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2.1

NACA- Unorganized, apathetic, and down right negligent at times. Terrible communication between their own departments, and between NACA and BoA, lack of accountability.

They have no incentive to improve because anyone getting involved must sign multiple hold harmless documents (there's a reason for that) so anyone that gets burned by the poor way things are ran has absolutely no recourse.

I spent over a year submitting every piece of paper I was asked for- DILLIGENTLY, and immediately. I found a house I loved and that worked for me but needed some repairs. This was my first experience with the HAND department of NACA. The deal fell through because the list of repairs I got from HAND totaled upwards of $70 000 and in order to move forward I would have to acquire a lead test and assessment to the tune of $2500+ before I could even decide if I can afford to go forward.

So that deal was dead. Ok, stuff happens. Not great, I'm out $600 for the initial property inspection but hey, NACA's still worth it.

Second deal, found another property that worked well for me, got the inspection, signed the contract, but unfortunately the appraisal came in low- bummer but not in any way NACA's fault. What IS their fault is the way everything unfolded from that point on.

I had signed my contracts and was about 35 days away from closing when I got the initial appraisal report back, I disputed it within 48hrs (might even have been the next day) AS PER NACA's instructions, following everything to the T.

After submitting I followed up with every contact I had- Mortgage Counselor, Hand, etc, because I hadn't heard anything from anyone. Well it turns out my dispute hadn't made it to BoA for almost 20 days and nobody could give me an answer as to why or how this could possibly happen, after I did everything right. Nobody would take responsibility. Ok, again, stuff happens.

I secured a 30 day extension from the sellers as well as a price reduction on the property and worked it out with HAND to order what they call a "Subject-to-appraisal" to hopefully raise the value. I'm feeling good. I had checked with my mortgage counselor that the loan is active, I had triple checked with HAND that the second appraisal was ordered. I transferred money from my retirement account to make sure I can cover any expenses out of pocket.

I am waiting patiently because I was told it will take 2-3 weeks for the second appraisal to come back.

I've done everything I can- asked all the right question, etc etc. I got contacted 2 weeks after the supposed appraisal request submission by the HAND director asking if I'm still going ahead with the house. Ummm excuse me? Apparently my loan application was suspended/declined, the request for the second appraisal was never received and Bank of America was never notified that I am in fact continuing with the property.

I had notified HAND- Tammy Johnson and Aeron Hernandez, my mortgage counselor- Michael Swanson, and someone from the mortgage department named Miguel Correa, that I am going ahead with the property, and had continued to submit paperwork. I'm sure I am missing some names.

So this is where I am today- 7 days to my closing date, at risk of losing my deposit, wasted $1500 on inspection fees, estimates, wasted a year of my life following ALL the rules, fulfilling ALL the requests, going above and beyong with following up with anyone and everyone.

This is negligent. I have no other words for the way this was handled. I had some glimmer of hope up until yesterday (when I discovered nothing had been progressed on my file for 2 weeks) but I don't any more.

Zero accountability, zero follow through, lack of knowledge, they complain they're understaffed but there's 6-7 people involved in getting your file approved and when anything goes wrong they keep blaming it on someone else. I have emails to back all of this up. I know have no choice but to request a letter of denial on Tuesday so I don't lose my earnest money deposit. I've already lost a year of my life on this program, money, time, piece of mind.

I'm at a loss for words.

DO NOT go through this program for a property that needs any repairs(aka HAND is heavily involved).

I would even say if you have any savings and decent credit don't go through them at all but my experience has been only with houses that need repairs.

I don't doubt they help a select few members that could not afford to purchase a home otherwise. It's very unclear what percentage of their members actually ever close on homes.

User's recommendation: Look for grants and other options for a loan.

Location: Brooklyn, New York

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NACA Online

From your description, losing the first home appears to have been the best that that could have happened. A home in need of 70,000 worth of repairs obviously had major health and safety or code issues.

This is one of the major reasons the HAND department exists, to ensure your new home is free of health and safety issues and other critical repairs that would have otherwise turned the home into an ongoing money pit for you. One of the most common mistakes people make is sending an email to multiple people in an organization seeking help. What is quite likely to happen when using this technique anywhere is that each person who sees the email will see all the other names and automatically assume someone else is taking care of it, resulting in you net getting the help you need. Your counselor is always, without exception, your primary point of contact throughout the process.

If you are unable to reach the counselor, then contacting a NACA Service Representative at 425-602-6222 option 2 is the route you should always take to get help if needed in reaching your counselor. Appraisals on the whole require more patience than they are due. The appraiser is an independent businessperson hired by the bank and has not connection whatsoever to NACA. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been fewer active appraisers, and access to homes has been much more difficult.

As such, what should be a week to ten days is now often two or three weeks. We donโ€™t like it any more than anyone else.

We would like to look into your claims about the delays in filing the original appraisal dispute. Please contact us at communications@naca.com with your name, NACA ID number and brief recap of the situation so we may investigate.

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