Here are some other things that you should know;

1. None of these lenders pays us anything for having their names advertised here. That is not to say that we do not ever receive anything from them. We have known a couple of them for several years and have developed a relationship of trust and respect. Occasionally we buy each other lunch or exchange other small gifts. We have helped to sponsor the Yuba City Racquet Club's Challenger Tennis Tournament the past two years and offer these people (along with many of our past clients and other people we do business with) the use of our passes.

2. We do not require that these lenders refer business to us.

3. All four of these lenders know that we expect them to deal honestly and fairly with their clients. If we ever hear that they have gouged or otherwise taken advantage of their clients, then they will be removed from our web site.

Now, a little history;

We work with a large number of people in connection with our real estate business. For years, we have maintained a page on our web site where we list several of these people. They have helped to make our lives a little easier and think they are people worth doing business with so we are happy to recommend them to you. As previously mentioned, none of these people pay to have their names advertised on our sites.

In September of 2005 we attended a meeting of the California Association of Realtors. In one of the meetings, a report by a Southern California regional chairman of one of the committees mentioned that there were reports that lenders in their region were taking advantage of unsophisticated clients. He further mentioned that this problem seemed to be especially prevalent among non English speaking clients who were using loan officers fluent in their native language.

Shortly after returning from that meeting, I heard a local lender mention the same thing at a meeting of real estate agents. Since then, I have heard several local title company escrow officers and managers express the same concerns.

We have recommended Arla Chalmers and Ken Noall to clients for several years. We have always felt that they deal honestly and fairly with all of their clients. Unfortunately, neither are fluent in Spanish or Punjabi. After hearing more talk of the problem of abusive lenders over the past year, we have endeavored to find trustworthy loan officers that are fluent in Spanish and Punjabi. I have had the pleasure to get to know and do business with Manjit Dhillon. As of this writing, I have not had an opportunity to do business with Letty Duenas but she comes highly recommended by two well respected people in the title industry.

One final thought;

We are very fortunate in the Yuba-Sutter area to have three very good title companies. One of the characteristics of title companies is they do business with all of the real estate agents and lenders in town and they know who the good ones are. If you feel a need to look beyond the loan officers we have recommended, you may want to contact a local title company for the names of some good lenders. Be advised though, that because of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), when title companies give out names, they are not making recommendations. However, I think you can rest assured that, when you talk to a title company, they will not give out the names of lenders they believe to be unscrupulous. Here are the local title companies you may want to contact;