I first began working with Lee Franczyk in April 2014. I spent a couple hours on and off the phone and email with him. (typical) I answered a number of questions, completed his loan application, pulled his credit, and ran a Fannie Mae Approval and he was Approved! I was more than happy to help him in any way I could, that’s my job. As far as I could tell he was very happy with the work, information, and service I had provided thus far, and the fact that he just reached out to me again for help this week (5 months later) only proves that point. His original plan was to sell his current home and purchase a new home. I told Lee that he was approved based on the accuracy of the information he provided to me regarding his income, assets, work history, etc… And based on he and his wife selling their current home and purchasing a new home at or below a particular purchase price that was discussed. I told him if he needed a Pre-Approval letter today, and he said “no, we’re not there yet, we still have to sell our house first and then we’ll start looking for a new homes”. I said ok, just let me know whenever you need anything or if you had any additional questions. Now its over 5 months later and Lee sends me an email (9/8/14 4:55pm) and says “Our house and the fifty others on our block are not selling so we have decided to rent once we find a place to live”  and he says he needs a Pre-Approval letter. (No problem, this is business as usual) I call him within 2 minutes, get his voice mail and follow up with an email that said “Sure can, but we need to review the property details, expected rent on current property, and do a once over of the loan application before I can issue a Pre-Approval.” He emails back (9/9/14 5:50pm) “Yes, can you call me tomorrow around 9:30am at my office xxx-xxx-xxxx”

I call 9/9/14 9:23am, get Lee’s Voice Mail and leave him a brief message, and then send and follow up email letting him know I’m ready whenever he is. He calls back a few minutes later.

Lee and I exchange our hellos, and I ask him to tell me about the house he is interested in buying. He tells me he actually wants 2 Pre Approval Letters for 2 Different Properties.  This was an odd request, so I ask him if he was planning on making 2 offers on 2 different properties at the same time? He says YES. I begin to explain this is a very BAD Idea, I further explained that when he makes an offer on a property it is customary to make an Ernest Money Deposit with the offer. (in his price range that would typically be around $1,000) and in the unlikely event that BOTH offers are accepted he would be under CONTRACT to buy both homes and would potentially lose his Ernest Money Deposit on the house he didn’t buy. I explained several other issues with this to Lee Franczyk in an effort to inform him of the risks associated with this. He began questioning the Ernest Money Deposits, asking why he needed to give a deposit with the offers. (I thinking to myself this is something that his Realtor should have already explained to him) BUT, I further explained that an Ernest Money Deposit is not technically required, but it is customary. If a seller is going to remove their house from the market and accept an offer, they are going to want a financial commitment from you the buyer. I explained this with an example as well.

 He said “I’m not worried about any of that”, and he was clearly getting irritated with me. I said, ok let’s do a quick review here of the loan application to see if anything has changed, asking him the following questions, Are you still working for the same company?  Is your income still the same? Have you obtained any new Credit/ Monthly Payments? (Credit reports are only good for 3 months so technically I should have pulled a new credit report for him, but pulling credit too many times is not good for one’s credit score.) He said job, income, and credit were all the same. Then I ask how much he expects to receive in rental income on his current home, I fill that in on the application and then we move into ASSETS, and this is when things go sideways.

I ask Lee Franczyk if he still has $XX in his Savings Account and $XX in his Investment Account, he says yes. I asked Lee if he was still planning on putting XX% DownPayment on whatever property he buys, he says YES. (Based on the New Purchase Price he was looking at, and the FACT that he was no longer going to be selling his home and obtaining equity from that sale, this CHANGES his overall Available Assets to buy a house.) Without getting into his particulars, I had to confirm that he had enough money to buy the house, pretty simple. So began review his options for down payments, sellers assist, and the like. He says, he has other money that he was planning on using, and that wasn’t a problem. I said, Ok but I have to enter in ANY assets that you plan to use for the purchase into the loan application before I can run the updated Fannie Mae Approval. I also need to make sure that these “other assets” are an “acceptable source of funds Per Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Guidelines” He would not answer this question BUT INSTEAD asks, “What happens if I’m under contract to buy one of these houses and then I don’t have enough money to buy it?” (THIS IS A HUGE RED FLAG, A VERY STRANGE QUESTION) But I answered his question. Well you will probably lose your Ernest Money Deposit(s) ((Plural, and told him most sellers require $1,000 upon signing the contract and then another $4,000 to $9,000 within 15 days, AND based on the Purchase Price he was looking at it would probably have been on the higher end) AND depending on how far you are into the process you could have wasted money on Home Inspection, Pest Inspection, Well Inspection, Septic Inspection, Appraisal, etc… which could be another $2,000 or so. I explained that there are certain protections in the agreement of sale under the “Mortgage Contingency Clause”, but those protections are for unforeseen problems or surprises, not something that we could have and should have known about from day 1. So I circled back to these “other assets” that Lee Franczyk told me he had that wasn’t a problem. I said, “This is exactly why I have to complete the loan application accurately so the approval is based on facts, and then we know you’re good to go, and that doesn’t happen. I also explained to him (again) that if he was going to be short on money to close, he can ask for up to a X% Sellers Assist, which would reduce the money he would need to bring to close, AND figuring all of this out now, is KEY to determining exactly what you want our offer to be. If you want or need a seller assist, it is ALWAYS better to ask for it up front with the initial offer.

 Bottom line, after I spent 5 minutes ANSWERING the question (what happens if I’m under contract to buy a house and then I don’t have enough money) Lee Franczyk begins rising his voice and turns from frustrated to condescending and says, “Sean I don’t have time for this, I asked you a simple question, and you just went off on a 15 minute rant, I want is 2 Pre Approval Letters for 2 Different Properties, Can you do it or not?” I say, “Wait a minute, you asked me a question, I answered it, I don’t understand why you are getting mad at me for answering your question. I’m sorry I have to confirm that you have enough money to qualify for the house, but I can’t just issue Pre Approvals without making sure you qualify.” Well apparently, he didn’t like me asking him why he was getting mad at me and clearly was annoyed at me answering his question in detail, because everything that he said from here out was just plain rude, just shy of yelling at me, and was extremely condescending.  I have never had a prospective client or actual client speak to me like this and there is NO WAY I will ever work with anyone who does. Fortunately there are very few Lee Franczyk’s out there, or I’ve just been lucky enough to avoid them.

 Needless to say, after the 3rd or 4th round of this Nonsense, I interrupted Lee Franczyk and said, “You know what Lee if you think its ok to talk to me like this for answering your questions and doing my job, We’re done here, I’m not going to sit here and let you disrespect me, I have better things to do, Goodbye”, and I ended the call.

The only Truth in Lee’s Review is that “His knowledge was there”.

Without going point by point, it is simply a petty attempt of slandering me because I wouldn’t take his abuse. His wife never called me to request anything, that’s a lie. I realize it’s my word vs his, but I’ll let the other reviews on ZIllow, the A+ Rating at the Better Business Bureau, the 5 Start Professional Award from Philadelphia Magazine for the last 4 years all speak for itself.