I’m considering refinancing and it seems that the lowest rates come from the primarily online lendors like Rocket, SoFi, Quicken etc. If anyone has experience with a company that’s presence is mainly online instead of brick and mortar, I’d like to hear about it.
The original mortgage on my current house was through Quicken back in 2016. I was very happy with the whole process, was able to get pre-approval (not just pre-qualified) within an hour of starting the process.
Currently going through a refi with Filo Mortgage (rates were a bit lower than Quicken) and no major issues so far (although they are a mortgage broker while Quicken also issued the mortgage, so a few more steps in the loop).
ETA: The difference is that the underwriter for Quicken was in-house (I think) while the underwriter on my refi is at the mortgage company and not at FIlo. Also underwriters are getting slammed with refi applications right now…
I work for a primarily online mortgage company (I won’t mention their name so as not to run afoul of marketing rules). Something to remember is that even if you go to a large “brick and mortar” company like Chase, Wells, etc., it’s not like the people working at that branch or going to be the ones actually working on your mortgage, so there’s not going to be that big of a difference.
Quicken and Rocket are the same company, aren’t they? Anyway, I went with Rocket with my most recent re-fi, and it was dead easy. I may be a little rosy about the experience because it enabled me to escape from the clutches of Wells Fargo. But I have no complaints, except for one thing that I assume is not their fault – since then I have been inundated with re-fi offers from a zillion rando mortgage companies, and they all think that I have a VA mortgage. I double-checked with Rocket and they assured me that my loan is not a VA loan (which would be fraudulent, since I’m not a veteran). I remain mystified.
One thing to know, pretty much every big lender out there will sell your mortgage to other banks who will sell it to other banks and so on and so on. So you might end up with Wells again anyway.
Yes, I’ve been cautioned about that by a reputable source who suggested going with a credit union instead because they do not practice these shenanigans.
I didn’t use them, but I filled out the form on Rocket and got what seemed to me to be a pretty dishonest and scammy result. I wrote about it at Is a refi mortgage at 2.625% about a good as it gets? - #67 by iamthewalrus_3
Yes, I do know that, and thank you for mentioning it because I forgot to mention that this was one of the things that sold me on Rocket, that they made it part of the contract that they would not sell the loan to anyone else. Also, part of the clutches that Wells Fargo had me in was that to get the original mortgage I had to agree to bank with them, at least my checking with direct deposit of salary. Now I am much happier banking with a credit union.
Perhaps their practices have degraded, I didn’t have anything like that experience when I did my re-fi, which I think was about 3 years ago.
I just crossed Quicken/Rocket off my list for the same reason. The rep I talked to mumbled his way through costs, and when I finally got to look at an actual piece of paper, the numbers were far higher than anyone else was suggesting.
Which credit union, if you don’t mind me asking.
No, I don’t mind, although I think it’s local to most of Northern California plus the city of Los Angeles. And I don’t claim it’s the best credit union ever, just that it suits me pretty well. I will PM you with the name.
I was honestly astonished at how scammy it was, since I’ve known of Rocket for years.
Misrepresenting the number that I put in in order to make it look like I was saving more money is so bad that it seems like it must have been a bug, but the follow-up “Ha ha, we just gave you the rube pricing but you didn’t fall for it” email was maybe even worse.
The whole point of the internet thing is that they should be able to have small margins and pass the savings on to their customers because they have a streamlined automated service rather than high touch sales.
I’ve never liked Quicken Loans ever since they were Rock Financial and local to Detroit. They’re now huge and I absolutely hate their ads. The ads make it seem to me like you’re going to be taken as a sucker by them because of how they present the process as so easy. There’s a lot going on legally with mortgages, and a company that makes the process seem easy is obviously hiding something as far as I’m concerned. My experience interviewing for a position with them only solidified my view of them. And then one of my extended network of Facebook friends, probably the creepiest guy I know, posted messages on Facebook asking for people to refinance with them (and him). The whole organization just seems like scumbags all around.
Just because they won’t legally sell the actual mortgage to another lender doesn’t mean they can’t effectively sell it to another lender through various derivatives.
I don’t understand much about what that is or how it works. But if they keep the ownership of the loan, and I still make my payments to them, how would I even know the difference? What does “effectively” mean in this scenario?
I’m curious another this as well. I think I might care who is servicing my loan but not who actually owns it.
FWIW I refinanced online back in 2015 and everything went well. IIRC it took a couple weeks and as long as you know how to handle documents online it’s pretty easy.
I don’t think it matters who owns the mortgage, just who services it. And personally I don’t even care about that. For me the customer service consideration was the loan closing. Some lenders, e.g. Wells Fargo, had multiple estate agents caution against because they had a reputation for delayed or screwed up closings, a reputation that can actually lose you the house in my local market. If I recall correctly we had a seller once ask us explicitly not to use Wells Fargo. The servicing after closure is so automated that I don’t really have enough of an interaction to care. And indeed in all cases it’s switched companies at least once for me.
For the original financing on the two houses we’ve purchased in the area we used a local brokerage that had very good customer service and handled the paperwork and tasks flawlessly.
For refinancing I largely don’t care apart from the cursory research to determine that they’re not a complete scam. I shopped online for the best rate and upfront cost combination with very little regard to anything else. There’s less downside if things go south with a refinance. It’s not like you’re gonna lose the house if they’re a bunch of screw ups that take two months to close. Either way, going for the lowest cost provider online was just fine in both cases. The paperwork got done just fine.
Quicken/Rocket was quick to reply. When I showed my offer to my financial guy, he thought that the fees were high. When I told Q/R, he came back with a “We can drop the last year off and cut your rate so that the quoted payment stays the same.” Hmmmm.