<p>I’m looking to consolidate some debt by refinancing my house. We were very happy with Countrywide until they disappeared and our mortgage was picked up by Bank of America. We’ve found them annoying to work with, so we’re looking for a new lender. I can find good interest rates on my own. What I’m having a hard time finding are customer reviews of lenders. So I’ll ask the CC brain trust:</p>
<p>If your mortgage is held by a company that lends nationwide, and you have been very satisfied with it, please post its name here. Thanks.</p>
<p>We had Wells Fargo and they were fine. But we didn’t escrow (see the thread started by dodgersmom about insurance escrow with her mortgage lender). In my experience as a mortgage lender (we’re not nationwide), I’ve heard many borrowers who have had a bad experience with the major banks. There was a study that said mortgages are the area of highest customer dissatisfaction for banks. So basically even if one person has a good experience, you might have a negative experience. The negative experience might have more to do with the processing and closing of your loan vs. the servicing.</p>
<p>Whatever, stay away from Amerisave, very cheap rates but horrible service. Good for re-finance but not for purchasing. I wouldn’t take the risk for purchasing, especially if you have a certain date/deadline to meet.</p>
<p>As a general matter of principle, I would not do business with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase. These banks are too big and bureaucratic to deal with. If you have a problem, getting personal attention will not be easy. I also don’t like the fact that they are well on the way to controlling the mortgage market in the US.</p>
<p>Having said the above, I refinanced with Merrill Lynch a few years ago and then found myself dealing with Bank of America for underwriting and processing. Although we closed the loan, it was not easy.</p>
<p>Pentagon Federal Credit Union seems to have very good mortgage deals. I have a HELOC with them that I took out around 5 years ago. I think it took me around a week to close the loan. </p>
<p>Mortgage lenders - even large national companies - buy and sell servicing rights all the time. It’s fairly pointless to try and determine the best lender - because even if you start there - no guarantee you’ll still be with them a year or two down the road.</p>
<p>I agree with the comments about using a local credit union instead. They are lending for their own portfolio generally - meaning they own the loan and service it. No guarantee they won’t ever sell loans out of their portfolio, but might be better odds of your loan staying with them for a good while.</p>
<p>Good suggestions. Thank you. All of my local banks would sell the mortgage; that’s just the way it is here in back of the beyond. But there is a local credit union I might investigate.</p>
<p>Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Largest credit union in the US, I think. Anyone can join. Their rates are phenomenal. They have 5/5 adjustable and 15/15 adjustables also. They don’t sell their mortgages, I think. They’ve never sold ours. They have phenomenal car loan and HELOC rates also, even if you have a paid off car, they will send you a check in exchange for the title.</p>
<p>The only negative about them, is that they are so busy with new home loans that the process can take 2-3 months, so if you’re in a hurry it can be a problem. Best to use them for refinances, when there’s not a set timeframe. The problem is, they are so busy and in demand that it takes time. Great customer service, though. I finance every single thing I can through them. Right now we have a 2.875% 5/5 mortgage, 1.99% HELOC on a investment property for a year (then reverts to the regular rate of 4.75%, though we’ve managed to keep getting these 1.99% deals strung out for the last 3 years), 1.29% 5 year car loan, 1.49% and 1.98% 4 year car loans on cars that were paid off. Best deals ever. All were with no fees, though some of their mortgages do carry fees.</p>
<p>I was also a Countrywide sold to BoA who has sold it someone else who is FAR worse than BoA was. I dream of getting BoA back. You know that’s bad. I have to pay $12 to pay my mortgage payment online now. How ridiculous is that? In this day and age? Seriously. They send me the threatening letters about buying me home owners insurance because they haven’t received my declaration page every single year- even after they pay the premium out of my deductible. There is no way to pay extra principle unless I do a phone payment (also costs $12 to do) and frankly, I don’t trust them. I pay the extra $12 every month because I want that online payment confirmation immediately because I have a feeling if I mailed in a payment, they would claim not to get it until it was late and they could charge me a late fee. I seriously distrust them that much. </p>
<p>Note that there are different part of the mortgage that can be sold: the servicing and the revenue. If the servicing is sold, then you will get notices from both the old and new servicer about it. The revenue can be sold without you knowing it, and may be turned into a mortgage backed security. Of course the risk of your default comes with the revenue.</p>
<p>Perhaps one of the reasons that servicers got so behind on handling foreclosures and short sale negotiations, besides the sheer number of them, is that since the ownership of the mortgage revenue is some other entity (perhaps more than one), there is yet another party behind the scenes who has to agree to everything.</p>
<p>As a matter of principle, we used local bank and credit union. Neither ever sold our mortgages. We MAY have been able to save a bit by using a national company but preferred to keep the money in our state. No regrets. </p>
<p>We’re hoping to sell our home in Illinois as a tear down, and buy in San Diego. We’ve talked to the company associated with our local home town bank (Wintrust Mortgage). Our realtor in California recommended a company they work with (HomeServicesLending, affiliated with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage) and said “A seller will look more favorably with a pre-approval that came from a local lender.”</p>
<p>We liked the guy in our area and DH wants to stick with him since we’ve already given them a lot of information, but they’re only in Illinois. They say they frequently do loans for out-of-state offers. Reliability, speed, and convenience will be more important than saving a few dollars, especially since the mortgage will be no more than 15-20% of the purchase. The rest will come from the sale of our current home and cash savings. We’re not sure which state we’ll actually be in when it comes time for the loan application itself.</p>
<p>Would we be smartest to go with a local lender in San Diego? Would it really increase our chances of an offer being accepted? I could ask our realtor for a few more recommendations, or maybe someone here has some advice.</p>