumers have paid inflated fees, or higher interest rates than necessary when considering consumers’ excellent FICO scores. Lost in financial documents, which are sometimes not even provided to the consumers as per Federal law, are ‘credits’ which have either not been credited or instead misapplied to further stuff Horton’s pockets.  D R Horton's Board of Directors have received THREE certified letters of the discovery of their boardroom implemented nationwide federal crimes and have done nothing to stop it for two years.  All this can be verified with the USPS and the hundreds of copies sent to media, law enforcement and downloaded from the web. MR, CA, closed 07: I am a recent homebuyer of a DR Horton home in Oakley CA and was also forced to use their mortgage company for a loan. My husband and I have excellent credit (scores in 800), excellent jobs and had a twenty percent down payment, but yet we were told we HAD to use their mortgage company. ?K, CA, closed 06: I live in a DR Horton subdivision. I was bullied into choosing certain lenders even after I found another lender who was saving me 100s a month on my house payment. I was told I could not change lenders. I also think that I was a victim of predatory lending. I could have gotten better rates and a cheaper loan somewhere else. I was also charged excessive fees. I have excellent credit and was not aware also that in addition to my other closing costs, I would also be charged over $3000 in broker fees. The loan cost me close to $10,000. I did not really need a broker since I have good credit. They promised me a $5000 incentive but I wound up paying more in fees than I got on my incentive. The loan officer altered documents to qualify me for a loan that I would not have been approved for. She said that she could qualify me and claimed that I had income from sources that I did not. When I did the loan, I was honest about my income but she seasoned the documents and got me approved whether I qualified or not. She did this knowing I believe that I could go into foreclosure……  T?, Florida, closed 05: In the midst of buying a D R Horton home, we were informed that we had to sign a paper stating that we had to use DHI Mortgage or only 8 other lenders they approve of. Basically, you cant use any mortgage company they don’t approve of. I went to D R Horton’s local offices to let them know how it made consumers feel, and their agent told me she was going to ‘pull’ my contract. I then threatened to bring my story to the papers. The weekend passed and at 5:30 Monday evening, D R Horton told us that they had indeed pulled the contract. We called numerous people and left numerous messages without reply. We finally spoke with a D R Horton manger who told us that they would not sell us the house for fear that we would slander the D R Horton name. We have yet to get our deposit money back. Stand up, write letters express your disgust with their treatment of customers or better yet, use a different builder. JY, Las Vegas, closed 3/04: We signed a contract for our D R Horton home and were told that we had to go with DHI Mortgage. We were put in the position that we could either lose the deposits and the house, or go with DHI. The house and interest rates were initially locked at a certain price and rate, but when we went to sign, D R Horton had changed the home price and the interest rate had jumped. DM, California, broker: Did you know that if DHI has to broker out the deal to an investor ( one of the few they are approved to use) they MUST make 1.75 pts either on the front or the back? As a broker it takes about a week to get approved w/ a new investor with new loan programs...I was told by a D R Horton loan officer at DHI that it was next to impossible for them to be approved w/ a new company. D R Horton is not even TRYING to get the client the best possible financing. They have a take or leave it attitude and they cost me 3% on a deal that canceled due to DHI's inability to perform. DR Horton told my client that they were keeping their deposit....it was only after they received a letter from an attorney that they reconsidered. EA, Las Vegas, closed 3/04: My credit score was 800, and I put down nearly 20% towards my D R Horton home. My initial good faith estimate called for a 3.75% interest rate. When I went to sign, the interest rate D R Horton had promised had jumped and my payments had ballooned by 25% per month. I felt manipulated, in shock, intimidated and afraid to lose the home, but I signed the mortgage contract anyway. Everyone that I know who bought a D R Horton home got screwed. Sherrie, Thornton Colorado, never closed: I have been dealing with DHI Mortgage for almost 3 months, they finally get the loan done, and now D R Horton doesn't want to cut their offset check back for the construction defects, and come to find out the house is on the market for more money and my loan docs are ready to go. This has been the worst experience of my life. I am a single mom of 3 kids and work very hard for my money, and they won't co-operate or give me back my 5000.000 in earnest money. Don't buy a D R Horton home or you will be sorry and definitely don't use their mortgage company. MC, Las Vegas, closed 04: My original mortgage was financed through DHI Mortgage and the settlement took place through a D R Horton title company. I am not sure if my experience is what you are looking for but I would be happy to discuss how DR Horton made it nearly impossible for almost every buyer in our community to obtain outside financing, or unbiased representation at the place of