Comments on: No Wonder Dennis Prager Likes These Guys

By: hpmracer

hpmracer — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:27:57 +0000

Last Thursday my wife calls me from work and tells me that she heard on the christian radio broadcast… of a great federal program being offered through Park Place Funding in Laguna Hills, CA. We’ve been financially effected as well as many others, thus the current economy sucks and is threatened our ability to keep up with all the bills. We’re looking into filing bankruptcy on all of our credit cards, and we are about $200,000 upside down on our property value. Bankrupting on our house would seem like the easy way out of all debt. However, moving & renting isn’t so easy… so out of desperation I called PPF, and they tell to write them a letter explaining our present hardship, and to send them a check for $2,900. they informed me that their attorneys would review our matter and guarantee us a 95% chance that the banks would work only with PPF and not us. If their attorneys don’t see hope for us, that they would refund all of our money… if they work on our matter, and the bank still refuses, they would refund only half… but there’s still a 5% chance that the bank would reject a loan modification. Here’s the deal… this is bull shit! Even in our state of desperation, Park Place Funding would take advantage of people. I was informed that the bank might switch our rate of 7.125% to 5.5%… and our second would simply vanish, free and clear. I’m not a banker, nor mortgage broker, but this just smells of B.S.! …and here I am, I goggled and found this web site. Banks play hardball, even in hard times… keep your guards up & fight, because they’ve acquired too many homes that they can’t sell fast enough, and all along having to pay the county property (impounds)taxes. Ask for there Lost Mediation Dept. Good Luck & God Bless!

By: BZ

BZ — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:54:25 +0000

These guys came to my house with their SCAM, they left scared. I told them I wanted a 50/50% cut of the profits, not 9-14% they were offering. I explained my experince to the Santa Ana FBI office, they are looking into the shell game.
Home buyers are only getting the difference from their bait and switch rate to the actual rate they want you to take, usually 7.75 to 8.5% loan rate, for only the first four months of the loan, then you pay the full payment after. Then they hold you hostage at the firt month, and you depending on them to come through before the 5th payment comes due. They also require you to refi your home loan 3 times a year. YES, A VERY BIG SCAM! MARK G. - FBI IS NOW WATCHING.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 12:56:11 +0000

Why do you think that almost no one uses travel agents anymore?

Speaking only for myself, I almost never use travel agents because the last three I’ve dealt with are dumber than dirt, and all three have found one way or another to screw up my vacation plans. I don’t shun them because they cost more. Generally speaking, they don’t; they just take a cut of the money that would otherwise go to the hotel or airline, in exchange for the hotel or airline saving itself the trouble of having to deal with you.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 12:47:22 +0000

It isn’t a very hard concept, it just requires a little more legwork. If you get lazy and go to a broker, you’re going to get screwed. That’s what happens when you employ a middleman.

Nonsense. The best deals I’ve gotten on mortgages have been through “middlemen,” sometimes brokers, usually small lenders who issue loans at lower rates than any of the big lenders will offer, only to turn around and sell servicing rights to those same lenders. The cheapest way to get a WaMu mortgage is not to go to WaMu, but to go to a no-name Internet lender who sells his loans to WaMu.

I think the very concept of a “middleman” is fallacious. If the guy in the middle was just taking a cut while providing nothing of value himself, he’d have been cut out of the transaction long ago. As it is, “cutting out the middleman” just means bearing the cost yourself of performing services that you used to outsource to somebody else. Which is fine if you can provide those services more cheaply yourself, but usually you can’t, which is why you outsourced it in the first place.

By: James B. Shearer

James B. Shearer — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 04:04:24 +0000

Angry Clam, people employ middlemen all the time without getting cheated. Walmart and Amazon are middlemen. Some middlemen provide an honest service and some don’t. The incentive to cheat your customers is greatest with one time transactions like getting a mortgage where repeat business is not so important.

As for brick and mortar travel agents their primary problem is technological change. People still deal with middlemen like travelocity or expedia.

By: nk

nk — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:22:41 +0000

That you can get a loan through a bank, without need of a mortgage broker, is only a reflection on your own good credit rating and debt/income ratio. Most people need a mortgage broker to help them with the documentation, credit clearance and income verification. In most instances these days, the direct to lender is an illusion. The bank has simply branched out into mortgage brokering. Maybe it will process the loan and e-transfer its own money but the day after the closing it will have sold the loan and gotten its money back. You might save a quarter to half a point on discount fees and get more personal service but that’s about it. The bank is not going to tie up its capital on your 6% home loan when it can lend it out at 9% on a commercial loan. And it’s not going to deviate from FannieMae/FreddieMac procedures and make its paper unmarketable. Further, banks are not into philanthropy. They will charge you the maximum rate, points and fees the market will bear. Mostly, mortgage brokers earn their money. BUT be on the lookout for lenders who for one reason or another have been obligated to lend in certain areas and at certain income levels at incentive rates. There, you will get a bargain rate and your legwork will pay off.

By: Angry Clam

Angry Clam — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:16:10 +0000

That’s why you deal directly with the banks, nearly all of which have direct to lender operations.

It isn’t a very hard concept, it just requires a little more legwork. If you get lazy and go to a broker, you’re going to get screwed. That’s what happens when you employ a middleman.

Why do you think that almost no one uses travel agents anymore?

By: James B. Shearer

James B. Shearer — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 23:44:42 +0000

Patterico, that was just an example, 7% vrs 6% (on a 30 year $300000 mortgage) would also be a $30000+ difference. 6% vrs 5% for $300000 for 20 years is a $25000+ difference.

By: James B. Shearer

James B. Shearer — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 23:39:02 +0000

Angry Clam, you don’t undestand. Banks A, B and C are willing to provide a 5% mortgage. Bank D is willing to provide a 6% mortgage and kick back $5000 to the broker. Bank D is willing to do this because they will collect an extra $30000 (assuming the mortgage is not refinanced). The mortgage broker places the prospect with bank D.

By: Angry Clam

Angry Clam — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 23:09:32 +0000

If no one is willing to lend to them at 5%, then they aren’t worth 5%.

Part of the interest rate provided borrowers is designed to provide adequate return to the underwriters, both to compensate for default risk and also because they lack the use of their money.

“Qualifying for X rate” isn’t an inherent feature of someone.