THE BASIS POINT

Lenox Financial Chief: Biggest No Brainer In The History of Earth

 

A note to all Realtors who don’t listen to sports or business radio: the head of mortgage broker Lenox Financial compares your job and career to that of a cab driver in his latest radio spot. This is the guy who runs ads that ask consumers to call into one of his call center monkeys to get mortgage advice and finishes his pitch with the signature slogan: “It’s the biggest no-brainer in the history of earth.”

Based on his latest ad, slogan has become his own self-description, and reveals how little he really knows about the real estate business–and how it’s driven by Realtors. But he clearly thinks all Realtors do is drive people around. His radio ads began during the refi boom when when all it took was a call center monkey to answer a phone, get a social security number and close a mortgage. As the market shifted back to favor purchase business (as opposed to refi business), the ad frequency dropped, but now Lenox is back with the newest iteration of his no-brainer pitch that is along the lines of this– it’s paraphrased because of only one listen, but anyone who’s heard it knows it’s this egregious, if not worse:

Are you going to take mortgage advice from some Realtor you met last week? You wouldn’t take mortgage advice from a cab driver, so why would you take mortgage advice from some Realtor who’s job is to drive you around from place to place like a cab driver.

One follow up question Mr. No Brainer: Should consumers instead take mortgage advice from some weak-cliche-spitting radio ad voice?

And now a note to consumers: The ads also pitch the no-closing-cost mortgage, that’s the whole basis for the firm’s marketing platform…no closing costs from the lender and no third party fees like appraisal, title, etc. All mortgage originators either get paid by the borrower or by the lender. Under the no-cost model, the consumer pays a higher rate which pays the mortgage originator more, which they take part of and credit to your closing costs. All transactions should be evaluated in this manner to determine which is a better play.

There is a monthly spread between a lower-rate normal-cost mortgage and a higher-rate no-cost mortgage. Using the savings monthly on the lower-rate mortgage, you calculate how many months it will take you to break even on closing costs. If you break even within 24 months or sooner, that’s the better financial decision, because you have the rest of the loan term to benefit from the lower rate. If you think you’ll refinance, sell, or rates will drop before that break even period, then the higher-rate no-cost deal is the better decision.

To Radio Mortgage’s credit, the no-cost mortgage does make a clever pitch, but borrowers are paying for closing costs in cash or in rate. Period. Even Mr. No Brainer can’t claim otherwise, and is a fraud if he does.

 

READ OUR NEWSLETTER

YOUR COMPETITORS ALREADY DO

Comments [ 2 ]
  1. Jeffery says:

    I HATE that Commercial!!! “Biggest no brainier in the history of mankind”??NO! NO WAY!! This is the kind of lying advertisements that we hear every day! Do anyone really believe or agree with his statement? How could that even be allowed to be on the radio? I hate it so much that Ive been so tempted to send a nasty letter just exclaiming my Disgust!
    It seems indicative of the lies and misstating that rotten people will go to just to make a buck.
    Is integrity and truth not of any value anymore?
    I am truly disgusted by liars and cheats and con-men like this wesley hoaglund idiot. I really wish that he would be thrown in jail or that I could just punch him in the face. (and I am Not a Violent person) but “biggest no brainier” us just going way way too far.
    Disgusted,
    In Garden Grove.

  2. Jeffery says:

    Spelling and grammar mistakes: Noted.

WHAT DID WE MISS? COMMENT BELOW.

All comments reviewed before publishing.

one × 3 =

x