In world full of instant information how do you know whom you can trust?

I spend a lot of time educating consumers about how to select a quality mortgage company.  Although the world if full of tools to search out information, how do you really determine if a company is reputable or not?

People frequently will turn to the Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, or Yelp for help making decisions about whom to do business with. But after receiving a solicitation from the BBB the other day to join for a fee, I began to wonder, how reputable are each of these services, really?

When the representative from the Better Business Bureau called asking for us to become members for a fee, the first thing I asked was how they selected us.  I assumed that they would go through a thorough examination process before they would give out their accreditation.  That apparently is not the case; anyone can pay the membership fee and show the BBB logo on all their marketing.  So what does it mean to you the consumer if a company proudly displays the Better Business Bureau membership logo?

Honestly, I was not sure, so I decided to do some research of my own.

First I went to the BBB web site for Eastern MA. Although they have hundreds of mortgage companies listed on the site only a handful of them are BBB members, but more importantly, as least 50% of the companies listed are no longer in business! Fairway Independent Mortgage, in business in MA for 7 years and one of the top 20 volume lenders in the state was not listed on the site at all, even though the BBB claims to maintain records on all companies, paid members or not, so that they can maintain a complaint registry.

Then I found the article below, a very interesting and evenhanded report on how the BBB works:

http://money.howstuffworks.com/better-business-bureau.htm

And this lively and entertaining look at the BBB from ABC News report:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bureau-best-ratings-money-buy/story?id=12123843

Angie’s List functions as a consumer membership service.  To access the information about a particular business, a consumer has to pay a membership fee.  Only subscribing consumers can submit businesses to be included on the list, and make recommendations or post negative information about a business.  They claim to ensure that businesses cannot join and have employees post about them, and function as ombudsmen to help resolve complaints against any of their listed businesses. 

Interestingly, Angie’s List has an A+ rating on the BBB site!

Yelp is one of the more popular ways for consumers to gather information about all kinds of businesses. A free service, consumers must register with a name and email in order to post reviews, but the general public may access reviews via Yelp’s website at no charge.  The problem is the integrity of the reviews, as there is little vetting so anyone (including company owners and employees) can post, good and bad, about a business. A side note; Fairway Needham is listed on Yelp, and closed a loan with a consumer who contacted us specifically based on a Yelp review.

Although primarily about Angie’s List, the article below does a thorough job of comparing all three services:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/237331/angies_list_is_the_service_site_worth_its_membership_fee.html

As consumers we want to research and understand the companies that we seek to engage and it can be hard to sort out all of the information available in our internet saturated world. 

This is why I maintain, even after you may have used one of the services above, the best sources for information are friends, family and colleagues who have had real experience with the business in question.

Have a mortgage related question or in need of a pre-approval?  Be sure to get in touch! 781-719-4664 or email directly.