Stricter Guidelines for Registered Brokers?

Suggestions
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All - I’m liking this discussion as it is a concern of mine (and others).

As mentioned previously, it has been discussed at length numerous times and there are various challenges to taking a more hands on approach to governing this. The approach we have taken is making sure someone is clearly identified as conducting business and then letting the free market speak.

Make sure that you do your due diligence before engaging with anyone you do business with and that includes any of the dealers/brokers here. With all the controls in the world, even if someone has a stellar reputation, you could have a personality mismatch, someone might have a bad day, a dealer could renege on a deal etc. Caveat emptor, as always.

Please keep the discourse civil and productive, though. The only bad ideas are the ones that are not voiced.

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Great post. 202020

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Perhaps a community initiated/maintained wiki post for trusted brokers, just like we do for dealers?

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I’m not listed on the dealers one :frowning:

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If we could setup a Wiki for trusted brokers it would be great. I’ve thought a useful items would be an annotated jpeg of the US map where trusted brokers could have their icon/badge displayed in the states they operate.

It might be hard to work out such an annotated image, but instead a table could be used where next to the brokers name, would be the states they have dealer relationships and can work deals for.

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I think a system where brokers can be “verified” with badges/ranks/trust levels could be an idea. Like once a successful deal is completed, the lessee would need to provide some sort of verifiable feedback (need to prevent fake ones, though).

I think the broker review threads sort of provide a foundation to build upon.

Does every broker already need to provide their real names and contact info?

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The problem with the wiki post is…it’s not being updated by people. @Cody_Carter should’ve been added to that list by someone…he’s a So Cal Toyota Legend on this board…but it wasn’t.

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Does that make it right/ok that someone is illegally running a business, but brings a good deal to the table?

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This is a tricky fine line as for each broker, there are many, many more ‘customers’ who have unrealistic expectations. So I can understand that it’s hard to balance what we, as users of the site, should expect from a broker or indeed a dealer with what the customer wants. Just as there are trusted users, there are also untrustworthy customers!

As a simple user of the site, I am personally pretty happy with the current approach. It is fairly obvious that any broker or dealer who has decent reviews, is responsive, transparent and has been here for a while, rightly deserves our business. I have put my money where my mouth is once and will do again when the need for a 2nd car arises in the near future.

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Yes, it’s called competition. It’s not my responsibility, nor do I care if somebody paid the $500 license to become a licensed broker.

Are you going to police and ban people who are clearly using auto leases as tax deductions even when it’s clear they are for personal use?

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I think that if we go down this rabbit hole, quite a bit of activities performed by brokers here are prohibited.

Per the NY Department of State Division of Licensing Services, §737 prohibits advance fees without a written contract including very specific details on what is being acquired. Seems like most of our brokers would be in violation of that provision for the clients they take on.

Since @mp11477 wants to do everything by the book, maybe we should ban those registered brokers who are clearly breaking such provisions. A few high profile, well respected, brokers come to mind.

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Show us on the rental contract where the broker hurt you?

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I think you might be struggling with context.

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I’m willing to offer my seal of approval to the brokers for a fee :star_struck:

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The problem with any verification process is that it is laborious to enforce and discourages participation.

The appeal of Leasehackr is that the community can come together to unearth great deals – though it does take some work (and hacking skills). Our community has built itself to be inclusive-- whether you are a newbie or expert, an enthusiast or party with commercial interest – as long as you are willing to participate and contribute constructively, the community welcomes you. We have a few folks who have built their businesses upon their good reputation on Leasehackr. Like many of you have said, the Leasehackr community has been pretty good at regulating itself, especially with the excellent help from our @trusted_hackrs.

For those who want a no-brainer, protected leasing experience, there are plenty of other platforms out there providing verified deals from verified parties, though you won’t get the fun and bargains interacting with the community. Obviously we will still work our best to keep scammers or scrupulous brokers out and our community safe, but I personally enjoy the wild west spirit here without a central regulating agent.

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@CaptQ Most regular users should be able to create and edit a wiki post.

@Cody_Carter you can in theory add yourself onto the list, though it might look more legitimate if someone else does that for you. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Kinda what I always thought. Didn’t want to be at guy. :grimacing:

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I like your approach to this…I have a feeling that being “broker police” is not a very good idea. Does anyone really want to spend time answering problem questions…figuring out who was right/wrong? Way too much time. What about tire kickers who had no intention of following through? Can someone claim that the “trusted cert” ended up misleading them into a bad situation? The more I think about this the more I think “broker police” is a fools errand.

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I’ve been watching this thread waiting for someone to post something like this.

Why would a say, Kentucky based business have to operate under Florida law if the services are being rendered (performed) in Kentucky?

Does a CT dealership need to charge a Virginia doc fee because the customer resides in Virginia?

Hell, does a CT dealership now need a Virginia dealers license to sell calls into Virginia?

That’s an extreme reach, re deciding someone is operating in bad faith based on the laws of one state and shoehorning them out.

The start of this topic (and I hope I’m not breaking any confidence, I asked over PM) was OPs concern that a scam artist could come in and charge people a fee, only to screw the customer.

While I agree something like this is bad, the customer already has that protection in place with their card company.

Hell, I’ve made some mistakes and had to refund people, it’s just part of business.

Regarding creating a wiki, I think that is a poor idea if not only for the fact that it has to be self-moderated. We’ve constantly seen new folks get chided for not understanding how things work and never returning.

LH is a very tight-knit community that allows little fresh blood in. I can only imagine that a system like that is going to discourage that even more.

Ultimately I believe that the onus lays with the broker, and subsequently, it is on them to prove they can handle this type of business. It’s also, however, on the consumer that they vet the service they are looking to use. I think we’re already doing that with review threads.

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Well said, @benedetto.