Bob Rodi, Leasenow on Republic Leasing of South Carolina

Unlike many others that responded in their defense, LeaseNOW had not done much business with Republic Leasing over the years despite having a great

deal of respect for Dwight Galloway and his staff.  Like Charlie Lester, we learned long ago that you pick 2 or 3 sources and develop your program around their criteria.  If you do this well enough, even niche programs become "portable" and can be moved to other funding sources if the need arises.

I found myself in this position after our two main funding sources exited the business in fairly short order last year.  Fortunately I

had a sense of what was going to happen so I had begun discussions with Dwight Galloway well in advance so that we would

have the negotiations out of the way and we could begin doing business.

I have now been selling our small portfolios to Republic for about 7 months now.  During that time we have made an effort to learn their system and they have made an effort to learn ours.  Dwight, Charles and their staff have made every effort to

accommodate us and, for the first time in many years I can honestly say that I actually feel as though I am in a partnership with Republic.

Our backlog is steadily growing and fundings are increasing each month.  Last month, we achieved an 82% funded to approved ratio.  That is up from 54% 7 months ago. Our approve to submit should be above 90% by the end of the third quarter. I believe that we are both making money because of the effort that we have put into this relationship. That is the way it should be.

For whatever reason, I had not considered Republic to be a viable funding source for our business, prior to last year because our program is generally seen as "different" from that of the normal lessor/funder relationship. I was not sure that they were equipped to handle funded transactions that would be sold to them on a flow basis. As I recall Dwight wasn't that sure either.  I will publicly admit that that was an error in my judgment and not any shortcoming that existed at Republic Leasing.  I learned once again that analysis and understanding is always better than superficial judgment and assumption.

By the way, Charles Randall is the best kept secret in the funding source cadre that currently exists in the industry. He and Dwight operate like "Mr. Outside and Mr. Inside". In the last seven months I have developed an excellent relationship with

Charles and I wish that I had known him better before.  In fact the whole credit staff at Republic seems to understand that none of us make any money unless we actually approve and fund transactions.  The addition of Rich Viola rounds out the management team positioning it to be one of the best we have seen in small ticket leasing in a long time.

While the last seven months have not been "bump free", it is the willingness of the partners to work on the relationship that has made the entire endeavor worthwhile.  I don't know their reasons for letting 100+ brokers go.  However, if it improves their efficiency and operations, hopefully, this will in turn be reflected in lower costs to those third parties who help them remain efficient.  I applaud them for having the business sense to make the cuts.  If they had not done this then their most efficient customers would be subsidizing the inefficient ones.  As many of your readers know this situation existed for many years in the

"volume" driven leasing world that is defunct, at least temporarily.  To the best of my knowledge, Republic Leasing was always an "operationally" driven company.  This is obviously why they have not only survived but now have the opportunity to emerge at the top of the industry.

Bob Rodi, CLP

President

LeaseNOW, Inc.

drlease@leasenow.com or drlease@hotmail.com

www.leasenow.com