That's BS. What I mean to say is whoever told you that doesn't know what they are talking about.

How did you do your shopping?

Hopefully not with Lending Tree - they are lead generators for lenders and not an actual lender.

Hopefully you are looking at lenders that are NOT big box banks.

Your post sounds like it comes from a big box bank or QL. I would find anyone other than the two of them to fund your loan. There are some excellent mortgage lenders now.

You should be comparing all the costs - not just rate or closing costs. There are costs differences between lenders. Some have lower closing costs and make up for it in the rate and others have lower rates and make up for it in the costs.

PS - I'm in the US so I have no idea how it works outside of our country. If you are somewhere else, please specify so someone from that country can reply with local knowledge.

Edit: I wouldn't trust anything that LO told you since they fabricated that response to you - either out of ignorance or for some other reason. Find another lender.

To add a little to my post, check with friends, family and your Realtor for lender recommendations. Stay away from Chase, Wells Fargo, BOA and the like. Why? Because they have overlays on top of the standard guidelines and many of their loan officers are untrained since the mortgage meltdown. The very first person that sees your file that has been trained is the underwriter and by then it's too late to correct any inaccurate information in your application. Last time I checked with Wells Fargo, their fall out rate was over 40% of pre-approved applications. What does that mean? It means that of the applications that WF pre-approved, 40%+ of them received a rejection letter just before closing. In many instances it was the overlays that kicked out the loan. The buyer could then go to any other lender without overlays and get approved in many instances. Some buyers gave up because the process was daunting.

I can tell you that when a buyer shows a PQ/pre-approval from Wells, Chase or BOA, their offer is considered weaker if they are in the high LTV zone because of the 40% fall out rate. No one wants to go under contract with a buyer that has such a high rate of not closing after the issuance of a pre-approval. It becomes a high risk deal just because of the lender the buyer selected. Check with your agent to see if it is similar there in your area.

There are excellent lenders around the country that only originate, underwrite and fund mortgages without messing with any other financial product (car loans, cc's etc). In the business these types of lenders are referred to as "non-bank" lenders. Use one of those lenders. There are also excellent regional lenders and small banks. Get your referrals from people that have used these lenders so you get a feel for what works and what doesn't work. I have lenders all over the country that are excellent. The loan officers know what they are talking about and have a good handle on the loan products available and their respective guidelines.

Be cautious dealing with any company which advertises widely. The best deals are from smaller, less well known companies who don't have to charge junk fees to pay their marketing costs.
The buyer of our previous home used Quicken Loans. They ended up getting hit close to closing with a previously unmentioned fee that cost them another $500 or so. At the closing, the numbers were loaded into the state's program to combat predatory lending. The closing could not go through without modifying the deal due to the excessive charges.
I don't remember whether ultimately QL and the title company agreed to reclassify some charge or whether Quicken waived the charge. This caused a delay while the loan company tried to decide who had authority to make the decision to get the loan funded. Eventually we went home and picked up the check the following day. Fortunately we didn't have a mortgage payoff or other issues so it didnt cause a problem for us.

Lyndee Lee is right. I classify Quicken Loans as one of the worst.

We used our credit union.

I found JP Morgan Chase to be highly competitive and easy to deal with. I liked having a local presence (their branches seem to be everywhere) and they are my primary bank. So, don't dismiss a large national bank. Even at a national bank, mortgage rates are local. There is about a 15 basis point spread between 15 yr mortgage rates in NYC and nearby CT, and almost a 50 basis point spread between NYC and FL.

Putting another word in for a smaller, local bank/credit union/lending company. I can almost guarantee I would have never got a mortgage through a Big Bank or large national lender -- there were too many moving pieces at the time and if solely crunching numbers I wouldn't have qualified. The credit union I used (who I never heard of at the time) was recommended by my realtor. They took ME into consideration in terms of being very low risk (e.g. long mortgage payment history, long work history, fact I could free up the down payment funds with a bit juggline, etc) -- not just the numbers on a spreadsheet. Positive difference in loan servicing too, compared to other experiences I've had with Big Banks.

Time and again, we've seen stories about credit unions and small local banks doing an absolutely horrible job at actually handling the initial loan. Seems they just don't have the real experience to do the job, quite often. Yes, this is not always the case. Some do a fine job. But I have seen more complaints about them here than the top quality loan brokers.