settlement. BN, Reno, closed 06: We used DHI for our mortgage because D R Horton told us we had to if we wanted there incentives. Needless to say my closing costs where outrageous. Example, first loan is at 6.6% for a 5 year arm after spending thousands in ‘incentive’ money to buy it down. D R Horton told me the rate was being bought down to 6%, 30 year fixed rates were at 6% with no buy downs with all other lenders. GS, Las Vegas, closed 04: When they found out we were not going to use DHI mortgage, the agent for DR Horton, did everything she possibly could to make us lose out on this sale. Including holding my parents at bay for 4 hours when they had a business to run. I think our realtor, our mtg. company, DR HORTON, and Aegis were all in this together as we were lied to about our mortgage. SF, Las Vegas, never closed: DHI approved me for a 5.5% interest rate with 10% down. As soon as I paid my $15,000 deposit to D R Horton, the rate had changed to 7.75% and I was told that I needed 30% down. D R Horton told me that I needed almost $200,000 cash to close the deal. I couldn’t come up with the money, so they kept my deposit. RH, S. Carolina, closed 12/04: We already own a D R Horton home and were looking into buying another. DHI Mortgage pre approved us for another $225k mortgage even though we are school teachers with modest income. We luckily added a contingency clause that our current home would have to sell before closing of the second. D R Horton listed the second home for $249k. We requested to see the appraisal report. There had been two prepared by the same D R Horton affiliated appraiser. The first put the value at only $228k with an office installed in the garage, and the second at $229k without the office. The D R Horton agent told us that increasing the square footage of living space would increase the value. Another nearly identical house in the same D R Horton development sold for even less at $190,000. We never got a copy of these papers as requested. Webmaster Patrick Missud, Las Vegas, Closed 3/04: After 28 verified communications with D R Horton and wholly owned subsidiary DHI Mortgage, I was approved for an 'in house' loan. I asked D R Horton to counteroffer my great Wells Fargo loan acknowledgment, but they couldn’t even come close. I refused their loan package and on that very same day D R Horton sent me a certified, restricted delivery, return receipt form letter stating that; because I had not fulfilled their 'inside' lender requirements, they would keep my deposits and cancel my home purchase contract. Having suddenly realized a $75,000 loss, I immediately required hospitalization for severe aggravation of my congenital medical condition. At the hospital I was shot up with two narcotics and after four hours of excruciating pain, was capable of limited mobility. I suffer from a non fatal kidney disease, but what if it had been some type of coronary condition? The answer is that I would likely be dead. How many seniors and other consumers have received such letters and treatment by D R Horton? Was I the only one to have received such a form letter? Was I the only one to fall victim to FEDERAL PREDATORY LENDING? You tell me...missudpat@yahoo.com ED, Florida, closed 06: [Misrepresentations…………..] They steered me to DR Horton Mortgage saying "I had to use their mortgage company or one they recommended to me to get the best rate". This practice is illegal and a pressure tactic that many individuals on your website I am sure experienced. Since then I have had tremendous emotional stress in my marriage in having made this decision to buy terrible property. The market value has gone done at least $50,000 from my sales price and I am under-employed due to the poor job market barely keeping my head above water.
DY, Las Vegas, never closed: D R Horton promised us discounts, but when we went to sign, they told us there would be no discounts. We made a new deal with different discounts and a higher interest rate. Again, when we went to sign D R Horton refused the discounts and changed to an even higher interest rate. We tried to make a third deal, but D R Horton refused and kept our $17,000 and canceled the contract instead. BR, Las Vegas, closed 2/06: I had an 820 credit score and D R Horton promised me $7400 in closing costs. The day before I went to sign my loan docs, my interest rate jumped from 5% to 6.625%, I was charged $300 in faxing fees, had to pay $200 per month for purchase mortgage insurance and was out of pocket an additional $7000 in closing costs. D R Horton told me that if I didn’t take the deal, I would lose my $6000 in earnest money deposits. PB, Las Vegas, closed 2/06: We bought a D R Horton home under a 1031 exchange contingency. We had a locked interest rate for the month at 7%. When we went to sign and close escrow within that month, we were changed from the fixed to an interest only loan, and the rate on the fixed loan had been unlocked and readjusted up to 7.25%. D R Horton also told us that at closing there would be no out of pocket fees, but there were. DC, Las Vegas, closed 2/04: I wanted to use my brother as my licensed mortgage broker. He got me a 4.25% interest rate and the best that D R Horton could do was 5.75%. D R Horton twice required me to rush from California to Las Vegas to deposit more money and sign documents in a rush to close, but neither time were the escrow documents ready. I got to use my brother as my mortgage broker, but I ended up paying $100,000 as my lot premium. JV, Georgia, closed 7/06: Half the people in my subdivision would like to be part of a lawsuit. D