Why Don’t Community Groups Direct Borrowers to Loan Providers Who Won’t Rip Them Off?
The right approach is to identify the good guys and ignore the rest, the same approach used by savvy pickers of wild mushrooms. They only pick the ones they know are good. Picking the mushrooms that aren’t bad requires an ability to identify all the bad ones, which is more time-consuming and much riskier. Minorities (and others) can avoid discrimination by selecting distribution channels where pricing discretion is either absent or controllable by the borrower. Pricing discretion is absent in internet-based lending, because loan officers don’t capture the customer and therefore don’t have the clout to dictate their terms of employment. Internet-based lending offers other borrower protections as well. These include more complete information on lender fees and third party fees, and the ability of shoppers to monitor their price from day to day until they lock it. I certify lenders who provide all the information needed by borrowers to shop on-line as Upfront Mortgage Lenders. Another way
