I’ve been cheesed about this since last week.
Now, if you are a mortgage lender or broker out there in the world competing on service, rates, charm, cool web site, whatever, you need to know about this fellow. He’s young and he’s dangerous.
He owns a consumer facing web site that draws mortgage leads and it’s a good site. He draws a lot of leads. He is not a mortgage lender or broker.
The title agent tells consumers he doesn’t sell their information BUT he gives it away as FREE LEADS to mortgage lenders who send him the title biz.
This title agent tells Realtors and mortgage lenders that he is fully RESPA compliant, but I have been told by him directly that HUD has called him on the carpet and made him sign an affidavit agreeing to change his marketing routine, something which I think he is only starting to do since I contacted him.
This title agent advertises that he’s the cheapest, but he’s not.
This title agent tells mortgage lenders he will give them free mortgage processing in exchange for title orders.
This title agent hires Realtors and mortgage lenders and pays them 20% of the title as a solicitation commission.
This title agent hires real estate brokers and pays them to produce market analysis reports for what purpose, I can’t grasp. It looks like yet another cover for kickbacks.
This title agent is stealing business out of a very thin market from you and from me.
He’s found a hungry market of Realtors and is expanding nationwide. He and his sales force move in forums like Active Rain and MySpace and Facebook. They are young. They are inexperienced and they are Idiocracy and our future if left unchecked.
Hmmm. Would love to know who these rapscalians are….
It would be very good to know how this is, It is because of this type of individual that does, has and will always give our industry a bad name.
Well, I’ll not disclose that here, but I find it fascinating that I received a private e-mail from this title agent with a copy of this Lenderama post in which he denied absolutely engaging in the practices I described and threatened a defamation suit.
Isn’t it interesting that he recognized himself so readily by the description of his deeds alone?
Diane, Lenderama is a powerful site. I wrote an article recently mentioning I was thankful I didn’t sign up with a company whose owner was now under FBI investigation.
The owner of the company read it and sent me a six page email.
Hey, I replied, post it on the blog.
We are of the day, not the night.
these individuals are always looking over there shoulders so if they happen to see a post about them they will know it. lots of time they have the deep pockets becasue they use other peoples pockets. This site is well known and alot of brokers and lerders take advatage of what is offered here. it has helped me to better my business practices. you never know who is talking about you. mind your Ps and Qs and you’ll be jsut fine.
You know, I thought of you Paul, when I posted that comment. I know you have trained many young loan originators and you know from experience where to draw the line and how to teach that to your trainees.
Drawing the line that keeps us lawful and ethical and which side we stay on is something we tend to learn from our mentors.
You know the old “you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it”; and the “copy of a copy” style of training?
Everyone has a learning curve and unless they are learning and making mistakes and being corrected by an experience pro, they can get into serious trouble. I have a feeling this title agent is learning the business on his own.
My guts tell me that this young man doesn’t really understand where the line is and I think he’s really trying to build a business based on service and using creative marketing techniques. I give him an A for effort, but he’s playing outside of the ethical margins drawn by our laws and regulatory structure. He’s likely, unfortunately, to learn his lesson the hard way.
I do hope he’s reading Lenderama and will give some thought to how and why we have these guidelines and even if he doesn’t agree with the rules, understand that regulators are working towards a zero tolerance level for these practices.
Professionals in the real estate industry – sales, lending, title – we can have firendly and fair competition and find our piece of the pie.
As a community, we can work together and restore public trust and honor to our professions. We’re on the way and Lenderama is a great bully pulpit in the effort.
There was a title agent down here in Florida that everybody liked. I discovered something I didn’t like about the office and took the title company off my approved list.
One of my top producers protested. She said everybody else in Bradenton is working with this title company and all her Realtors loved this title co. and insisted they close there. My loan officer was clearly losing business because of my policy.
It went so far that the title co. had their attorney call me to explain that all is well.
I said “I’ll take that under advisement”, but wasn’t swayed in my decision.
Title co.’s now closed down. The owner is serving 18 months.
Trust your intuition. It’s usually right.
All it takes is one bad apple to spoil it for everyone, this title compnay might be getting away with something now but just loke Diane mentioned we in this industry have rules a regulations for a reason and while he is able to dowhat he is doing now it will all come crashing down and what will he have to fall back on. If it doesnt smeel good lots of times it isn’t. Diane you said it first “trust your intuition” I would hope all mortgage broker/lenders do the same and we can get back on track with giving the mortgage industry a good name again.
Hi, VA:
You know, it’s funny. Peer pressure from honorable industry professionals used to keep bad guys in check. We’ve been living through the hell of reverse peer pressure wherein the bad actors controlled the field for such a long decade that the swing back to normality will feel so good when we get there.
isn’t it the truthabout peer pressure. everyone wnats to make money and money can make you greedy and greed makes you wnat to do better than everyone else, I hope that we can correct the the industry from all the bad actors and swing back to normality. it is going to take a place like Lenderama, and others that are devoted to help and build the mortgage industry.
I like very much your blog and the people that leave comments here. I totally agree with the fact that everyone wants to make money and money can make you greedy but I don’t think that greed makes you wnat to do better than everyone else in all the cases. Sometimes greedy just makes you a bad person.