R Horton sent me a letter after closing stating that I signed the wrong interest rate and they needed to make an addendum. I have issues with DHI Mortgage and I felt pressured to take an in house loan which turned out to be interest only. This ordeal has been a nightmare. HC, Las Vegas, closed 2/06: I bought two D R Horton homes. For each one I was promised about $7000 as cash incentives to be applied to my closing costs. Not only were these incentives not applied, but my earnest money was used to cover some of the closing costs instead of applying to the base cost of the property. I was also charged an additional 24 days interest penalty because D R Horton did not close timely. John, Florida, closed 6/06: Our experience with D R Horton has been nothing short of terrible. We decided to use an outside lender rather than their incompetent mortgage lender. We told the builder to give us advance warning of the closing so that we would be ready. Suddenly, at 9:00AM one morning a D R Horton agent told us that we had to attend closing that same day at 2:00PM. We shuffled our schedules and showed up at 2:00PM to start signing the documents, but DHI hadn’t yet faxed the financial documents to the lender. The lender’s wire cutoff to transfer funds was at 2:00PM EST. D R Horton caused us to close late, but that’s the penalty you pay when you don’t use their inside lender. By the way, D R Horton is also notorious for putting home owners in an escrow shortage since they control the closing, and regardless of the lender. In what we paid in costs we could have been purchasing a $5M hotel. CP, Las Vegas, closed 2/06: I wanted a fixed rate mortgage and D R Horton found me an interest only mortgage that I did not want. I told D R Horton that I was getting an outside mortgage and that’s when my outside broker couldn’t get information from the builder. My mortgage agent got the run around from the builder for over one week. Two hours before closing, D R Horton called and said that if I didn’t sign the loan documents from DHI that I would lose the house. I signed the DHI loan, got the house and was charged an additional $5000 in closing costs by parent company D R Horton. Has That Homebuilder Got a Deal for You? By John Rosevear June 22, 2007: Watch out for savings that sound huge. "Up to $85,000 in savings!" trumpets a recent D. R. Horton ad for a development in Florida. The question you have to ask is: Discount from what? When Ford or Toyota offer a $3,000 incentive on a slow-selling model, it's easy to understand what's going on: They're offering a discount from the factory's price for the car, which is a widely published, established number. But when a builder offers a $99,000 discount on a newly built home, are you really buying a $300,000 home for $201,000? Or are you paying $201,000 for a home that's really a $190,000 home spiffed up with marketing smoke and mirrors? In order to understand if you're really getting a discount, you need to have some idea of what the home's fair value is in the current market. Odds are, you're not getting as big a bargain as the advertising implies -- and you may be getting no bargain at all. Builder financing: Just like car manufacturers, homebuilders have discovered that offering financing to their buyers can smooth the sales process while adding a significant revenue stream to their businesses. And just as with car-buying, sometimes the "factory financing" is a good deal and sometimes it isn't, especially if it's combined with other incentives. A $10,000 "cash back" promotion that requires you to use a builder's lender and pay above-market rates or fees may be no bargain. Lastly, don't let a homebuilder tell you that you "have" to use their lender. That's illegal: Federal law guarantees your right to seek financing and related services from independent providers, and a builder who tries to restrict your options is probably pulling a fast one.	??, Las Vegas, closed: A D R Horton client had to come up with an additional $70k within 2 days close of escrow because of a change in lender other than DHI. They changed lenders because their ‘good faith’ interest rate had drastically increased at the time of contract signing. They were immediately pressured in a rush to close by D R Horton. MH, Florida, closed 06: I recently closed on a home by DR Horton and was forced to use their lender (DHI mortgage & Title). I would like to discuss this with you, please let me know where/when to reach you. CM, Reno, closed 9/06: I was pressured constantly by DHI Mortgage to get a loan through them or I wouldn't be able to buy the D R Horton house I wanted so much. I was given 5 different loan quotes and each time they got higher and higher the first one was 1700.00 which was what they promised me the first time I looked at the house then I filled the forms out they ran a credit check and then it was 1900.00 then 2200.00, 2400.00 and finally 2700.00 which was totally ridiculous because Nicole from D R Horton’s Sacramento Office knew I couldn't afford that. She also knew I wanted the home so much and it was perfect for my family needs. Thank God I had a persistent realtor who looked out for my needs because we ended using another lender but as that happened D R Horton kept changing the conditions and raising the price of the house, I backed out about 8 times. I did end up paying for the sellers fees at the time of signing, when I signed papers with D R Horton it was not disclosed and I asked Rosemary Rodriguez up front are there any hidden costs that I should know about, she said no. With Ticor company I was put on