Foundation Financial Group Manager "Dana" Misleading Call from Foundation Financial Group Bedford, Texas

Trans Union, Equfax, and Experian are the 3 major credit reporting agencies. They are privately held for profit entities. They are responsible for updating and reporting your consumer credit history. Every time you apply for an extesnion of credit (credit card, car loan, mortgage loan, etc) it is put on your report as an "inquiry". When someone "pulls your credit". 

This is an indication that you are "shopping for credit" or at the very least "In The Market For" credit in that field. The credit reporting agencies sell your contact information to licensed/certified lenders in every industry. They sell your information with criteria filters. (example: Location, type of inquiry, range of credit, what is in your credit file). THEY DO NOT SELL YOUR CREDIT REPORT. Companies can purchase lead information based of the different criteria filters.

So when you went to Bank of America and applied for a Mortgage Loan. They accessed your consumer credit report. They put a hard inquiry on your credit. Say your score with equifax is a 723. You just applied for a Mortgage Loan. On your application you submitted to Bank of America a lot of personal information directly linked to you as a consumer. Address, phone numbers (Home, Business, cell), Estimated property value. Things that are in your report also indicate you have a mortgage. So information like your home's loan balance in already there. 

Foundation Financial Group being a licensed and bonded multi billion dollar mortgage banker (in 39 states) can purchase this information from the credit reporting agencies. (This is one way Equifax, Trans Union, Experian earns revenue to keep operating) So Foundation Financial Group's Marketing department has a budget to spend on purchasing new "leads" for people who are in the Mortgage Refinance Market. How did they determin you were in the market?

Because you applied for an extension of credit. Not only did you apply for an extension of credit you applied for a Mortgage Loan. Based off of your criteria. You are located in a state that Foundation Financial Group is licensed to conduct mortgage lending in, the location of the property you are trying to refinance is located in a state FFG is licensed to originate mortgage loans in, Your range of credit is in the qualifying range (640 is the minimum middle score allowed to qualify for a loan, Foundation Financial will purchase leads on a 600+ basis... meaning 600-850 from one reorting agency), You have a mortgage on your credit report, a hard inquiry was made on your credit within the past 3 days. (Your credit report is only valid for 3 business days. A status on your application has to be given to you by law within 3 business days from application, a decision on your application has to be given to you by 30 days from application). 

Most privately held mortgage lenders have a sales staff. This is like any other company's sales staff. You have a lot of unlicensed individuals who cannot discuss credit with you, or terms and conditions of loans and loan products. In Foundation Financial Group, these individuals are known as (AMT's Accelerated Management Traning position, or MP's Marketing Professionals). Unlicensed individuals are usually newer, and don't have much experience in sales or mortgages, they are learning and going through daily training to become licensed professionals. But they still have a job to do like any other hard working American. They get 40 leads per day, their job is to call the leads, leave voicemails, and make contact. They are to sell the benefits of working with FFG, in the hopes to convince you to apply with FFG and not your current lender or whomever you already applied with. FFG is actually one of the top lenders in the industry who application process is completely free, they also pull your credit report and call you back and review your credit report with you, for free (called a Credit Reveiw), and they are one of the only companies that will get your application to an underwriter the SAME DAY and call you back and go over all of the options you are approved for. If you don't want to lock the approvals, you say no thank you and keep it moving (Without spending any money)... If you want to lock in the programs you pay an Appraisal deposit of $414 (for most, standard Single family primary residences). They only do 18 day rate locks, and their closing process from start to finish is a 10 to 15 day process, which is the fastest in the industry, considering the average is pushing 43-45 days. 

