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My Rebuttal To The Attorney's Who Make Things Seem Much More Complicated Than They Are
If you learn one thing from this article, learn this: the company who cautions you against working with a guy like me is trying to sell you on their experience in dealing with the Dept. of Treasury. Unless your file has actually been referred to the Dept. of Treasury for collection, their description of the scary and complicated process that dealing with DOT entails is irrelevant. THE VAST MAJORITY (99%) OF MY CLIENTS ARE NOT WITH THE US TREASURY. I DEAL WITH BANKS, CDCs, AND DIRECLTY WITH THE SBA. IT IS 100% UNTRUE THAT YOU NEED AN ATTORNEY TO NEGOTIATE WITH ANY OF THESE PARTIES. FURTHERMORE, THE SETTLEMENT PROCESS WITH THE TREASURY IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THANT SETTLING WITH BANKS, CDCs, AND THE SBA.
The reason for this article is this: I was looking through the website of a competitor of mine, and was surprised to find a link to my website on it. Of course, the reference to me and what I do was in a negative light. Basically, this competitor was insinuating that you'd have to be an idiot to hire me over them since I am not attorney and they are superhuman attorney's that perform the financial equivalent of brain surgery. Beyond that, they were basically insinuating that anyone who represents you MUST be an attorney. I'll cut to the chase: when it comes to negotiating a debt settlement, this is simply not the case. It might be true for some circumstances, but none that I've ever come across in any of the THOUSANDS of calls I've fielded. In my opinion, these guys are listing a bunch of circumstances that never come up (which I honestly couldn't help with) and then they are trying to trick you into thinking that their ability to handle matters that almost never come up somehow make them better suited to settle your SBA debt with a bank, CDC, or directly with the SBA. Misdirection at its finest. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: settling your SBA debt with a bank, CDC, or directly with the SBA requires extensive knowledge and experience in finance, not law.
I usually don't take on files that are with the Treasury because they are so hard to settle. Either theses guys are unaware of that because they are new to this niche, or they are aware and choose to lead you around for a bit, then present you with a hefty bill after getting no results.
Here are my other "take always":
1) It's unclear to me how long they've been doing this, or what kind of results they've actually achieved for their clients. I suppose if my experience was limited, I'd avoid sharing that info too. I list actual results on my site. The proof is in the pudding.
2) There is LOTS OF IRRELEVANT jargon designed to convince people that a non-attorney simpleton couldn't possible understand the delicate intricacies of SBA settlements. It looks to me like they found the SBA SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and wrote a book report about them. Lots of fancy language, but few explanations in terms of what it means to you, the borrower.
Here's a good example of jargon that sounds good in theory, but in reality applies to very few borrowers: "while you don't need an attorney to represent you, a non-attorney cannot represent you before the SBAs Administrative Office of Hearings and Appeals." If I didn't know any better, I'd be impressed. But I do. So I'm not. The truth is that 90% of the time we are able to work out a settlement directly with the lender or directly with the SBA. And beyond that, I've never heard of a borrower having their debt settled as a result of going to the SBAs Administrative Office of Hearings and Appeals. So while their advantage over me sounds good, it's a non-factor in 99.99% of cases.
3) There is a MAJOR FACTUAL ERROR in their FAQs section. They claim that an SBA loan can rarely be settled unless the business is closed. As I noted earlier, it's clear that they read the SBA rules, because that is actually what the rules say. But the fact that they say this shows their lack of experience. There is one huge exception to the rule that the business must be closed. It's called a 504 loan. If the real estate associated with an SBA 504 loan is sold, they WILL consider a settlement even if the business is still open.
4) They say "after you schedule an appointment, you consult with a dedicated SBA OIC lawyer who helps you through your legal battle." Cool, but here's the thing: most OICs are not legal battles. In fact, most settlements are worked out with no attorney involvement at all. At the end of the process, you can have ANY attorney review the settlement agreement and it will cost maybe an hour of billable time.
Here's the bottom line, as I see it. If you were learning to hit a baseball, would you rather seek guidance from the guy who read book about hitting a baseball, or would you rather learn from the guy who actually played baseball? In case you missed it, I'm the latter. I worked for an SBA lender and have worked on nothing but SBA settlements for the past 4 years, so my knowledge goes beyond just regurgitating what anyone can dug up on the internet. I've lived it, and know that there are differences between what's written in the "rule book" and how the rule book is applied in the real world. But if you like fancy jargon, I'd be happy to throw out some technical yet useless terms that have little impact on your situation too!