the spot and had to come out of pocket more money for the sellers fees and taxes. SB, Las Vegas, closed 3/04: I am a realtor who brought clients to D R Horton developments. Two of these clients spoke limited English and were ultimately defrauded by D R Horton and lost all of their deposits. KS, California, closed 06: What an experience I had purchasing my D R Horton home.....the Sales Staff was less than adequate and forthcoming. They were manipulative liars. I could never get an honest answer from D R Horton’s agents at their office. They tried to muscle me into using their lender.....they must have thought I was crazy, their rates & fees were higher, they tried to tell me I wouldn't get the upgrades unless I used their lender. D R Horton also called me and told I would receive $10,000 toward my closing costs and then called me back 30 minutes later and reniged....."because Erin told me she was looking at the wrong file". I advised her, to bad.....you told me I would receive it.....we have a legal and binding contract. She & Marilyn in the Sac office told me take it or leave it. LR, Las Vegas, closed 2/04: D R Horton told us that if we didn’t use DHI that our upgrades and home would cost more, and that the price difference would have to be made up in cash. The loan officers couldn’t estimate the interest rate in good faith and we ended up with a 5 ½%, 30 year fixed. D R Horton told us that if we wanted, we could get an outside lender to “come in at the end,” but our closing was then delayed by D R Horton and so we had to go with DHI. RL, California, closed 06: I have listed below a few of the things I believe are grounds for investigating D R Horton: 1. I have no copy of a HUD anywhere in my files, but do have 2 unsigned statements referring to having read a HUD. 2. I have paperwork in my file showing that I make $6833.33 per month income, claiming that $4500.00 of it is wages, which is fact and $1500.00 is for overtime, $833.33 is for bonuses, both of which are false. I am a contract employee for the City of Stockton, I am not allowed overtime nor do I get bonuses for any reason. 3. I was told that I would get a $5000.00 credit for using DR Horton's lender, DHI Mortgage Co., but I don't see how that was applied to the initial cost of my home. 4. I received the first couple of statements from DHI Mortgage on my mortgage loan, the remainder of the statements, I have had to make copies of the last statement (November 2006) and send in my mortgage with notations on not having received that months statement on it. I have also noticed that my mortgage payments are not cashed until the 16th of each month even though I send them out in plenty of time to get to Texas from California before then. I received my statement for tax purposes and noted that the address was correct, yet I still do not receive monthly statements.. 5. D R Horton verbally promised that both the 80% and the 20% loans would be held by DHI Mortgage for the first year until I was able to refinance, yet the 20% loan was sold to Countrywide on the day of signing the documents. BB, Las Vegas, closed 2/04: I am a realtor who has heard and knows that D R Horton is an aggressive lender in Las Vegas.
FC, Las Vegas, closed 4/04: I wanted my son to broker my loan since he is a licensed mortgage broker and I‘m a retired senior. D R Horton told me that if I did so, I would have to come up with an additional $26,000. The house would have appraised at a higher rate if I financed through him rather than DHI mortgage, even though the property, improvements and options would have remained the same. My credit score was 800 and my daughter’s 700. We both closed at the same time for our D R Horton homes for roughly the same loan amounts, but my rate through DHI was 5.5% and hers, 4.25%. The underwriter-loan servicer was the same but for some reason D R Horton thought that I was the higher credit risk. ??, Las Vegas, never closed: I wanted to buy a D R Horton home and applied for a loan through DHI Mortgage. The loan that DHI found for me was 1% higher than the competition so I went to my outside lender. D R Horton then refused to cooperate, kept my deposit and proceeded to cancel the contract. T?, California, closed 7/06: I pre qualified for a loan through D R Horton affiliate, DHI Mortgage as was required. I told them that I wanted to bring in my own lender and D R Horton agents said this was ok. After I reviewed DHI’s good faith estimate, I discovered that their costs and fees were just in excess of their ’incentives’ and I wasn’t saving any money. D R Horton gave me the gfe two days AFTER my last day to bring in an outside lender. Feeling cheated, I argued with DHI which then wrote me a new gfe with lower fees, but they left the interest rate blank. In the end, I was very displeased with how I was treated and the amounts that I had to pay. TC, Las Vegas, closed 2/03: When I went to the D R Horton offices at DHI Mortgage, it was implied that if I did not go with their inside lender that control over the loan would be lost. I didn’t want to go down that road. I acceded to D R Horton, used their lender and then immediately refinanced with Wells Fargo. DH, Reno, closed 06: We are curious to know if there has been a class action suit against DR Horton or some other type of suit pending. Just for your information we were pressured by DR Horton during the purchase of our home. Not only were we pressured to use their lender, we were told that we had to use their real estate broker to sell the home we were living in as a condition of buying our new D R Horton home. We were not