The unlicensed individual has to be a really good sales person to convince you to hear them out, and to explain effectively how they got your information while still convicing you to stay on the phone with them. And lets face it... this is America, everyone is highly skeptical, and not very educated... or patient for that matter. They take basic information, and desk it with a licensed specialist for benefit. If there appears to be a benefit the call is transferred and you get to speak directly to a fully licensed individual in your state. This is usually a LO (Loan Officer), SLO (Senior Loan Officer), or if you're lucky a USM (Unit Sales Manager) or higher up SM (section manager), or DGM (Division General Manager). Dana Chen is a Manager, licensed in Texas, Colorado, and New Jersey. NMLS#227046 Has never been conncected to any mortgage fraud, and has never had a state licensed suspended or revoked. (All of this is public record on the National Mortgage License System consumer access site. http://nmlsconsumeraccess.org/Home.aspx/MainSearch )

You can see a list of all the licensed individuals that work for Foundation Financial Group on their company's website. http://mortgage.ffg.com/about-us/licensing.php Just select the state you are in from the list below the map. They provide links directly to the individual NMLS License page by clicking the number beside the name. 

If you go into a bank and speak with a loan officer there. They don't have to be fully licensed because they work for a bank that is already regulated by the FDIC (Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi, Suntrust, etc). These individuals at the banks most likely won't posses an individual license and there for cannot accurately discuss a loan approval with you. They can only take an application, gather your documents, and communicate with an underwriter which is most likely in a completely different state. (For instance Wells Fargo's underwriting staff for Mortgage loans is located in San Fransisco where their corporate charter is). So if you apply for a mortgage in a Wells Fargo Branch in Maryland... they have to collect your information and documents, and appraisal report and fax that across the country to a different time zone to get you an underwritten approval. This lag time is why it takes large banks 45-90 days to close a refinance loan. 

Foundation Financial Group is a Privately held, Direct Lender. When you speak with a licensed individual at FFG they are the ones that are going to personally handle your file, and cummunicate with the underwriters. Since they are fully licensed they can get you an underwritten approval same day. If you are completely honest and upfront, and answer all of the questions they ask you thoroughly the approvals you lock into will be the same loans you see at the closing table (again within 2 weeks). They don't sell you a loan based off some pie in the sky quote. They take and application, run it through underwritting and tell you what you can close on based off your criteria same day. If you don't like it... say no and move on. You haven't spent any money. 

The reseason FFG is able to close your loan so fast is the same reason why they get in contact with you the way they do. They look for applicants that are in the market and that are most likely qualified, and they reach out to you. Versus the other strategies employed by companies like Quicken Loans who does mass media advertising. When you use a mass media advertising strategy you get 1,000 of applicants every day. By law you have to take an application for an extension of credit ECOA. As a lender you cannot deny someone from applying. If you have to run thousands of applications through underwriting everyday there is no way those same underwriters are going to be able to also process and clear a file to close in a 2 week window. That's why Quicken takes 30-45 days to close a refinance loan. 

But this is a full thorough explanation of how Foundation Financial Group obtained your information. They purchased it from a Credit Reporting Agency, because you were interested. It is all fully legal and not a scam. The explanation is just very tedious, and probably wasn't eplained very well. But you also wouldn't have been patient enough to sit there and listen to someone explain that to you, while also trying to earn your business. 

FFG: http://www.ffg.com/

Happy Clients: http://mortgage.ffg.com/customers/ (Your licensed loan officer will request feedback after your loan is closed and funded about your overall experience. quality of service etc... and is posted directly to the companies site)

Locations: http://mortgage.ffg.com/contact-us/

Better Business Bureau: http://www.bbb.org/atlanta/business-reviews/financial-services/foundation-financial-group-in-atlanta-ga-6009878 (A+ rating) 

You can actually apply if you're looking for a career opportunity: http://www.ffg.com/careers/

I think people would be better served actually doing real research and asking better questions instead of assuming everything is a scam. The Truth is stranger than fiction... but thats only because its easy to make stuff up, and people will believe it, because they are too lazy to do actual research and to find the actual facts. 

How does a  Privately Held Corporation maintain A Federal License and 39 individual state licenses (and bonds) while scamming people? The answer is they wont. FFG does not scam people. They just help people refinance their homes with out wasting time and money doing so. 

http://mortgage.ffg.com/about-us/