Any tips?
What if they take your deposit and run? How do you know they actually have a car?
And does communicating in the leasehackr forum reduce the chance of fraud? (They want to preserve their reputation in the community)
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Registered Brokers and Dealers here on LH all have a review thread. Some brokers are licensed and bonded (requirements for that vary by the state they operate from) if you check the first post of the advertising thread in the Marketplace.
If anyone on the platform offers to broker a deal (sell you a lead) without displaying the Broker or Dealer tag under their name, please report them, that is taken very seriously and subject to a ban.
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i didnt realize that. Thanks!
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Yeah, LH is becoming a victim of its own success. I’m sure that the brokers are the primary source of revenue for LH, but all of the ads–posted with various caveats–are definitely starting to detract from the experience.
On one hand it’s nice that the brokers post ads so that you have a better idea of what deal you’re trying to beat, but on the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be any standard as to how the brokers are required to post their ads.
It would be ideal that LH-approved brokers are only allowed to post true $0 down ads. Additionally it would be cleaner if their advertisements go into some sort of filterable database/ table as opposed to the general forum similar to the newish “Deals” page.
Finally, some brokers can be very aggressive–dare I say–like traditional sounding car salespeople? That type of behavior isn’t conducive to a fun online community. I get that the average consumer can be ill-informed, but they shouldn’t be ridiculed for trying to educate themselves on a forum like this one.
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I think the “take deposit and run” likelihood of an LH-approved broker is unlikely. But like any transaction with a relatively unknown party, paying with a credit card is your best form of protection. If something goes wrong, your credit card’s bank will refund your transaction.
I would never pay a deposit with an unknown entity with a check or cash-equivalent (Zelle, Venmo, etc.). Always use a credit card.
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They all have to follow the Marketplace Guidelines, which is linked in an earlier post in this thread.
There has been countless discussions involving Brokers, Dealers, Owners and Moderators about advertising which had evolved over time, I think several of the discussions can be found by searching.
There are arguments as to why individuals can’t advertise the same way — e.g. with the same deal structure. But if they follow the Marketplace Guidelines, you have all the information to evaluate two different Marketplace Deals against each other, you just might have to do a little math.
It doesn’t take much searching in the marketplace threads to see that if the deals are unclear or not following the rules, they are asked to correct them (and do).
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good tip with the Credit Cards
Being an “LH-approved broker” is utter nonsense. At the end of the day they pay to play on here and LH will protect/promote paying customers (marketplace brokers), even the rotten ones who are shady AF.
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Can you provide a recent, concrete example of this?
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Thank you for the feedback. This is why we developed Pre-Negotiated Deals (PND) to help those who are overwhelmed by the Forum Marketplace.
@Shellzj We do have Marketplace Guidelines – community members are welcome to flag a broker’s post which violates our standards. The current community-regulated approach has evolved over years of discussion among brokers, dealers, and forum members, allowing market dynamics to work while maintaining clear standards. It’s designed to serve members who want to do the work and engage directly in the negotiation process.
To clarify a common misconception: brokers are not LH’s primary revenue source. We don’t have incentives to promote or protect brokers. The brokers who thrive here have earned their community trust through consistent, quality service. That said, we always ask users to do their due diligence before engaging with brokers and only work with brokers they are comfortable with.
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HughJashol … that pretty much says it all.
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@HughJashol is right … Are there no mechanisms for trusted hackrs and super supporters to up or down vote brokers and get a score? I get it that we can read reviews but would it not be good to get a summary of that?
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Also is it normal for leasehackr brokers to get your SSN in an application form? or should that happen directly with the dealer?
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How many LH brokers accept credit cards. I haven’t seen any.Have you?
An SSN is typically given or provided to the dealer only. However over the years on occasion it has happened where a broker requested it. Most likely it was to facilitate the process other than some far fetched nefarious motive.
A broker would rather not have your SSN then have possession of it.
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My broker’s standard application form has an SSN field.
Broker is also asking me to pay broker fees via CC to a private email and not a company name.
Am i screwed?!
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my broker just ask me to pay and CC was an option but the name on the email is a private email and not a broker name. Am I screwed?
And there are posts in the Marketplace that come from dealers/dealership employees (non-brokers). As such they don’t charge broker fees. Audi, BMW, MB, etc.
if you spend enough time on LH, you’ll develop a sense of who you’ll do business with (or not).
Many brokers are sole proprietors, so know my automatic assumption is you aren’t screwed.
As for the SSN thing I suppose you could inform said broker that you would rather give it directly to the dealer and it shouldn’t in theory be a problem. It may be the dealer has asked the broker to collect this info upfront in order to streamline the process. You could ask the broker if you’d like.
At this point a few days ago you were given the link to broker reviews. How many positive reviews does this broker have and how many negative?
Just making sure, this is a broker on LH, right?
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