Summary:
• First Financial lied to us about closing costs
• Never disclosed excessive fees (4-points)
• Stripped $19, 200 out of our equity
• We suspect that our mortgage broker Gigi Klar operated without a mortgage agent license/real estate license
• Notary (Rafie Sahial) misrepresented himself as a 3rd party when he is the CEO (figure 1) of the company
• Notary asked us to sign with wrong date at signing
• Escrow intentionally delayed sending closing statements and refund until we requested them a month and a half later


We would like to formally submit a complaint against FirstFinancial.com/First Financial Corporation San Diego (Gigi Klar, Rafie Sahial, and Kenneth V. Bolam) and Michael Spalding from Caliber Escrow.

We believe that Gigi Klar, Rafie Sahial, Kenneth Bolam of First Financial misled us into signing a 4-point loan on September 30, 2009.

In July, we received an official looking letter in our mail stating "We have good news about your loan originally funded with World Savings Bank. After reviewing your mortgage history, we are pleased to inform you that you may be selected for a new loan at a lower monthly payment. This offer may make you eligible to convert to our fixed portfolio mortgage products. Call today to confirm your eligibility for the lowest rates in 40 years."

We called the number on the letter and connected with Gigi Klar, and she agreed to help us refinance (cash-out refinancing) our mortgage with a 4.875% no-point loan. We understood the closing costs would come to $2, 600 and $350 for appraisal. At that time we agreed to an loan amount to pay off our existing mortgage less closing costs ($2, 600 + $350). Gigi stated the difference of approximately $22, 000 would be paid to us out of escrow.

On July 23, we received the truth-in-lending addendum from the bank. The letter stated a “1309 PLY RATE ORIG DISC” of $19, 200. We called Gigi and asked her what the rate origination discount was about. She told us to disregard and throw out those documents. She said what the bank sent was not the final draft. We attempted to get a definite quote from Gigi during the process, but she tactically diverted us to an underwriter who was unable to give us proper information.

On September 1, we received our appraisal. Our home was appraised at what we believed to be a fair estimate. Gigi, on her own, challenged the amount and aggressively tried to appeal for a higher value with the appraiser. We did not understand what her motivation was for doing that.

On September 30, we met with Rafie Sahial. Rafie misrepresented himself as "just a notary" having no ties to First Financial Corporation, but actually the CEO of First Financial Corporation. Rafie made us sign all the paperwork which showed September 29 as the signing date, not September 30. We did not understand why he asked us to sign with the wrong date, nor did he offer any explanation. When we questioned the closing costs, Rafie told us that those numbers were incorrect and would be changed. He never explained any points, origination, or discount fees. We did not see nor sign an itemized list of fees or points paid. Rafie reassured us that we would be getting a check for the $22, 000.00 to pay off our car. He also claimed he would give us an identical set of the paperwork we signed. We never saw nor signed the commitment letter, disbursement of loan proceeds summary, detailed disbursement breakdown, truth-in-lending addendum — all of which have a breakdown of points and payout. These documents later showed up in the copies from escrow that we requested.

On November 10, we made our first payment to the bank. We were concerned because we had not received the document package and closing statement or the money due to us from the escrow service. We contacted another mortgage broker who we had worked with in the past and she told us to contact Michael Spalding from Caliber Escrow. He claimed that he had sent the package to us on October 7. He said that the package was possibly lost in the mail. However, could not provide a tracking number or any proof that he sent that package. We then requested Michael send us the closing statement by email. He still has not provided a copy of the original check he said he sent. Upon reviewing the closing statement, which was dated November 10th, we found out that a discount fee of $8, 545.80 was paid to the bank and an origination fee of $10, 608 was paid to First Financial, equaling 4 points which we never agreed to pay. We feel we were misled throughout this loan process. If we had known this was a 4-point loan, including fees and closing costs of $22, 877, we would not have completed the process with First Fianancial. We are totally qualified borrowers with qualifying income and excellent credit.