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My Mortgage Broker Post Didn’t Sit Well With This Mortgage Broker
By JLP | June 3, 2007
It’s getting harder and harder for me to write something that isn’t considered offensive by at least one person. This time it was Don’t Get Taken Advantage of by Your Mortgage Broker. Fellow blogger and mortgage broker, David Porter, left this comment regarding that post:
JLP,
I know it is fun to bash the mortgage industry these days. After all, we just went through a tumultuous time of significant volumes and it seems that every low life on the planet got into the mortgage business.
However I think that you should give some pause before you recommend to your readers what ever you can find on the planet to publish.
You work for UBS and if everyone followed your advice, UBS would not be here tomorrow. I can tell you from experience that my UBS advisor was NOT the best deal on the planet. I used him because I could trust him, he had 8 times more money then I did in the market, and he was always honest with me. He managed money for billionaires so I figures he might now something that I didn’t and I was willing to pay him for it. And trust me…he didn’t get his information from journalists.
If you had a brain tumor, would you be looking for the lowest cost brain surgeon? If you were wrongfully accused of murder, would you be looking for the cheapest attorney?
Come on JLP, I like you but quit following this incessant cry of the masses to constantly find the cheapest.
If you are buying a toaster, then fine…find the cheapest. But when it comes to a trusted adviser, helping you make the most important decisions of your life, how can you advise this approach?
If I called you tomorrow and said that I expected you to match a trade price of $7 per trade what would you say? I would hope not! At UBS you had better learn to be better than the broker at Schwab or you will be out of business.
Just as a $7 dollar per trade would be an insult to you and make a commodity of you, I would ask that you quit advising your loyal readers to go for the cheap in financial services. Going for the cheap in financial services will only bring you ruin AND you will never have a lifelong relationship with someone because the cheapest doesn’t translate well in financial services. Please understand that I am NOT talking about price. Charles Schwab does very well for people who want cheap. But the beaches are littered with people making their own decisions and following the advice of $50,000/year journalists.
You need a mortgage then work hard to find the best darn mortgage broker you can find. Check their references. If they are more expensive, then why would you pay them more. Ask them that! If you don’t like the answer then…run and run fast! I can tell you that over 20 years and 7,000 loans, people did not use me because I was the cheapest. People used me because I listened to their needs, and found the best solutions in the marketplace for them. In fact, I took their “cheapest deals” and put them in my spread sheet and let THEM see how horrible these good deals were.
JLP, you are slapping the face of every professional financial services provider.
You look at any financial service provider… the best and the cheapest NEVER meet. Please quite advising your readers to work with the worst in the financial services industries.
I hope and pray that you will consider this and please take this in the spirit in which it was intended.
My response:
First off, when I talk about an industry, I’m not bashing those who serve the industry well. I’m bashing the “bad guys.”
Secondly, go back and reread the post. Not ONCE did I say anything about finding the cheapest anything. I did say that it is important to not pay a higher interest rate than is necessary. Is paying a higher interest rate equal to getting better service? I don’t think so.
I’m not against mortgage brokers making a living. What I am against is mortgage brokers who sell the product that makes them the most money regardless of whether or not it is the best product for the customer.
Finally, I found this sentence a bit amusing:
“Please quite advising your readers to work with the worst in the financial services industries.”
I really hope that’s not what he thinks I do here. If that’s really what I’m doing then I guess I shouldn’t be blogging.
One other thing: I don’t work for UBS.
Topics: Mortgages |