given the choice of selling the home we owned at the time through the real estate agent/broker of our choosing. In addition, the broker that we had to use, passed us off to one of his agents, who in our opinion was incompetent, leaving our home unlocked, doors and windows open and lights on whenever she showed the home. GO, Las Vegas, closed 3/04: I live in California and on two occasions was called by D R Horton in a rush to close. We twice had to fly into Nevada and sign escrow documents which weren’t ready when we got there. We ultimately had to sign these documents in California after D R Horton mailed them to us during the third go around. Had we not flown in to Vegas the first two times, D R Horton would have probably kept our deposits. DW, Florida, closed 06: I received your letter regarding D R Horton, and it has caused me to think about my own closing with DHI. I did not have the feeling that they were dealing with me on the up and up. There were several things that disturbed me. D R Horton told me that they would pay off one of my bills at closing but didn’t. Also the second mortgage interest rate had increased from 8-9 ¼ % when I signed at close of escrow. AL, Las Vegas, closed 200?, [Construction defects and Warranty misrepresentations] …NOW for the lending issues.....yes we are one of the 2 year later variable rate victims...I hope that when the association nazi's patrol the neighborhood, they are not too offended by the FORECLOSURE SIGN in the window. SINCERELY....SCREWED BY D R HORTON. GM, Las Vegas, closed 2004: We had bought a house from D R Horton in Sun Ridge Heights Henderson, NV. We have since lost the house (short sale) due to not being able to afford it. I personally feel that we were financed by DHI when we should have never qualified. D R Horton had us supply documents from our business and not our personal incomes. Please let me know if there are any others that have had the same experience and where I might be able to get some advice on any action we can take. This purchase almost bankrupt us and our company and has severely damaged our credit. We have had to fight to get our selves out of the hole and we have yet to get out of the red. It is a daily struggle. GS, Las Vegas, closed 2005: [Construction defects and Warranty misrepresentations]…the 150,000.00 that D R Horton had the appraisal inflated to benefit them (which I have in writing) so all in all…..	S?, Colorado, closed 2/02: I contracted to buy a house from D R Horton. Before signing the contract, I did a walk through and found major leaks, uneven walls, sagging ceilings and runs in the paint. I told them I wouldn’t sign until the problems were corrected. D R Horton then told me that if I used DHI Mortgage they would credit me in cash for the repairs. D R Horton took three months to do my loan and then decided to sell my home to someone else for more money. This has been the worst experience of my life. I am a single mother of 3 kids and work hard for my money, and they wont cooperate or give me back my $5000 in earnest money. Don’t buy a D R Horton home or you’ll be sorry. EG, Las Vegas, closed 03: I had lending issues and the conflict of going SOL with D R Horton. JS, Washington, never closed: We applied to D R Horton for a DHI Mortgage loan as required. They pre approved us for nearly $300k. For eight months they tried to get full approval, and we tried to get a better outside rate. Our outside lender told us that our debt to income ratio was too high to get such a large loan so we went back to DHI. A second agent there told us that we should never have been pre approved in the first place. D R Horton couldn’t come through with the loan as promised and they kept our $7,200.00 NS, Las Vegas, closed 1/06: I own a real estate management and investment company in California. I and five clients bought 6 D R Horton homes which were conditioned on the use of DHI Mortgage. We had to use their lender, otherwise D R Horton would not sell us the houses. TP, ??, closed??: We found a discrepancy during our closing and would not sign anything until D R Horton corrected the numbers. CS, Florida, closed 06: I just wanted to summarize my concerns with how DR Horton sells and warranties their homes. 1) They have in there contract that you must use DHI Title to receive incentives. If you do not use DHI Title then you must use an approved company from a list. I wanted to use a mortgage broker who would use a company from D R Horton’s list and they would not let me do this. I already had a relationship with this gentleman and he was more than happy to use one of there approved names (Countrywide, Suntrust, WAMU, etc), but they said that I would have to go to the companies directly only. I could have saved some money through my mortgage broker not to mention the closing by D R Horton was the worst I have ever seen. (Item 2 in defects & warranty misrepresentations) ??, Arizona, closed 2/00: We had to pay twice for an appraisal that never happened, to a company that is part of D R Horton. DP, California, closed 06: Hello I am writing to you in response to a letter I got from you about the financing package with D R Horton. I just purchased a house from them and was pressured to use DHI also, but had already been approved with my own bank and wanted to stay with them. D R Horton instantly told me I had to use them. My real estate agent told me that was not true. And so I did go with my own bank and they took back their $10,000.00 towards my closing costs. They told me I would only get that if I used DHI for my loan. D R Horton even called my loan