03/06/2022
Note to self, and something I learned today from a really sweet client.
Long story short, my client Jane Doe came in excited and pumped because she knew exactly what she wanted with a pretty good idea of how she would be leaving with the car she came in to see.
What really drove her confidence was the 'fact' of being pre-approved. She had a print out breakdown on her pre-approval that showed our car, a 2021 Toyota 4Runner, with price estimates on what her monthly payment would be with her approximate credit score.
As a person who is optimistic, I thought nothing of it. She was convinced herself that she was approved for the car at a ~560 payment with 2,000 down. Gosh, she convinced me that she would be the easiest deal as long as she loved the car.
So, small talk lead to a test drive, of course loving the almost new car, and straight into the needy greedy. When it came down to penciling out the deal, we come to figure out that the approval we see on our end with the same interest rate and term, was a huge difference in payment. We were looking at a piece of paper that had almost $900 payments.
Me, the salesman, was shocked beyond belief. "How can that be?"
Looking more in depth to the pre-approval was key. The credit union she was "pre-approved" with was a breakdown of financing a car without including sales tax, license, and not taking into account her current credit standing.
Luckily we made the deal and made sure she was happy, but I learned something that is very impactful to future visits: If a guest comes into the office sounding like they have a pre approval with a bank they didn't think was true, it's not! The banks may over promise and under deliver. This leads us salesmen a little more stressed having to deal with imaginary approvals and an unhappy customer.
Have you had a similar instance happen to you?