Matt M asked:
Does it make any difference if I was to use somebody local where I live, such as Bank of America or HNB Mortgage as opposed to firsttimehomebuyers.net, quicken loans, or ditech.com?
JESSE
Does it make any difference if I was to use somebody local where I live, such as Bank of America or HNB Mortgage as opposed to firsttimehomebuyers.net, quicken loans, or ditech.com?
JESSE
DAVID
Only if the quality of service matters. Look at it this way, if you’re not getting return phone calls, if no one is telling you what is going on which would you rather have, email that never gets answered or the ability to go to their office and meet face to face?
Comment by mazziatplay — January 8, 2010 @ 10:26 pm
NEIL
well if you do it on line you put all of your info out there , and it will get passed around or you risk your identity getting stolen by the minimum wage person who reviews your info before passing it along , If you go somewhere local you know exactly who gets what , when it comes to your personal info .
Comment by Insensitively Honest — January 9, 2010 @ 5:34 am
REGINALD
Well it all depends, if you go local, they give you very few options. Internet information, people pay for and work on a national level, so they have more options available to you. The first rule in mortgages as a consumer is to shop around and to be educated. I am a mortgage broker and I have seen people lose their shirts, because they didn’t.
Comment by marxistharpist — January 9, 2010 @ 6:37 pm
MILES
I am not a fan of non-local lenders. The fees often associated with quicken, ditech and other such lenders/brokers can be very high. I have seen them as high as 6 points (6%). When dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars, talk to someone face to face – someone you can look in the eye and you know is dealing with you honestly.
Comment by brian — January 10, 2010 @ 1:47 am
FLETCHER
Well consider that you are giving your personal information to someone you’ve never met and probably won’t meet. So if there is a problem, you can’t walk into their office and ask to speak with them or the boss. So local or online? Me, I’d pick local.
Comment by DJ B — January 11, 2010 @ 10:43 pm
TIMMY
Speaking as a Realtor, I advise my clients to use someone local because the Internet lender has no long-term interest in providing you with the loan as promised. You don’t need to use a bank – a morgage broker has more loan options and may have loans at a lower rate. A local lender needs to maintain a good reputation with the community as well as Realtors so they generally work hard to get everything done on time and with the terms discussed with you. Another reason is that you can walk into their office and establish a rapport with the loan officer and you can go in there periodically to ask questions, etc. You can’t do that with an internet lender.
Comment by caddemd — January 12, 2010 @ 4:44 am
LAZARO
There really won’t be much of a difference. Most people assume by applying on-line they save money and everything can be done over e-mail or on the website. Usually what happens is that you will apply on-line, and the company may assign your application to someone that is local anyway. Also the loan officer you deal with may be calling you and requesting items from you anyway, just the same as it would be if you went with someone local. If you are dealing with a local person you can visit there office if needed if there is a problem with any of the loan info, most Internet or on-line companies quote a low rate to start but the final terms are never close to what was initially discussed. A local agent is more likely to be sure what they quote upfront is what you end up with in the end.
Comment by mateomortgage.com — January 12, 2010 @ 5:36 pm
DONNIE
I have a problematic house transaction that has missed closing dates for one reason or another. It is getting down to crunch time, and the local lender the buyer chose met me at the house to check some issues before we sent the inspector out again. I stop in her office and drop off docs. I can pick up the phone, call her, say “Hey its me” and she knows who it is, where we are at and what is still on the “to do” list without flipping through a pile of files. This type of service you will not receive from an online lender.
I have heard other Realtors talk about missing closing dates frequently using online lenders. Some online lenders sell your information to other lenders who all pull a credit score, and your scores take a big hit. I have heard buyers talk about all the fees attached to the transaction, and terms that were promised initially but didn’t come through when the final docs came out. Bait and switch seems like a prime online lender tactic, the buyer panics that they cannot obtain a new loan before closing and accepts the lesser terms.
I am certain there are competent on line lenders that do what they say they are going to do, and close in a timely fashion. Then there are the others…..
Comment by godged — January 15, 2010 @ 8:09 am
OCTAVIO
I can’t speak for the service other online lenders offer, but since I work for Quicken Loans, I can tell you about what do.
First of all, I strongly recommend going with someone you trust and can be vouched for with a referral. It doesn’t really matter who it is. If you are comfortable with the person or company, you’ll be fine. Referrals are a huge part of the mortgage industry and 9 out of 10 of our clients say they will refer us to their friends and family. And we have a 94% client satisfaction rate on a survey that all our customers do at closing. As far as I know, it’s tops in the industry.
And we return all phones calls the same day we get them. That’s so important to our CEO that he tells all new employees at orientation that if they can’t return calls the same day they get them, they can’t work for Quicken Loans. It’s that simple.
And don’t forget that even though we are an online mortgage company, you will have a personal mortgage banker that will guide you through the entire process and keep you up to date as your loan progresses. You’ll be given several ways to contact your banker (office phone, cell phone, pager, email, etc.). Your banker will know you just as well as someone who has an office down the street. In fact maybe better. I got my mortgage through a broker several years ago (before I worked at Quicken Loans) and I couldn’t get him to return my phone calls for anything. I’d go days without a reply….
And, you get the advantage of online technology to aid you when you want it. With our website, you can check the status of your loan 24/ 7 and even sign document online. You decide how you want to do it. You can have a banker hold your hand through the process and you can do things online. It’s the best of both worlds.
Finally, we come to you for the closing. That wasn’t an option for me when I closed. I had to drive 20 miles to an office. With Quicken Loans you can schedule the closing at your home, your place of work, a coffee shop, anywhere. In all 50 states. You tell us and we meet you there.
I hope this answers your question. Feel free to contact me through my profile if you’d like more information about Quicken Loans.
Good luck with your mortgage!
Comment by Quicken Loans — January 17, 2010 @ 2:29 pm
LUKE
A local mortgage broker has access to all the same secondary markets as any online company. You can get the same loans and rates. I am a Realtor, and have mostly headaches from online lenders. It is very hard to get any communication at all. Most of us do not have time to wait all day for a return phone call.
Local lenders give the better service. They survive by referral business. If they don’t do a good job, they don’t survive.
Comment by QuarterRoy — January 20, 2010 @ 9:54 am