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April 17, 2008
VFD-Funding Completes over 250
FEMA-AFG Grants and VFD-Funding Group is announcing that during the past FEMA-AFG submission period, which ended on April 4, 2008, the company (notably owner Will Griffin) wrote more than 250 AFG grant applications for free for fire departments throughout the USA. Many of these departments also qualified for VFD-Funding Group's internal Griffin Fire Grants, for additional equipment to be added to the apparatus, or for down payments should the department not receive the grant and then be compelled to purchase their apparatus using low interest tax-exempt lease-purchase programs. These Griffin Fire Grants apply to used apparatus, while the AFG only will fund newly built apparatus. The Griffin Fire Grants only stipulation is that any new or used apparatus acquired be purchased through the VFD-Fire Group, to assure the quality and condition of the fire trucks. "We have had many fire companies come to us to finance purchases through other vendors, which we do not do, because we cannot verify the condition of the apparatus, or we know the character of some of the brokers, which raises many red flags for us per quality and integrity", states Griffin. In many of these situations, the inquiring fire department found they could afford a new fire truck, with lower payments, than had they purchased an unverified and non-certified used fire truck elsewhere, certainly when applying a Griffin Fire Grant to the down payment. In a time when many banks, financing companies, fire truck dealers, and fire truck manufacturers are experiencing financial difficulties, the VFD-Funding Group and the VFD-Fire Group continues to enjoy expansions in the number of fire departments we are servicing. "Our costs and our commissions are low, because we have many web sites sending us customers, with the added bonus that our competitors are spending their money to send us customers, so we're going to continue our existing policies, practices and procedures for an indefinite period of time", Griffin affirms. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", concludes Griffin.
March 3, 2008 Brad Radakovich Joins VFD-Funding Group VFD-Funding Group is pleased to announce that Bradley Radakovich has joined the company to help with fire truck and fire station financing, along with other select municipal infrastructure projects. Brad was formerly with Government Leasing LLC. "We're pleased to welcome Brad to our team, as we are some of the other people who have come on board with us, after leaving another finance company". states VFD-Funding Group owner Will Griffin. VFD-Funding Group has enjoyed receiving quality staffers, who use to work for other companies, equally as the company enjoys a significant number of customers who contact us, after trying to get quotes and financing from other sources. In addition to financing customers, many customers also ultimately purchase their new and used fire trucks from the VFD-Fire Group, after contacting VFD-Funding for financing. This has been a growing trend for the past two years, equally as the star performers of other finance companies are also migrating to the VFD-Funding Group. To contact Brad, you can call him at: 710-231-2822, or by e-mail at Brad@VFD-Fire.com
January 2, 2008
VFD Funding Group Expands Financing
Offerings to VFD-Funding Group has expanded their financing offering to now include refurbishing and repairs of fire trucks, in addition to the financing for acquisition of new and used fire trucks and the many other types of projects which have been historically and traditionally assisted by the company. As a product of the VFD-Fire Group's abilities to take trade-ins, the VFD-Fire Group will finance any repairs, restorations and/or refurbishing completed by VFD-Fire Group authorized shops and dealerships. There will be no administrative fees added to the financing of such repairs by the VFD-Funding Group for VFD-Fire Group customers. "Too many departments need to upgrade and update their existing apparatus, or to do repairs/refurbishing to extend the life and use of these fire trucks with their very limited budgets, instead of trying to buy a used apparatus and certainly for new apparatus", states VFD-Funding Group owner Will Griffin. "As we now have authorized shops and EVT certified staff affiliated with us to help the company with those apparatus taken as trade-ins, it only makes sense to send some of our fire department customers to these shops and then to also provide the financing for the work needed to be done." The additional funds to finance repairs/refurbishing will come from the discontinuation of financing of used fire trucks for any company, dealer, or broker who are not in formal and written strategic alliance agreements with the VFD-Fire Group. To also help fund the repair/refurb financing, only new & used fire trucks listed and sold through the VFD-Fire Group will qualify for the VFD-Funding Group internal financing. These savings will enable the VFD-Funding Group to help more departments to repair, refurb or replace their fire trucks. More Information: The VFD-Funding Group is a division of Will Griffin Fire and is under the direct management of Sr. V.P. Mr. O. Kheir. OKheir@VFD-Funding.com The web sites in the VFD-Funding Group include: VFD-Funding.com, VFD-Financing.com, VFD-Loans.com, Fire-Grants.com, FireTruck-Leasing.com, Firehouse-Funding.com, Firehouse-Financing.com, Fire-Stations.com, 911-Funding.com, 911-Financing.com, Ambulance-Funding.com, Hospital-Funding.com, Tax-Exempt-Leasing.com, Lease-Program.com, Municipal-Funding.com. The web sites in the VFD-Fire Group include: New-Firetrucks.com, New-Fire-Trucks.com, Used-Firetrucks.com, Used-Fire-Trucks.com, Used-Fire-Apparatus.com, Used-Pumpers.com, Used-Tankers.com, Used-Quints.com, Used Rescues.com, International-FireTrucks.com, Tanker-Pumper.com, Pumper-Tanker.com, Firetruck-Dealers.com, Fire-Truck-Dealers.com, Fire-Trucks-Sale.com, New-Ambulances.com. New-Ambulance.com, Used-Ambulance.com, Police-Cruiser.com
