I have been working with Leonard Briones for over a year now and he is simply excellent at his job! He goes above and beyond for me and my clients EVERYDAY. If you are looking for a terrific lender that really cares about the level of service he offers, you must contact Leonard at Pacific Funding Group! read more

I am a REALTOR and I've used Leonard Briones for my clients financing and he's fantastic! On a recent deal, he was able to get my clients loan approval in only 10 days and we closed in less than 30 days! Leonard is on top of his emails and texts, which is refreshing, especially when timely communication is needed. I would highly recommend Leonard Briones and his team! read more

First off, I dealt with Mike Botelho. This man is a life saver. I was referred to him and thank goodness I was. We were given a 60 day notice to move from our current home/rental of close to 3 years after being assured by the landlord he wasn't going to sell. We literally had no place to go. Rent in this area is high as everyone knows. I explained my situation to him. He immediately started the loan process. He worked together with me putting the loan together. My credit had a few issues that Mike worked with. He bent over backwards to help us. Low and behold Mike got us a conditional approval I just a couple of days. He packaged this loan so tightly that my only conditions were explaining the inquiries on my report. Literally within a couple of days Mike had my VA appraiser the property. They can take up to 10 days. The VA appraiser turned in his appraisal within 2 days of appraisal. The appraisal was done on a Saturday! There are a couple things to be repaired but, they are minor. Now we are waiting to get a date to sign docs after the minor things are repairs. Everyone I have talked to said mortgage loans take 30 days or more to get through. Mike got it from open to completion in half that time. In closing, Mike "held my hand" through the process. He clearly had a sense of urgency knowing we had to move and had no place to move to. Most people in the mortgage industry pick the low hanging fruit and don't want to put in the work for the little guy. Thanks Mike, Tim F read more

Can't say enough good things about Leonard Briones. He literally rescued me from a nightmare home-buying situation when purchasing my first home when all communication broke down and the realtors were not resolving the issues. From our first meeting Leonard was extremely professional, courteous, and thorough with his explanation of the documentation and process. I really felt like I was top priority as he was always prompt and responsive whenever I sent him texts or emails (which was often!). He completely turned around what would have been a huge disaster and even went as far as to step in and mediate between the 2 parties. On top of that, he even drove all the way from brentwood during the final signing to make sure I didn't have any lingering questions! Leanoard truly went above and beyond 100% recommend! read more

While researching on how to purchase my first home in California I found Guaranteed Rate Affinity LLC as one of the preferred lenders for CalHFA's first time buyer programs. I entered my information and was promptly contacted by Leonard ******* who, in his email title is the "VP of Mortgage Lending". I had a brief conversation over the phone with Leonard who explained the process and sent me an e-mail with a link to the application. This process began in March of this year however, my boyfriend and I were not ready to fill it out until July. After filling out and submitting the application and required documents, I e-mailed Leonard to let him know it was completed. I did not hear back from Leonard until about 4 days later, only after e-mails and a few calls to his office. He responded to my e-mail and stated he would have an update for be the following day, by end of day.Two more days went by and I still had not heard anything from Leonard. I e-mailed him once again requesting an update and still no response. The following week I tried calling his office and cell number he had provided and left a voicemail and still no response. A few more days later he e-mailed me and apologized saying he was out of town and would get back to me, a few more days went buy and I heard nothing. I then received an e-mail with an attachment of a loan summary that outlined my loan comparison which included down payment assistance. At this point Leonard's e-mail gave me the idea that we had qualified and all was well. I waited patiently to be able to discuss the final process but did not hear from Leonard for days. It was not until I sent a text message requesting to speak to him ASAP as this process was time sensitive did he call me and apologize, he stated he was working a modified schedule because his children were out of school. He then proceeded to quickly run through my application and tell me that I did not qualify for the FHA loan or down payment assistance due to tax write offs and a present car payment. This information was totally different then his last e-mail which included my loan options! I was upset but Leonard gave me hope, telling me that he was going to work on some numbers and see what he could do to help us purchase a home with down payment assistance, also telling me that he would get back to be that night with an e-mail or phone call the following day at the latest. It has now been exactly 1 week and I have not heard anything from Leonard even after reaching out to him via phone and e-mail. For anyone that is looking for a "preferred lender" for CalFHA program, I would not recommend using Guaranteed Rate Affinity, LLC or dealing with their so called VP of Mortgage Lending, Leonard *******. I understand that buying your first home is not always easy however, Guaranteed Rate Affinity, LLC has made it a complete nightmare and one of the most stressful experiences of my life. Customer service at its absolute worst! read more

