A lender recently dropped off full color flyers that he offered to me, for one of my new listings. I have several issues with this lender's flyer, a few nagging ones and one biggie.

1. He printed these up and used INCORRECT information.

On the flyer he used photo of me that is a couple of years old so I know he's pulling old info from somewhere. He printed my company's address and used an old address as well. So my first question is ... if he doesn't get THIS information correct, how reliable is he when it comes to the details? 

Seriously.... this is the first thing that popped into my head. Now he dropped these off in person so he knows where we are. But the info on the flyer must have been copied and pasted from an old source or some old mailing list. Lazy? Sloppy?

Now here's the biggie, in my eyes.

2. He gave 3 projections in financing: Conventional Financing with 5% down, FHA with 3.5% down and Conventional with 20% down. At the bottom of each column he highlights your TOTAL PAYMENT and CASH REQUIREMENTS to close the loan.

Here's where I think it is deceptive. His cash requirements look pretty good! Too good.

So if you look at the asterisk next to them, and the very small print at the bottom of the flyer you see why: *All requirements include Seller Assist. Seller Assist is NOT Guaranteed

This disclosure (as most disclosures!) is in very small print, much smaller than the actual numbers. So you only see it if you are looking for it.

I would argue MOST CONSUMERS won't even see or understand this line. They look at PAYMENT. They look at CASH TO CLOSE and "Gee Sally we can afford this home! Look at the payment! Look at the cash required! We can do this!"

I don't think this lender should be printing flyers with the goal of realtors leaving them in houses, using these figures. If he's doing it, they should be NO ASSIST predicted then if the realtor does negotiate and get them seller assist, that is different. But this is like dangling a little worm in front of the fish consumer. He bites.

Then the agent must explain that the seller will not or can not give the assist (if it happens). And the numbers all change (upward of course). 

But the lender got the buyer to call him. He got the consumer to bite on his lure. And maybe he'll manage to keep the consumer EVEN IF the buyer doesn't buy this house, or buys it and the seller refuses to give seller assist. Meanwhile, I think it's deceptive. 

I won't be using these flyers in my houses.