05/01/2020
If you're a realtor partner of mine or even another loan officer I've worked with before, you know how builders treat customers that come in to buy their homes and have their own lenders already chosen. They don't like it. They coerce customers to using their own preferred lender by offering incentives, such as thousands of dollars towards their closing costs. But they take those same incentives off the table if the customer chooses their own lender. I have witnessed sales reps in their communities actively pushing their own lenders and badmouthing other lenders, in some cases quoting rates/fees, which is very much illegal.
There are already strong anti-steering laws that carry huge penalties, but for some reason, the builder lobby was able to get around it by putting small disclaimers in the law and getting themselves exempt from them by using ownership of mortgage companies as their get out of jail free card. In other words, if they own a % of the lender, they can do what they want. This must stop. A lender should be completely separate from a builder. This is as much for the protection of the business as it is the buyer...why put your ENTIRE home purchase in the hands of the builder, when you can have all services (builder, realtor, lender, insurance, title, warranty, etc.) working for YOU. If you have a moment, please sign the petition below so that Congress can modify this law and make sure we have a fair process that helps serve the community better.
Please sign our petition in support of Consumer Choice of Mortgage Providers on Builder Transactions! A prevalent issue across the country when dealing with our clients and builders is the issue of builder incentives and preferred and/or affiliate lenders. Often, a consumer is being told that a buil...
