Consumer Alerts

Why Green Credit Solutions Is Coming Off The List of 20 Worst Mod Companies

When I first sat down to write this article on Saturday, I remembered a comment someone posted on a message board about 18 months ago. Frank Drigotas, aka Dollar, wrote that the immaturity of people in the mortgage industry led to its decline. Frank noted that the majority of these people were young and lacked access to mentors with real mortgage experience.

Everyone laughed at Frank and called him a cranky old man who only wanted to create drama.  It wasn’t until I started MFI-Miami and MFI-Mod Squad that I realized Frank may have been onto something.  When I worked as a loan officer and broker, I was like Ari Gold from Entourage.  I once asked an underwriter if she learned to do her job from the side of a milk carton. That was one of my more tame comments.  Friends in Detroit remember some of my more colorful comments which are unsuitable for this site.

You’re probably wondering why I’m bringing this up. Well, a few weeks ago, I received a call from Martin Andelman, who writes a blog for ML-Implode.com. He asked me about the issues I had with Green Credit Solutions and what criteria I used for my twenty worst mod company list.  I told him it was based on the complaints I received, and we began talking about the Chris Campbell saga involving Dr. Howard.
Martin spent the next 90 minutes trying to persuade me that my impression of Green Credit Solutions was wrong.  He told me that he had spoken to quite a few of their clients at length and that all of them seemed very happy.  He then told me that Green Credit Solutions had a new president — Larry Bracco — who was unaware of the Chris Campbell/Dr. Howard soap opera.   Larry was made aware of my worst loan mod company list by potential clients asking him about it and was naturally concerned. Martin asked me if Larry could call me.

After a few days of playing phone tag, Larry and I connected and talked about the industry and the changes it had undergone in the past 18 months. He asked me to forgive Curt Melone for his mistakes during the conversations about Chris Campbell with Dr. Howard.  Larry then reminded me that we were all young once and said things that now make us look back and say, “D’oh!”

Larry said: “Steve, how can I prove to you we are not the company that you described in your article?”

I have to admit that this question blew me away. When CEOs or attorneys call me about my articles or press releases, they usually say: “I hope your dog dies!” or “We’re going to sue you!” or my favorite, “You better look under your car before you start it!”  These comments usually make me revert to acting like Ari Gold.

I gave Larry Bracco the following list of things I needed to take Green Credit Solutions off the list:
• Make Dr. Howard happy.
• Refund the advance fee to the people who complained to me.
• Prove that Green Credit Solutions is properly licensed and is approved by DRE to collect an upfront fee.
• Get an inspection of their facilities by someone of my choice.

Larry and I spoke early last week. Later that week, he called Dr. Howard and offered to help him. Larry also gave refunds to the clients who complained and showed me proof that Green Credit Solutions was properly licensed under California law. At the end of the week, my friend emailed me and said he was very impressed with their operation.

Their DRE approval is listed under the company name, Pac-West, which is a Green Holdings, Inc. company, and Green Credit Holdings and Green Credit Solutions are licensed under the DOC. This is permissible in California. I verified this with several attorneys who represent modification companies and with the state of California.

Green Credit Solutions did everything I asked them to do, and they did it in less than a week.  So, I am removing them from my list of the worst loan modification companies.

Are they a bad company? No.  I believe they’re a good company that handled the situation with Dr. Howard and some unhappy clients poorly. This was due to the inexperience of some of their executives.   I believe that under the leadership of Larry Bracco, there will be fewer complaints sent to me and very few incidents similar to what happened to Dr. Howard.  I have been assured by Larry that if I do receive complaints they will be handled swiftly.  People like Larry Bracco offer the experience, leadership, and mentoring skills needed at Green Credit Solutions and in the industry as a whole.

I started MFI-Mod Squad to chase out scam artists, to make bad companies ask themselves how they can become better and how the good companies can make themselves great companies.  I think that this experience has made Green Credit Solutions a better company and one that you can trust to handle your family’s loan modification.