Online vs Local Lender/Brokers

[justlearning]

Hi Everyone,

When you purchase your home, did you use online lender or local bank/broker for your mortgage loan?

I am looking at the rates the ones i got from local broker vs online lenders (via costco membership)

Local broker: 4.125
Online Lender: 3.875

and online lender processing fee is lower than local broker.

if you purchased via online lender what was your experience as far accessibility, response times, honoring their rates etc?

Thank you.

 

 

[Zaphod]

I've done both. Go with lower fees and or overall convenience. Sometimes a local bank can be convenient (though Im hard pressed to figure out when that is)...maybe what I mean is a bank you already have a relationship with can be convenient. I love my that I can see house, investments, etc...all from my bank login, its nice, but not any kind of serious thing of course.

[DrMoneyTails]

Not to hijack the thread but trying to avoid starting a similar one, how many lenders did you guys speak to when shopping around?

And how does that work, do they each have to run your credit before giving you an interest rate?

[STM]

We used a local lender based on the advice of our realtor, but now that I'm seeing some of the rates that people are getting with online lenders I'm not sure if that was the right choice. Our closing went really smoothly, and it was nice being able to deal with a real person we could talk to when issues did come up, but I'm not sure that tradeoff was enough to justify what now seems like a higher rate.

[Hank]

First Republic and Sun Trust are pretty good if you’re in a location they serve.

USAA offered a great rate, but super frustrating service right up until closing. First Choice Loans through Costco offered a killer rate and excellent service on a refinance.

We’ve had good enough experiences with US Bank, Quicken Loans through Schwab Bank, and a doctor loan from Bank of America. Pentagon Federal and Navy Federal are worth a look too.

Long story short, you can do fine with a local lender or an online lender. Get at least three quotes and don’t trust that the lowest rate on Bankrate actually exists. If a lender doesn’t have a great reputation for customer service, you might be more willing to consider them for a refinance than for initially buying your dream home. (I’m looking at you USAA.)

[justlearning]

DrMoneyTails wrote:

Not to hijack the thread but trying to avoid starting a similar one, how many lenders did you guys speak to when shopping around?

And how does that work, do they each have to run your credit before giving you an interest rate?

Click to expand...

We shopped at 3 lenders so far. One local broker, two online lender via Costco. If you know your credit score they can give you an rate/estimate based on your credit score but if you want to lock the rate you have to apply with them and have them to run your credit. So far our experience:

1- Local broker was very pushy we did not like it and the rates were slowly higher than the online lenders. That is the one our real estate agent recommended.

2- Online lender via Costco pretty good rates but i did not feel comfortable after reading some of the reviews online.

3- Online lender via Costco rates are in the middle but they had good reviews for the most part.

So i identified the lender (3) then went on a zillow check the reviews and found a loan officer with good reviews and i contacted her via Zillow. So far she is on top her game. Pretty responsive and things are moving but we are very early in the process now. I will update the post once everything is finalized.

Some of the sites it helped:

https://themortgagereports.com/ - Clear and concise information. I even asked a question in the forum got a pretty good response.

Primary mortgage market rates: This is what the brokers looking usually.
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage_rates/

http://www.bankrate.com/mortgage.aspx  - The rates are showing usually very low and may not reflect the real market but i check lender reviews from that site. It gives you an idea about the lenders.

https://www.zillow.com/lender-directory - I used for lender and loan officer reviews.

 

[Zaphod]

justlearning wrote:

DrMoneyTails wrote:

Not to hijack the thread but trying to avoid starting a similar one, how many lenders did you guys speak to when shopping around?

And how does that work, do they each have to run your credit before giving you an interest rate?

Click to expand…

We shopped at 3 lenders so far. One local broker, two online lender via Costco. If you know your credit score they can give you an rate/estimate based on your credit score but if you want to lock the rate you have to apply with them and have them to run your credit. So far our experience:

1- Local broker was very pushy we did not like it and the rates were slowly higher than the online lenders. That is the one our real estate agent recommended.

2- Online lender via Costco pretty good rates but i did not feel comfortable after reading some of the reviews online.

3- Online lender via Costco rates are in the middle but they had good reviews for the most part.

So i identified the lender (3) then went on a zillow check the reviews and found a loan officer with good reviews and i contacted her via Zillow. So far she is on top her game. Pretty responsive and things are moving but we are very early in the process now. I will update the post once everything is finalized.

Some of the sites it helped:

https://themortgagereports.com/ – Clear and concise information. I even asked a question in the forum got a pretty good response.

Primary mortgage market rates: This is what the brokers looking usually.
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage_rates/

http://www.bankrate.com/mortgage.aspx  – The rates are showing usually very low and may not reflect the real market but i check lender reviews from that site. It gives you an idea about the lenders.

https://www.zillow.com/lender-directory – I used for lender and loan officer reviews.

 

Click to expand...

Can always just use one of those large search sites and pick the top results.