January 1, 2008
VFD Funding Group Exercises Tighter
Controls for Starting in 2008, VFD-Funding Group has initiated tighter controls on the banks and finance companies receiving projects, referrals and other services from the VFD-Funding Group. "We've made our agreements with banks and finance companies to be much more formal and structured than we did in the past", declares VFD-Funding Group owner Will Griffin. Similarly, if a bank or finance company is not in a formal alliance with the VFD-Funding Group, services such as appraisals, apparatus condition research, certifications, referrals, and other services are not extended to that bank or finance company. "Back in the beginning, we had some finance companies and banks we tried to work with on a friendly and professional basis that were not only ripping us off, but our customers as well, so we discontinued these relationships immediately upon learning that someone's rates/fees were higher than they declared to us, excessive, ARM, they attempted to circumvent us, and we give no second chances to such banks and finance companies", states Griffin. VFD Funding Group will not arrange any financing that is ARM based, because it has been the company's policy to have low fixed rate financing as the only financial products offered. These restrictions are similar to the limitations which were previously imposed last year on some of the fire truck brokers, who were making large fees/commissions for doing absolutely nothing but complicating and losing sales for the fire departments trying to sell their used apparatus. These companies didn't provide any condition assurances, documentation, or any other services to either the selling or buying fire departments. They offer no documentation, which is necessary to enable the transaction and is imperative for the buying department to have of record. Starting January 1, 2008 VFD-Funding Group will only internally finance new and used fire trucks which are listed on VFD-Fire Group web sites for the owners or apparatus which is directly owned by the VFD-Fire Group. Referrals to other finance companies and banks will occur for other apparatus only if these fiduciary companies are in formal strategic alliance agreements with the VFD-Funding Group and meet their very high standards. If the apparatus is listed with any broker receiving fees/commissions, other than the VFD-Fire Group and those with structured formal affiliate agreements, the VFD-Funding Group will not internally finance the acquisition, but will refer the project to one of the banks underwriting the VFD-Funding Group, where such a formal strategic alliance agreement exists. Also from early company experiences, VFD-Funding simplified the documentation and streamlined the processes, due to much confusion and loss in trying to cooperate with some other used fire truck brokers and some of the new fire truck dealers. Too often customers were not contacted, trucks were sold without notification, some trucks listed by brokers were bogus, and VFD-Funding quickly learned that most of these brokers and dealers were not trustworthy, honest, professional, or friendly. If a broker/dealer advertises hundreds of used fire trucks for sale, it is because there is either something wrong with them, or there is something wrong with the fire trucks that they can't sell them. This led to the concern that similar was being experienced by the many fire department customers of Will Griffin Fire and an industry standard needing immediate remediation. There are those fire truck brokers, who will never receive VFD-Funding Group financing again and as banks contact VFD-Funding to determine value and condition of a fire truck they are considering financing, the company advises these banks not to finance the apparatus of some brokers, due to the high risk of unreliable and uncertified apparatus typically offered by some of the used fire truck brokers. Currently, only those brokers/dealers with a proven track records, who have entered formal written agreements with VFD-Fire Group and who have agreed to use VFD-Fire Group's documentation, processes and standards of excellence for professional customer service will have their apparatus listed on the many Will Griffin Fire web sites and will qualify for financing assistance through the VFD-Funding Group. Therefore, if a fire truck dealer doesn't have the VFD-Funding logo/link on their web site, they are not financed by or through the VFD-Funding Group. More Information: The VFD-Funding Group is a division of Will Griffin Fire and is under the direct management of Sr. V.P. Mr. O. Kheir. OKheir@VFD-Funding.com The web sites in the VFD-Funding Group include: VFD-Funding.com, VFD-Financing.com, VFD-Loans.com, Fire-Grants.com, FireTruck-Leasing.com, Firehouse-Funding.com, Firehouse-Financing.com, Fire-Stations.com, 911-Funding.com, 911-Financing.com, Ambulance-Funding.com, Hospital-Funding.com, Tax-Exempt-Leasing.com, Lease-Program.com, Municipal-Funding.com.
Contact us at VFD-Funding today or fill out our convenient on-line feedback form, give us your wish list and tell us a little about your organization and then let's see what all we may be able to do for you and your volunteer fire department, rescue squad or EMS service. REMEMBER, there are NO up front costs or fees required. Last modified: April 17, 2008
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