Here is my bad experience with Tom Spaniel of Signature Lending. Years ago, I had just gotten into real estate as an agent and was closing on one of my first transactions. Tom Spaniel was doing the loan for my buyer. About a day or two before closing, Tom calls me up and says that the buyer is $300 short of cash and if I don't contribute the $300 from my commissions, they will not be able to close and the deal will fall through.

I was new and really needed the sales commission as I had been without any income for a couple of months. I had worked hard on this deal, showing these clients many houses before they finally chose one. I told Tom I would go ahead and contribute the $300 from my commissions to make sure they closed.

The clients closed and as time went by and as I learned more about the business, I found had I had been scammed by Tom Spaniel. One day I was talking to a loan officer from another company and told her what had happened on that first closing. Low and behold, this lady used to work for Tom Spaniel. She said he pulled this same $300 scam on all Realtors he thought would fall for it. She said he would always wait right till the last day or two, call the agent and say that if they did not contribute $300, the deal would fall through. Exact same thing he pulled on me. This $300 went straight into Tom's pocket.

She said he was very dishonest and when she found out the things he was doing, she left Signature Lending. Apparently his reasoning behind his scam was 'if I can get away with it, why not'.

I would advise anyone looking to obtain a mortgage loan to stay away from this character. Any Realtors looking for a loan officer to work with; you do not want to do business with this guy! I don't know how he still has his license.