Jim,
I received a couple of letters in the mail from a mortgage financing company. They offered to refinance my house and save me some money. After sitting on these letters for a couple of weeks, curiosity got the best of me, so I called their toll-free number. They were quick to arrange an appointment to have a rep come over and go through the paperwork to get started. They even offered to meet with me on a weekend (Sunday night). That's when the red flags popped up for me and it started to smell fishy. I declined the offer much to their protests. Jim, I don't know anything about this company and it sounds too good to be true. After all they estimated to save me $178 a month on my mortgage payment. Do you know anything about this company? If its a ripoff or scam, I would appreciate it if you pass the info on to other vets because they said they are an approved VA lender. Thanks
Reply:
I've had a number of other vets write to ask me about these folks and others like them. It appears that they get information from the veterans organizations that you may belong to. Those veterans organizations won't tell you but they sell info about you to marketers who then call you. Telemarketing calls and junk mail are annoying and if you ever respond positively to any one of them, they then sell your data to others with a marked up price.
I don't have any information about this organization. I don't know if they're honest or not. I do know that refinancing a mortgage today is very hard to do so why are they mailing junk to you? Were you looking to refinance that mortgage?
I look at it like this...if I wanted a product, I'd be out shopping for it. I don't want auto dealers calling to tell me they can sell me a car, I don't need Walmart mailing stuff to tell me they can sell me groceries. I sure don't want groups I've never heard of stuffing my mailbox to tell me that they can make me an offer better than anyone else.
In the mortgage and refinance business, they're almost all "certified" to take on VA loans. It may be the truth that they can save you $178.00 per month. However, I wonder how many up-front fees they will ask for at closing and how long they will hold your paper before they sell it to someone else?
In my mind reputable companies that are providing a good service don't resort to the hard sell...like coming into your home on a Sunday evening.
Try this and let me know what happens. Stop in at your bank. Talk to one of their people and show them that mail you got. I'm betting they tell you to avoid it.