agent directly and tried to get her to release it to them and she told them no. And I then found out the loan I was getting with my bank was much better and cheaper by far. So I stuck with my outside bank and just lost the $10,000. JL, California, closed 5/06: I am a mortgage broker and asked D R Horton, what if I do my own loan? She said you will lose all your incentives and you will pay full price for your home!! Well I said fine I just wanted to get over with this bad experience with you guys!!! After we sign the loan everything it was a lie!! I paid D R Horton more that 10K in closing cost my 70K weren’t issued right because my balance of my house it was a loan for $ 412,850.00 I got fucked in my own face by this company!!! Sure enough I got my 1099 from DR Horton and I spend 10K for buying down the rate plus closing cost so the total it was for 14K total cost!! We are the 70K credit back? They made so much money with these schemes! I was pressured and forced to use DR Horton Lender and Title Company as a precondition of buying my nightmare home!!! My house it’s has so many problems!!! Well enough my I referred 3 customer to DR Horton and they took advantaged of them due that they didn’t speak English!! I was going to do their loans but they we forced to do their loans with DR Horton!! They were proposing to customer at the signing of the contract that they can give them a 6.25% fixed or 5.95% fixed for 30yeras!! I was very upset because the was the hook to get them at the beginning so they can use there lender and they can charge them more!! If you need more reference of these schemes I can send you their names and addresses so you can see that they were screwed by this lender because they didn’t speak Spanish!! The loan officer was Anna, please can we do something about it because this schemes needs to stop and they have to pay for what they did!! We are not happy at all in our home it has some many problems and they won’t fix it!!! MB, Florida, never closed: D R Horton promised to approve our loan by ’repairing our credit’ which would allow for a lower interest rate. We wanted to buy in Texas but were currently living in Florida. We tried to move forward with the closing although the disputes for our credit reports had not been fully satisfied. I requested to be fully reimbursed D R Horton’s financial specialist’s fees to continue the disputes as previously agreed upon. D R Horton’s credit repair program failed as a whole to approve us for a lower interest rate.
#1 D R Horton has been found to have violated the same state and federal laws as described in the following article featuring #6 Beazer corporation.  The difference is that the violations are even more egregious for D R Horton: Jul. 08, 2007, `No closing costs' add up fast, by BINYAMIN APPELBAUM: Beazer Homes USA told Dina Franklin it would pay the closing costs when she purchased a new home in 2003 in northeast Mecklenburg County. She just had to use a loan arranged by Beazer Mortgage. Franklin was a single mother with a part-time job and scant savings. She couldn't afford a home on any other terms. She leapt at the deal. She says Beazer didn't mention that it had charged her an interest rate about 1 percentage point higher than the best rate she could have received. Her loan documents didn't spell it out. She says she didn't learn until this spring that she has been paying about $81 a month in extra interest. Beazer spent $3,050 on closing costs to convince Franklin to take the loan. It earned $8,920 for signing her at the higher interest rate. Franklin says she didn't shop around because she trusted the company and believed it was giving her a good deal. Now she is struggling to keep the home. "They took advantage of a first-time homebuyer," Franklin, 40, said this spring. Beazer, like most large homebuilders, has a side business in arranging loans for its buyers. The company presents the mortgage arm as a convenience and a way to save money. But in Beazer developments across the Charlotte area, the Observer found the company took advantage of financially vulnerable, inexperienced buyers through its role as both home seller and loan broker. As the seller, Beazer won business for its mortgage arm by promising incentives. As the broker, Beazer in some cases recouped those incentives by charging higher interest rates and fees. In effect, instead of receiving incentives, those buyers were financing their own closing costs. They ended up paying more than if they had foregone the incentives and obtained a lower interest rate from a different company. An Observer analysis of federal data indicates the mortgage arms of other builders also charged higher rates on average to customers in the Charlotte area than did other mortgage companies. The Observer focused on Beazer as part of a broader investigation of the company's sales practices. Financing customers' closing costs was among a number of ways Beazer reduced the upfront cost of home ownership by increasing the long-term cost. The strategy was lucrative for Beazer. The Observer examined two dozen sets of paperwork provided by people who bought homes since 2000 in five local Beazer developments. For every $1 the company spent on incentives -- money that buyers viewed as a gift -- the company made $1.20. It also allowed some people to buy homes they couldn't afford. At least 11 Beazer developments in the Charlotte area have foreclosure rates at or above 20 percent, the Observer has reported. An Observer analysis shows the financing of closing costs was among the factors associated with an increased chance of foreclosure. Beazer did not respond to requests for comment. The company has disclosed in regulatory filings that its board of directors is investigating its mortgage practices. Loopholes in regulations:Incentives prove lucrative:THE HIGH COST OF BEAZER MORTGAGES:HIGHER INTEREST RATES:HIGHER CLOSING COSTS:BEWARE INCENTIVES: What are closing costs? Closing costs are the various fees paid in connection with purchasing a home. These are mostly payments to service providers, such as the mortgage broker, attorney and appraiser. The total also includes a wide variety of taxes and government fees. The average home buyer in North Carolina in 2006 paid closing costs equal to about 2 percent of the loan amount, or $4,000 on a $200,000 loan, according to a survey by personal finance Web site Bankrate.com.
