1 in 4 Consumers Who Requested Home Financing Felt As Though They Were Robbed, Early Results of Survey Finds

Although still early in the survey, a shocking 62% of the people surveyed about their last home financing experience felt as though either something was not right or they were being swindled.

(PRWeb) February 3, 2007 -- Early results from a free online survey at http://briandiez.blogspot.com show a whopping 24% of consumers feel as if they were robbed and require legal counsel. Another 38% felt there was something "not right" about their experience. Consumers who had good or great experiences split the balance with 19% of the votes each. The survey, still underway, started on January 9, 2007.

All responses were and are anonymous. Readers where asked to respond regardless of whether or not they actually closed their loan to adjust for some closing scenarios where a broker's or banker's actions are so obviously criminal that no sane person would sign.

Consumers have 4 choices to describe their last home financing experience. Their choices are:

1. My mortgage professional was so good I refer everyone I know. (Good)

2. I got what I expected. (Fair)

3. Something wasn't right about the whole thing. (Poor)

4. I need a good attorney. I was robbed. (Criminal)

While it's still to early to draw a final conclusion, it does seem evident consumers are not happy with mortgage service standards. The odds seem to be against finding someone you can trust. Mortgage salespeople have no fiduciary duty to the consumer, unlike stockbrokers who must go through great measures to qualify a client before advising him or her of their best options. As a result, many mortgage companies favor a business model that takes a "one-size-fits-all" approach to home financing.

"It's been my experience," says Brian Diez, now of All Metro Mortgage and host of http://briandiez.blogspot.com, a site developed to educate consumers about the mortgage industry, "that it's cost effective for mortgage companies to focus on one niche product (such as whatever pays them the most) and pitch that product to everyone and anyone, regardless of their customer's needs or goals. The result is those companies get very good at selling those types of niche loans. It usually takes the customer a few months to realize they have to refinance again to get back on track with their goals. Unfortunately, often times there is extensive damage done during the refinance, such as loss of equity, pre-payment penalties, etc. It's increasingly common for customers to end up in foreclosure, unable to repair the damage done to them."

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