We just recently closed on our home purchase of a short sale property. Dealing with the short sale was a very long and daunting process but Gail Sasser was absolutely amazing!! She helped us to navigate our way to make the whole process so much easier and less stressful. She was extremely knowledgeable about the market. In the 7 months it took to close on our property, she was in constant communications with us, our Realtor, and even the sellers Realtor to help make sure all the ducks were where they needed to be. Love, love, love Gail and PFG! read more

Good Morning I am a Retired Disabled Veteran being a home owner is scary seems like you just can't find a agent that will go the extra mile for you no matter how hard you try. I did business with Pacific Group everything looked great made my first payment received a letter from Golden Empire about a bi-weekly which would have saved me a lot on my Principal. This should have been told to me when I FIRST re-financed my loan O well once again it's all about the mighty $$ , and lesson learn next time I re-finance I will try once again someone that will really go the extra mile to help me. I still can go bi-weekly only PennyMac once 1 month in advance . read more

First of all I will preface this review by saying that I am a very fair and considerate person... Having said that I rarely feel annoyed enough to post any negative commentary about anyone. I don't like to call people out or be negative towards anyone. With all that being said my experience with Leonard Briones was extremely frustrating. I was referred to Leonard by one of the best realtors I've ever dealt with (Jaz Chand for anyone looking to buy a home) to get information on a refinance opportunity. I spoke to Leonard in initially and he told me he would call me the next day to discuss my situation. The next day he never got back to me. I called him the following day hoping to schedule time with him. He said he would be available that morning. Again nothing. That same day I called him in the evening and he said for sure we would be able to speak the next morning.... etc. etc. etc... long story short he never got back to me as promised. Even though I gave him multiple opportunities to set a time of his convenience. I had several issues pending that required his response. Made it very clear to him and I was very flexible. The blatant disregard for my time and his inconsiderate behavior was terrible.This guy is very unprofessional, unreliable, and not worthy of your business. read more

This will be long, but worth the read if you are looking into working with these people! I will try to keep it short... We dealt with Taj Lockett. Working with Taj may have been one of the worst experiences and a life lesson I will not ever forget! Taj did get us into our home. I remember friends and family questioning me on our rate and cost of the loan at the time. I regret not getting a second opinion. Fast forward a year later. Taj contacted me to inform us rates were down and we could refinance at a lower rate saving us 100's on our monthly house payment. Sounded good to me! So we began the process. I WILL SAY AGAIN, TAJ CONTACTED ME FOR THE REFINANCE. Taj would never return my calls or emails. She was constantly on the road and would schedule time to call back but the returned calls were never made. This happened SEVERAL times! When our appraisal (that cost us $400 out of pocket) did not come in at the number she expected (meaning the loan would not go through) she never bothered to tell us. She simply disappeared. This was after telling me not to make my house payment. Thankfully I followed up on my own. I would have been late had I not done so. Fast forward another year.... I just finished my refinance with another company. Comparing the disclosures sent by both lenders less than one year apart I almost fainted! The estimate for the closing costs for their loan was OVER $14,000!!! The company i just finished working with cost me less than $3600. My lender went through and showed me some of the ridiculous fee's they tried to charge us. I am so thankful our house didn't appraise at the time! This is a true example of a company taking advantage of a situation where we were going in blind. We trusted Pacific Funding AKA Empire Mortgage Inc, and Taj Lockett with our life savings and they took advantage of us once but thankfully not twice! A tough lesson to learn. Do your research and get a second opinion when working with these people! read more

I'm a Realtor and have used Leonard Briones on several transactions. Always pleased and clients are always happy. Thank you Leonard for having easy access to you and returning calls and emails promptly to my clients and myself. A++++++ read more

I work with Fleets 101 Inc Commercial Truck Center and had one of our clients financed with Pacific Funding Group. I worked with Steve Carnes and had a great experience. Process was very easy and had us funded within 5 days. Will definitely look forward to have many more deals with him for future. Highly recommend. read more

My experience with pacific funding was excellent. They really made my refinance so much easier and less stressful. A really good company to do business with. read more

I have nothing but good things to say about Pacific Funding Group, specifically, Michael Botelho! He was absolutely wonderful throughout the ENTIRE process! My husband and I recently finished a bankruptcy (chapter 13) and figured we'd have to wait at least two years before we could even consider a re-fi based on much information I obtained via the web. It just so happened I was talking with one of the gals at Delta Schools Federal C.U. (another great establishment) about how I wish I could get a refinance and she not only told me about Michael, she had him give me a call. Well it was a match made in heaven. Michael called me a few days later and was wonderful. He would answer my questions whether it be weekdays or weekends. I believe we finished the entire process in about a month. I highly recommend doing business with Pacific Funding Group! read more