Builders often promise incentives to buyers who agree to use their mortgage arms. But buyers beware: The incentives may not be free. Inside, a closer look at two of the ways Beazer Homes USA recouped money from customers such as Leasa Wright without their knowledge. In 20 of the cases examined by the Observer, Beazer collected a fee called a loan discount, which is charged to reduce a customer's interest rate. The Observer found no indication that borrowers' interest rates were reduced in those cases. Most of the loans Beazer arranged for buyers in the Charlotte area were insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which encourages lending to lower-income families by promising to repay the lender if the borrower does not. The FHA limits mortgage brokers such as Beazer to a fee equaling 1 percent of the loan amount, the industry standard. Beazer collected that 1 percent fee. Then it collected a loan discount fee that averaged 2 percent of the loan amount. The combination netted Beazer an average of $3,311 on the 24 loans examined by the Observer. Typically, a borrower's interest rate is reduced by up to 0.25 percentage points for each lump sum payment equaling 1 percent of the loan amount. But the loans examined by the Observer carried interest rates at or above the market average despite the discount points. "Quite often, a discount point in the supbrime market doesn't mean anything," said Kathleen Keest of the Center for Responsible Lending. She said only one state, Iowa, requires companies that collect a discount fee to tell the borrower how much the interest rate was reduced. She said it was quite common in other states for companies to collect the fee without reducing the interest rate. Willie McCullough's experience: Willie McCullough paid $102,218 in April 2002 for a Beazer home in northern Charlotte. His sales contract shows that Beazer agreed to contribute toward his closing costs an amount equal to 3 percent of the sales price, or $3,067. That should have been enough to cover all the closing costs, which averaged about 2 percent of the loan amount in North Carolina, according to a 2006 survey by financial Web site: Bankrate.com. But despite Beazer's contribution, McCullough was still charged an additional $4,497 in closing costs, including a discount fee of $4,207, or 4.18 percent of the loan amount. He said the fee was not explained. In general, it should have reduced McCullough's interest rate by up to 1 percentage point. But McCullough received an interest rate of 7 percent, about the same as the market average. In each of the 24 cases examined by the Observer, Beazer collected a bonus called a yield spread premium, which is paid when a customer receives a higher-than-necessary interest rate. Beazer works as a mortgage broker, matching borrowers with lenders. Lenders make more money from loans with higher interest rates, so they pay bonuses to brokers who charge customers higher rates. On average, Beazer got a bonus of $2,822 for charging higher interest rates on the loans. In all but two cases, the bonus was paid by National City Corp. of Ohio, the company that approved and funded most of Beazer's loans in the Charlotte area. Beazer was recouping the money it had spent on closing costs by charging its customers higher interest rates. In effect, instead of receiving incentives, buyers were financing their own closing costs. None of the 24 said they were aware this was happening. Federal law requires loan originators to provide a "good faith estimate" of loan terms. Beazer's good faith estimates do contain a standard disclosure at the bottom that "Beazer may receive a fee for ... premium pricing up to 1.625%," referring to the yield spread premium. But the reference is obscure. Also, in 18 of the 24 cases, the actual yield spread premium exceeded this percentage. "The yield spread premium disclosure as it currently exists is oftentimes a cryptic reference at the bottom of the good faith estimate," said HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan. "And there's nothing that compels lenders to make a clearer disclosure." Leasa Wright's experience: Leasa Wright paid $126,149 in June 2003 for a Beazer home in northern Charlotte. The closing costs were about $4,200. Wright's documents show Beazer paid most of those costs on her behalf. The documents also show that Beazer arranged a loan for Wright with a 6.5 percent interest rate. The market average was about 5.24 percent. Wright says she wasn't told her rate was higher than necessary. Beazer received a yield spread premium of $7,286 from National City. Wright was charged about $87 a month in extra interest. She says that she cannot afford her monthly payments. "It's good you can get a house, but what if you can't stay in it?" she mused