From what I have seen, most of the local small credit unions farm out their mortgage loan process. The larger CU's have a tendency to do them in house in a centralized location - think NFCU and the like.

IME CU's are fine for lines of credit (HELOC's) and second mortgages, but not so much for purchasing residences and financing them. JMO. They take a very long time to process the mortgage application so you need to allow enough time. However, I have had very good experiences with smaller regional banks that portfolio their own loans. To me, an experienced LO can make all the difference in the world.

If you are looking at condos, lenders want at least 80% owner occupied and on the ones which are rented, long term leases are more favorable.

I closed on my personal refinance about two months ago. I shopped around to three lenders... QL (who did the mortgage the last time w/o any problems), BofA, and a smaller lender. My best deal was with BofA. Got a 3.625% rate for 30 years. Closed without any hiccups.

Denita wrote: Stay away from Chase, Wells Fargo, BOA and the like. Why? Because they have overlays on top of the standard guidelines and many of their loan officers are untrained since the mortgage meltdown. The very first person that sees your file that has been trained is the underwriter and by then it's too late to correct any inaccurate information in your application."

Seems like a broad brush. We have our pre-approval from BoA. I have banked with them for 45 years and my husband for 20 years (well, they've been Suburban, Sovran, NationsBank, then BoA over them time I've been with them) and have had two mortgages with them (an original and a refi). We are planning on an 80% loan have FICOs over 800. Our loan officer has been with them 30 years. Our buyer's agent doesn't see any problem with using them.

As with anything, YMMV. The credit union I used for my most recent mortgage does not farm out the work -- they have a dedicated mortgage officer, as does the other credit union I use for banking purposes. IMO, based on my multiple (bad) experiences with them, BoA SUCKS the big one with both their mortgages and their banking practices. Hands-down the worst financial institution I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

Agree with mxk3. Based on experience with big box banks and my clients and other agent's clients over the last 40 years my advice to avoid those particular lenders for mortgage origination stands. Yes, the big box banks were once a good resource until they started using untrained application takers rather than well trained LO's. There have been countless times where the buyer comes in with a BoA or Chase or Wells pre-approval and is turned down for a mortgage just a week before closing. In most cases we have been able to get the buyer approved with another mortgage lender and with no issues. However, it creates delays and hassles for the seller and the buyer.

Having said the above, Mary, if your LO has been with them 30 years, then you should have a much better experience than is typical for BoA, but not guaranteed. I do hope that your loan underwriting and funding goes smoothly with BoA.

Edit: Just had a friend of mine make application with BoA yesterday (plus with another lender) and the LO at BoA included a $7500 grant in the mortgage application for which my friend doesn't qualify (he is not a first time buyer, and he makes too much income by more than 400% of the max gross income). This is the type of "error" I am talking about. He made application with BoA because it is the builders preferred lender, not because he will ultimately use them. And, as a note, the lender I referred him to was 25 basis points less expensive in a fixed rate mortgage than Chase (3.5% fixed, 30 yr vs 3.75% fixed, 30 yr) and only 5% down rather than 10% down (for Chase product) which is how I referred him to another lender to start. Also Chase had more fees. He had applied to Chase first. Then my lender referral. Then BoA. Approved (pre-approve) with all. But the terms and rate vary. Don't discount shopping for a good mortgage from a good lender.

^PS the lender referral in case you are interested is Sebonic Financial at Sebonic.com

Well, just an update, the friend of mine is going with BoA because they have dropped their fixed rate to 3.25%, 30 yr amortization and builder is contributing $7500 toward costs. Looks like comparison shopping got him an extra 1/4% off the rate BoA originally proposed a couple of days ago.

OP good luck getting the best deal moving forward.

I have to correct my last post. BoA didn't honor their loan commitment to my friend so he didn't close with them, he closed with another lender (not a big box bank). I had to update this so others know that as recently as April 2020 BoA doesn't follow through even on written loan commitments. At least AFAIK. YMMV. Be very careful with your lender selection.

Beware of "David Koen"'s spam, he comes back to edit. You can flag his old spam, still cluttering things up, at

https://www.houzz.com/activities/user/webuser_674894735

ETA: spam removed!

When I'm ready to buy, I was thinking I would probably shop around utilizing different realty companies. If you use agencies like Semonin or RE/MAX which are big names I've heard of in the business, you may be able to find a good price as well as have access to multiple choices.