I’ll be refinancing my home very soon. How can I research the mortgage companies from whom I get quotes?
I’m not asking “how can I find a good quote”. I’m asking “now that I have a good quote, how do I research the company that gave me the quote?” Are they reliable and honest? Are they a fly-by-night operation? Do others have horror stories about the company? Or are they upstanding corporate citizens with an enviable record for integrity? That sort of thing…
In particular, what about “American Nationwide Mortgage” and “Pinnacle Mortgage Group”?
If I wanted to get reviews of electronic gear, I’d go to something like AVS forum or Epinions.com. I’d be interested in any forum / website similar to these for mortgage companies.
I don’t know of any forums for this, but I believe you can find ratings for mortgage companies on the Standard And Poor’s website. I haven’t really navigated through the site much, but I think you have to be a paid subscriber to access some of the data.
Why not go on the premise that they all suck and they all will pretty much sell your mortgage as fast as they can.
I think the quality of the whole experience now and 5 years from now will depend much more on the loan officer that handles the transaction. Its very hard to tell sometimes if the company you’re dealing with is a broker, a net branch or the actual bank and probably doesn’t matter all that much as long as your loan officer and his support staff aren’t schmucks.
Ask your friends, relatives and co-workers not about their rate but about the service and trust they have with their loan officer not their lender. You can beat a good rate out of whomever.
Also creditboards has a section where loan officers help people decifer the different offers they’re looking at and aren’t allowed to solicit you.
If you’re pretty saavy and don’t need a loan officer or hand holding ING bank has great rates online for a few very specific programs. As does the Pentagon Credit Union.