A Quote of the Day over at Listless Lawyer reminded me of something (There’s more inspiration over at Listless than I have time) the other day:
There is no more dangerous illusion than the belief that one can get something for nothing. —– Bernard Baruch, Baruch: My Own Story.
A decade or so ago I was refinancing Murphy Manor. I was working through a mortgage broker, and just before closing they gave me their itemized closing costs. Since it was a lot different than the sample closing costs they had provided back when I started with them, I looked over the figures carefully enough to spot a mistake. That led to a fine tooth comb and a phone call where I went over every line – both what it was for and why it cost what it did. One of the lines had some boilerplate description and the lady provided me with some boilerplate explanation that was mighty similar to one she had given me for a previous item. I explained that I would like to know exactly what I was getting for my money on this line, and why I should pay twice for what sounded like the same thing. After a couple of other unsuccessful attempts to explain it, she talked to her supervisor and came up with a much better explanation, although still obscure. When I said “It’s your fee”, she agreed but was apologetic and seemed to expect me to object. I told her I’d much rather they were upfront about their fee rather than trying to hide it since they had to be making money out of the deal somewhere and I’d just as soon know how much than worry about how bad they were screwing me. It’s not like they were working for free.
