Honest Mortgage Answers

Mortgage Associations

I have had a few thoughts recently about what is going down with an association I used to belong to. At one point, I let my alliance with this association dictate how I do business with my clients. Recently this non-profit voluntary association started collecting dues in order to belong to it. In return they made promises to enhance business for its members. They promised more branding and advertising to inform the public about the existence of the association. Instead, they are placing ads/articles in Mortgage Industry magazines trying to attract more members to collect dues from. I am sitting here wondering if I am the only one noticing this.

Originally, this association was founded by a professor at a rather large college. This person scrutinized mortgage professionals in a similar way that I do. The major difference is that this person has never originated or processed a mortgage or home loan. Instead he writes books on how to work with mortgage professionals and other financial issues. In exchange for having the privilege of belonging to this association, a mortgage broker or lender would have to publicly display the commitment of this association on their website. They would also have to place the logo of the association on the home page of their website AND also a back link to the professor's website. All in all, I did not have a major problem with that other than I felt his logo was a detraction from the long hours of hard work I put into my site. I would send traffic his way and in return, I would get about 15 hits a month from his.

Now this association has been turned over to certain members. They have implemented this annual fee which is more than most Realtors pay to belong to their respective associations. It is not the National Association of Mortgage Brokers who charge quite a bit less to be a member. NAMB also provides valuable training to mortgage professionals in the hopes of having more competent professionals available to the public. Does the professor's association do that for the public? No. Instead they have this commitment of honesty and full disclosure. Folks, I hope you don't hold it against me but I am not paying a large fee to be talked about in a Mortgage Industry magazine and so I can continue to advertise this association or group on my websites.

I don't need to belong to an association in order to prove to the public that I am honest and up front with ALL of my clients. Instead, I will post my commitment here:

• I commit to you, my clients and potential clients, that I will ALWAYS be up front and honest with each of you about your loan process.
• I commit to you that you will receive a Good Faith Estimate within 3 days of your completed loan application.
• I commit to you that you will receive an honest and fair loan transaction.
• I commit to you that I will lock your loan when you say to lock it. I will prove this by providing a written confirmation of the lock upon your request.
• I guaranty that the closing costs on your Good Faith Estimate will be within 5% of the actual amount found on your final Settlement Statement excepting only 3rd party fees. The industry standard is between 15-25% variance.
• I will NEVER charge junk fees as described in my 2 posts on the subject.
  
• I will always work for the clients benefit over my own.
  

This is my commitment to all of you. This is the way I do business and this is the way I will always do business. I hope the fact that I refuse to belong to any association will not affect the chance to earn your business. As always, if any of you have a mortgage or real estate related question OR you want to know more about Mortgage Associations, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Posted by Jason Lash at 9:35 AM