Unsung hero #4
I don’t know Jon Shibley. I know he lives in Atlanta, and I know he runs Lenox Financial Mortgage.
I know this because I hear him on the radio all the time. Usually, he’s urging people to call him mortgage company and re-finance. Apparently closing costs annoy him. Being a mortgage broker, no matter how good, does not make you a hero.
On September 8th, on WSB AM, I heard Shibley’s voice and was expecting the usual ad. I didn’t get it. What I got had nothing to do with mortgages. It didn’t even mention his company. Instead, it was a personal message from him urging people to make a sacrifice and give to the Red Cross in support of disaster relief. Now lots of people have been offering opportunities to give. Lots of people have been making donations.
Not a lot of people have had this message “Skip the dinner at the fancy restaurant, have a couple of Baloney Sandwiches and give the money to the Red Cross! This is the easiest decision in the history of Humanity! Step up and be a man about it!” Wowsa! He paid for ads on Atlanta’s most expensive station out of his own pocket, didn’t mention the company, urged people to make a sacrifice, decide that’s just what grown ups do and gave them the number for the Red Cross.
He has the right message, the right reasons, and he puts his money where his mouth is. That’s heroic… or at least very decent.
Updated Added File @ “Personal Message”
October 7th, 2005 at 9:59 am
Yeah, I heard that too. I was shocked. Today I heard John on the Boortz Show talking about wanting to to support the Fair Tax ( http://fairtax.org ). I really like this guy. He seems like a down to Earth, do wants good for the people, kind of guy.
February 13th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Only his ads are misleading. He comes on the radio and says that he’ll refinance or finance your mortgage with no closing costs. What he doesn’t tell you is that in order to do this, you have to pay a higher interest rate. I know all companies that have $0 closing costs do the same thing, but his radio spots get me angry because he is arrogant and misleading.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Of course you will pay a higher interest rate…do the math, dude.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Except that it’ll take you YEARS to make up the spread between the slightly higher monthly note and the lumpsum of the closing costs. In my case, like 11 years. I ran my Lenox goodfaith estimate by a guy at BB&T and he said “I cannot touch that deal with no closing cost. You need to take that deal.” Lenox is the best deal going. I don’t work for them or have anything to do with them other than I’ve refinanced about 3 times with them and it works everytime.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
jon shibley is my uncle and he is the best!!!
May 17th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
hey my uncle is jon shibley and he is awesome!
June 9th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
I recently decorated Jon Shibley’s new Atlanta office with my wildlife photography and he was exceptional to work with. He is a down to earth, family oriented guy who has a great sense of humor. He’s a class act.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:58 am
Hello Maddie, I am wondering if you can call your uncle and tell him I would like a career at his Lenox Orange County office. I really appreciate your time and know this is a little unconventional, but he likes unconventional things, right?? Thanks a lot . . .
June 21st, 2006 at 11:06 pm
I just spent a few hours researching Jon Shibley and his company Lenox Financial. Just about everything I can find on Jon is that he’s a really cool guy and a great businessman with ethics. I know that’s usually an oxymoron, but it seems to be true.
However, I have just had the WORST experience ever in dealing with his company. One person in particular (unfortunately the lead person I had to deal with) had terrible communication skills, very unprofessional in behavior, and was slow enough through the process that I lost the rate lock. Now I have to find another broker and start from scratch.
I hope that Jon finds more customer oriented people to work for him in the future and wish him well personally. Some people in his company could stand to learn from his example.
July 30th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
I just closed a mortgage with Lenox Financial and the Loan Officer I worked with was great. Very responsive, locked in the rate quickly and had everything right at the closing.
I highly recommend Lenox Financial and since most people won’t carry a loan for more than 7 years (avg time in a home I think) do the math and save a ton of money on closing with Lenox Finanical.
Jon Shibley and Lenox Financial are great to do business with in my opinion.
August 12th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Does anyone know how Lenox Financial handles recruiting employees? I just read about Jon and Lenox Financial Mortgage in “Starting from Scratch: Secrets from 21 ordinary people who made the entreprenuerial leap” and am fascinated by his company and also by the fact that he mentions he has never had anyone quit on him.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Yeah, but he sounds like a total douchebag on his radio commercials. Very pushy and arrogant. “The biggest no brainer in the history of earth”. WTF? What kind of sales slogan is that? Sounds like the same old same old, no cost to close, but we rip you off in other ways, namely a much higher rate. Please.
December 6th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
His radio ads make me want to shove a pencil in my ear.
January 1st, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I’m going for my second loan with Lenox. The first was exactly as advertised with no closing costs and a lower rate than other brokers. Lenox works off of volume, they can get you low rates, and the institute buying your mortgage pays the closing costs to get your loan. His slogan is cheesy but it really makes sense and saved me money. I’m glad to hear he’s a humanitarian as well. Good for him, this world needs more. Shalom.
January 10th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Ads are VERY misleading to the unknowing consumer. Lenox doesn’t offer anything different than you can get from thousands of mortgage brokers. For some, letting them charge you a higher rate instead of paying the closing costs can be a WORSE deal.
January 18th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
This company needs to use the power of the internet. This blog is the only way I could find the real Lenox amongst many of fake Lenox sites reeking the benefits of their radio ads. I am still skeptical since the link above brings you to what looks like a somewhat unprofessional looking scam site like those fake paypal sites that try to get you to enter your information in them .
It does not come up on Google and the radio ad only gives a phone number that I can never write down because of traffic. The concept of the company sounds great and I am in need for home financing, just not sure why they don’t encourage the use of internet to learn more about them.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Will the real Lennox please stand up!
I think I found it.
http://lnxloans.com/about/aboutus.html
The link above (http://lenoxloans.com/) appears to be, maybe an older site but phone number is different so it appears to be a scam copycat site.
Carefull what you put your SS number in these days.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Has anyone ever been referred to another loan company from a Lenox rep? We thought this was pretty weird, and possibly unethical.
February 1st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Any guy that claims to have invented the wholesale lending system and the SRP in 1994 is a shady snake-oil salesmen at best.
Does he also pay everyone’s interim interest, taxes ascrows and hazard insurance escrows. These can be thousands of dollars. If you have a big tax bill, the charges can be more than ten thousand dollars.
What a joke. Does he explain to people as they “move in and out” of different loans that they start at the beginning of a bank-biased amortization schedule.
Who talks like that anyway.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I think it’s time to close comments off of this entry. He’s a good guy? He’s a crook? You decide for yourself. This blog entry is about a guy who took out a radio ad to encourage listeners to give to the Red Cross. Whatever his motivations were, it’s a good gesture. End of story. Comments closed.