recently. "I know so many people that had houses, but they don't have them anymore." Beazer Mortgage's total compensation on the 24 loans examined by the Observer averaged 5.4 percent of the loan amount, about three times the industry average.Some of the money came from "yield spread premiums," collected for charging a higher interest rate. Some of the money came from discount points, collected for lowering a borrower's interest rate. Iowa's attorney general has proposed a law, the first of its kind, banning the collection of both kinds of fees on the same loan as inherently against the customer's interest. -- Binyamin Appelbaum Atlanta-based Beazer, one of the nation's most prolific builders, in 1996 became one of the last large builders to create a mortgage operation. Builders moved into the business following deregulation of the mortgage industry, seeing a natural opportunity to make more money from customers. By 2003, the year Franklin bought her home, Beazer Mortgage was serving 66 percent of the company's homebuyers. It arranged more than 10,000 loans and posted its best financial performance to date, earning almost $2,600 on each, according to the company's filings with securities regulators. Other large builders were writing loans for as much as 80 percent of their buyers. (D R Horton 94%) The success of the mortgage arms was built on the use of incentives. Federal law requires builders to accept loans from any source. Beazer and other builders offered financial rewards to customers who stayed in-house. In the Charlotte area, Beazer often offered to contribute a sum equal to 3 percent of the sales price toward closing costs. It would help pay the lawyer, the taxes and other fees associated with buying a home. At times Beazer offered other incentives such as paying the interest on the buyer's mortgage for six months, or cutting the price of a home. In June, Beazer advertised a special, "Cool Homes. Hot Savings." deal in markets including Charlotte. Buyers who agreed to use a Beazer loan were offered up to $10,000 in upgrades such as appliances or fancy countertops. Critics say incentives are often a false promise because builders charge higher interest rates to recoup the money spent. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers, whose members compete directly with the builders' financing arms, wants the federal government to prohibit any incentives tied to the use of a particular lender. "When the incentives are rolled into the financing, that's when you have problems," said Kate Crawford, a Burlington broker who is head of NAMB's consumer protection committee. The building industry says companies are simply sharing with customers the money they save by arranging loans, and that the deals are generally good for the customer. "Nobody is making you buy that house," said Bernard Markstein, senior economist at the National Association of Home Builders, the industry's trade group. And if you do, he asked, "Who's at fault? The company for trying to make an extra dollar or two? Or me for being lazy and not shopping around?" -- Database editor Ted Mellnik contributed. Binyamin Appelbaum: 704-358-5170 Significant loopholes in federal mortgage regulations make it easy for any builder with a mortgage arm to lure buyers with illusory incentives.• A builder can advertise NO CLOSING COSTS or other incentives for a customer who uses its mortgage arm without explaining it will charge a higher interest rate to recoup those incentives. • The mortgage arm must provide a "Good Faith Estimate" of loan terms to allow comparison shopping, but there is no law against being intentionally misleading. • None of the documents presented to the borrower at closing must clearly state that the loan carries a higher-than-necessary rate. There is some evidence that suggests builders are taking advantage on a broad scale. The Observer looked at more than 35,000 government-insured mortgage loans made in the Charlotte area from 1999 through 2004. Because the government promises to repay lenders if borrowers don't, the loans can carry the same interest rates as loans to low-risk borrowers. The Observer found that loans originated by the mortgage arms of builders carried average interest rates 0.38 percentage points above the market rate, compared with 0.2 points for loans originated by companies unaffiliated with a builder. The average rate on Beazer loans was 0.5 percentage points above market, the highest for any builder. On a $120,000 loan, that is a difference of about $500 a year in additional interest payments. The Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2002 proposed closing some of the loopholes in federal mortgage law, but industry opposition ended the attempt. A HUD spokesman said the department may introduce a revised proposal in the near future. The N.C. banking commission, which regulates loan originators, is examining the practices of builders with mortgage arms, according to Mark Pearce, the head of enforcement. He said his office is responding to numerous complaints from independent companies that the mortgage arms capture borrowers unfairly and prevent free-market competition. To be sure, builders have no monopoly on surreptitiously charging higher interest rates. Independent mortgage brokers can do the same thing. Furthermore, builder incentives are often legitimate and can reduce the cost of buying a home by thousands of dollars. And financing closing costs by charging higher interest rates -- when it is done with the customer's knowledge and consent -- can be an attractive and appropriate option.