Another good post Russ! One of my major goals in my business is to get it to the point where I can run some commercials making fun of the ditechs of the world.  I was thinking of showing a bunch of slackers talking into head sets while playing a nerf basketball tournament.  "He shoots, he SCORES!!....oh yeah...I'm sorry...of course our closing costs are in line with other lenders..." or something to that effect...

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. 

Oh, isn't this the truth!

Thanks for your great piece Russ :)

I'm humored...

Scott

Very true! Now Lending Tree is bombarding the tv listings with therir Full Screen disclosure that is shown in print so small you can't make it out under a microscope and it is shown for 1/2 a second on the screen.

Yeah, some of the biggest crooks in this business have the largest advertising budgets.  I always tell consumers, how do you think they pay for all that advertising?  They damn sure aren't doing it off giving out loans for $395.  Nascar sponsorships are expensive too!

I know some brokers who used to love it when a Ditech or Quicken customer would call.  It usually meant the broker could still make 3 points on a deal that would normally have been priced at 1-1.5 and still blow the Ditech rate out the water making them look like a hero.

All these big companies kill me their misleading advertising.  Unfortunately, the general public doesn't know any better.

Bank of America's new no fee, no pmi loan:  Umm, this is called getting LPMI and giving a rate high enough to cover lender fees.  This has been going on for years.

Lenox Financial's no closing costs mortgages:  This is called making 4 points on the back and waiving the lender fees.  Once again, nothing new.

Countrywide:  Yes, others can really do what countrywide can... and at much lower rates.

LendingTree:  When banks compete, you lose.  Uh, we figured out we make more money if we steer the loans to our own mortgage company Homeloan Center.  Shh.. don't tell anyone.

Quicken Loans:  Yes, we are putting you in a Neg Am loan that is going to suck all the equity out of your house.  We just call Secure Advantage to make it sound nice.

Unfortunately, consumers WANT to be sold so this stuff works.  However, regardless of how much of an uphill battle it may be, some of us won't stop educating our clients.

Russ:

I'm in complete agreement with you about ditech. When 30 year rates were around 6.25% I went on their wesite online chat and asked them to explain the 5.8% rates on their TV ads vs. those (buried)  on their website.  Here is what they said.

Greg Zaccagni

People are smart -

enough to know when they are being told ½ a story

Welcome to ditech.com's Live Chat. Please wait while we find an agent to assist you. Chat sessions may be monitored for quality control purposes.
You have been connected to Kevin N----n.

Kevin N----n:Hello, welcome to ditech.com chat, for future reference my direct number is 800-700-9261 hit the number 1 (to avoid the automated operator)
then my extension ---- my e-mail address is kevin.n----n@ditech.com,
I hope you are having a great day. What question (s) can I answer for you today ?

greg: Hello Kevin: I saw the ad saying 30yr fixed rate at less than 5.8% APR for refinance but your website shows 6.3%. What's going on?

Kevin N----n: with 2 points you can get a lower rate if this is something you qualify for

greg: What's the rate without the points?

Kevin N----n: if you qualify for it would be the rate you see on our website

Check their published rate yourself? http://www.ditech.com/refinance/index.html

Note: online web chat on 05-21-07 @ 8:40 a.m.