I just wanted to share something that happened to my client recently. She went to her lender. She was
prequalified and everything went well. We put in an offer and the house went under contract. Through out the
process my client felt very comfortable with her lender. They shared stories and my client told the lender
confidential personal information. Well the contract fell through. The lender then told the listing agent all of the
confidential personal information my client had told her. Well you can imagine what happened next right? BIG
EARNEST MONEY DISPUTE! It took a lot of arguing and heartache, but she finally got her money back. The
lesson learned was a hard one. I don't think you really ever expect this to happen. So what is your best
defense? I think advising your clients to watch what they say is the best route. Do not get me wrong lenders
need to know a lot of information, but you don't need to tell them things like "My husband cheated on me" If it
is not pertinent to the transaction they do not need to know. Things have a way of being twisted and you don't
want to lose your earnest money because of gossip. In this case the lender was out of line. I recently read a
great blog by Jeff Belonger As a Consumer or Realtor should you complain? I say yes, if the situation calls for it.
The only way to stop things like this from happening is to speak up. It doesn't happen all the time and I have
worked with some wonderful lenders who would never do anything like this. Just because there is one bad apple
doesn't make the whole tree bad. It is more a case of just being careful. Think about what you say before you
say it. It is always better to avoid the situation than to have to clean up after it happens.
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