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Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

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Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#41

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st »

silisili wrote: post #8

I'm currently in late stages with Better, and holy crap is this company on fire (not in a good way). I've been using them for 3 months exactly, and on my 5th advisor. An advisor is your sole point of contact for the loan... questions, concerns, documents, everything. They don't tell you when the advisor changes, you just notice by chance the little initial emoji of your advisor changed. Realize this means the previou…

My condolences, I was also really attracted by their rates and slick design, but apparently dodged a bullet

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#42

Post by fpiazza »

vmception wrote: post #17

wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing? Alternate title: CEO personally guarantees company financing "The CEO believes in his struggling company, although it theoretically means he could have an excuse to sell a bunch of Better.com shares or personally declare bankruptcy, this CEO has 5x as much cash and is probably swimming in less debt than most of the middle class."

> wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing?

i read this in Archer's voice

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#43

Post by Rebelgecko »

silisili wrote: post #8

I'm currently in late stages with Better, and holy crap is this company on fire (not in a good way). I've been using them for 3 months exactly, and on my 5th advisor. An advisor is your sole point of contact for the loan... questions, concerns, documents, everything. They don't tell you when the advisor changes, you just notice by chance the little initial emoji of your advisor changed. Realize this means the previou…

I tried doing a refi with better last year and ended up going with someone else because they weren't as competitive on price, and interacting with them didn't feel like the well-oiled machine they were when I originally got my mortgage with them.

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#44

Post by vmception »

throwk8s wrote: post #36
vmception wrote: post #17

wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing? Alternate title: CEO personally guarantees company financing "The CEO believes in his struggling company, although it theoretically means he could have an excuse to sell a bunch of Better.com shares or personally declare bankruptcy, this CEO has 5x as much cash and is probably swimming in less debt than most of the middle class."

It is how the CEO himself described it: "I did personally guarantee three quarters of a billion dollars and I’m personally liable for it." And it is how the title of the article expresses it: "Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is ‘personally liable’ for $750M SoftBank loan"

He also says he “personally guarantees”

You can look at all the other comments to see how the word choice alone sways people

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#45

Post by l8nite »

silisili wrote: post #8

I'm currently in late stages with Better, and holy crap is this company on fire (not in a good way). I've been using them for 3 months exactly, and on my 5th advisor. An advisor is your sole point of contact for the loan... questions, concerns, documents, everything. They don't tell you when the advisor changes, you just notice by chance the little initial emoji of your advisor changed. Realize this means the previou…

Yea I will never not use a mortgage broker again. The middleman and wholesale pricing is worth it!

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#46

Post by l8nite »

midasuni wrote: post #30
sgerenser wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better is a direct lender, not a broker. They make their money from the spread between the rate/points offered to the user and the price they can package and sell the loan for.

Ok so why makes them different from any other company selling loans to consumers? I took out a loan from hitatchi a while back, I’ve just today had about an exciting new rebranding they’ve had changing they’re name and how ecstatic I, as a customer, will be about it Do I care? No. At start I care about monthly payments and how many months it is. Afterwards I care how long is left. If better come out with better rates…

This is why I prefer wholesale lenders and the independent mortgage broker channel. Prices are better for me, period.

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#47

Post by PolygonSheep »

vmception wrote: post #17

wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing? Alternate title: CEO personally guarantees company financing "The CEO believes in his struggling company, although it theoretically means he could have an excuse to sell a bunch of Better.com shares or personally declare bankruptcy, this CEO has 5x as much cash and is probably swimming in less debt than most of the middle class."

What's the difference between "personally guaranteeing" a loan and being "personally liable" for a loan? To me they mean the exact same thing: if Better.com (the company) can't pay off the loan then Mr. Garg (the individual) is responsible for coming up with the money.

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#48

Post by vmception »

PolygonSheep wrote: post #47
vmception wrote: post #17

wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing? Alternate title: CEO personally guarantees company financing "The CEO believes in his struggling company, although it theoretically means he could have an excuse to sell a bunch of Better.com shares or personally declare bankruptcy, this CEO has 5x as much cash and is probably swimming in less debt than most of the middle class."

What's the difference between "personally guaranteeing" a loan and being "personally liable" for a loan? To me they mean the exact same thing: if Better.com (the company) can't pay off the loan then Mr. Garg (the individual) is responsible for coming up with the money.

The difference is that the liable is primarily used in the context of “not initially accepting responsibility for an action, but being forced to”

Whereas “personally guarantees” is used in the context of “I meant to do this to provide confidence”

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#49

Post by fma »

shard wrote: post #29
fma wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no issues using them last year. As a matter of fact there was a whole subindustry of churning your mortgage as interest rates kept falling. Better.com allowed for that because of how seamless everything is and they would price match any rate you got. Of course if you have some edge case and tons of questions or issues YMMV and you'd have similiar back and forth. Their call center which seemed to be staffed in t…

I had issues with Better last year. Advisors were hard to reach, away on vacation without notice, completely unreachable before 9AM and after 5PM, and unable to adjust to the highly competitive market that was going on last year (needed 15 day close as opposed to 30). I had to switch to a local banker, who was able to provide the speed and flexibility required as they were used to the local market. The local banker a…

Well, did you ever try calling? Because their call center is open late, weekends and resolved any issue I had with my advisor (i.e. an appraisal being late, clarification on cash out refinance as it was my first time doing it)

American Express ran (and still running) a $1000 credit if you used Better.com. Better.com also did not have a clawbaxk clause if you refinanced within 6 months (typical of most loan originators).

They also offered me a waiver on the appraisal while my local bank wanted like $500.

Like I said, there's a reason the churn community leveraged Better.com

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#50

Post by shard »

fma wrote: post #49
shard wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had issues with Better last year. Advisors were hard to reach, away on vacation without notice, completely unreachable before 9AM and after 5PM, and unable to adjust to the highly competitive market that was going on last year (needed 15 day close as opposed to 30). I had to switch to a local banker, who was able to provide the speed and flexibility required as they were used to the local market. The local banker a…

Well, did you ever try calling? Because their call center is open late, weekends and resolved any issue I had with my advisor (i.e. an appraisal being late, clarification on cash out refinance as it was my first time doing it) American Express ran (and still running) a $1000 credit if you used Better.com. Better.com also did not have a clawbaxk clause if you refinanced within 6 months (typical of most loan originator…

Yes, I called anyone and everyone I could at Better, our bid was contingent on those issues being resolved. I could not get anyone with decision making power outside of 9-5 business hours (and it wasn't easy even during business hours, often it would take several hours to get a callback), and also could not get a 15 day close. I had to urgently switch to a local banker to get that kind of service. The local banker started working at 7AM, and would call and email me late into the evening. Perhaps if you have a very run-of-the-mill mortgage situation, Better could work, but I feel like for any mortgages where the conditions are not typical, Better might not be able to respond like a local banker who is familiar with the requirements of the local market.
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