Mortgage Trolling: Don't Get Caught!

In all our years in the mortgage business in Western Washington, we have never seen so much mortgage advertising specifically designed to mislead the consumer. Lenders and lead generation companies have ramped up their trolling by email, snail mail and phone. Dragging baits that all sound too good to be true, these marketers lure in many unsuspecting homeowners. Even worse, if you’ve taken the rancid bait just once you may find countless solicitors all trying to reel you in.

Here are some of the popular common trolling techniques and how to identify them so you do not find yourself caught in their net.

• Mail that is made to look like it’s from your mortgage lender, but is not. For example, if the return address has your current lender's name, it is not from your lender, but is designed to make you think so. They get the name of your mortgage company from public records.

• “You have been selected for an exclusive interest rate reduction program.”
      TRANSLATION: You are next on our list of people to harass into refinancing.

• And correspondence that refers to renegotiating or restructuring is a disguise for a refinance solicitation.

• 1% Mortgages of “Cut Your House Payments in Half” - A misrepresentation of an Option Arm.
      YOU CANNOT BORROW MONEY AT A RATE OF 1%.

• Any advertisement that currently discloses an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) less than 5.5% is a blatant falsehood.

• Here’s my personal favorite – “This property qualifies for the Economic Advantage Effective Interest Rate Reduction Program.”

Of course, we respond to these advertisements and solicitations just to hear the sales pitch. In most cases the person that answers the phone knows nothing about mortgages and is working off a script to pry personal information from us and turn it into a mortgage application. These companies have one goal – get you to apply!

If you provide a social security number you will learn what shooting fish in a barrel is like…when you’re the fish! There are companies that are immediately notified as soon as anyone does a mortgage credit report, and you will be bombarded by phone calls and mail. Once the blood is in the water, the “loan sharks” come out. It’s called purchasing “trigger leads”, and it’s perfectly legal. You must opt-out if you do not want the credit repositories to be able to sell your credit report info. Click here and follow the very simple Opt Out insturctions for free.

If you would like to enjoy the confidence of knowing that the most qualified mortgage specialists in the business are working with your best interests at heart, please call Security First Financial at 360-755-1549 and make an appointment for a FREE consultation.