Choosing the right lender

Choosing The Right Lender

Choosing a lender can be simple. If you’re a buyer and in the market, you can easily get pre-qualified by any lending institution: your bank, a friend in the industry, etc. When it comes to working the actual file, my recommendation is to choose someone who you like to work with, who has a great reputation, and who actually closes files. If you have special circumstances, such as being hourly or being a 1099 tax filer (self-employed), I would recommend shopping lenders until you find one that knows how to work with those types of files. I’ll give you a snippet as to why below.

Work with Someone You Like

It seems obvious, but personality clashes can make for a miserable home buying experience. I tell people who are early in the process to call a minimum of three lenders. Choose one that you get a good feeling from, one that you connect with. It’s important because they have to gather a ton of personal information from you, and they have to occasionally deliver hard or bad news. Human nature is typically that you would prefer to hear it from someone you like and trust.

Reputations Precede All of Us

The general reputation of someone is important. I know that there are agents in my industry with bad reputations, and they sure do live up to it. Yes, I absolutely dread working with some agents. It’s no different with a lender. Asking around, Googling, and getting your realtor’s opinion about a lender is important. If the lender’s reputation is that he is not a hand-holder and you like hand-holding, move on. If a lender is overly verbose and you like the quick and dirty version, move on. I personally have added and dropped lenders over the years so that I now have a wonderful list that I can confidently send out to prospective buyers. I know that one of them will fit the personality of my buyer.

  • Do They Close Files…and on Time?

    I recently had an awful experience with a large lending institution and a client. As a note, large lending institutions that have no presence in the place a person is looking to buy is usually not a great sign because they treat you as a number. Anyway, the large lending institution had my client’s file going for about 45 days, and 6 days prior to closing, canceled the loan. No real explanation, just canceled. I don’t have much experience with this company, but have heard nightmares about files not closing, and we were in the middle of it. While it will ultimately have a happy ending because one of the lenders on my list picked it up and is running with the file, the hell these clients had to walk through was far too much and unnecessary.

  • You May Not Like What the Lender Says, but…

    As we all know, the truth hurts when it should. Lenders are not pre-2008-housing-bubble-burst where they are giving $8/hour employees $1M houses. And no one really wants that! This is a great time to be in the buying market because reputable lenders are honest. The ones that I recommend and love working with would rather say no to a buyer, or at least not now, before letting the buyer move forward with a bogus sense of hope. Many times they will give a solid roadmap, a plan if you will, to get into a better posture for buying. Trust me, we all benefit from our clients buying a home. Our economy does better, the home buyer starts building equity, I get to travel more. It’s a win for everyone. If a lender tells you something you don’t like, go ahead and get a second opinion, but make sure it’s with someone with a great reputation.

Choosing the Right Lender

In Conclusion, Follow the Path of Least Resistance

The path of least resistance is to go to your seasoned realtor and ask for some lenders that he/she knows, likes, and trusts. Realtors do this all day long. We love getting our buyers with amazing lenders who are smart, knowledgeable, and will get you to that closing table. Having a deal fall through days before closing should never happen in this day in age. There are too many lenders out there who actually care from the get-go. Being a number is not my clients’ style, and I really enjoy pairing them with a lender who they end up loving as much as they love me(!!), or at least almost as much. 

When you’re ready to take the blissful plunge into home ownership, please do yourself a favor and let me help you. There is no greater pleasure in this gig that I have than being of excellent service to my clients. Take me up on my list of lenders. You definitely will not regret it, and you will get to that closing table. Maybe even with a big smile!