Arizona Mortgage Rates for August 22, 2008 (BK-0907309)
Mortgage Related Question of the Week:
This week, we received a question on our Arizona Mortgage Team blog from Susan. Susan’s question:
“Is it easier to get a mortgage at a small bank or a larger one?”
My answer?
“It depends.”
I have been in the mortgage business for almost 6 years now and I have seen my employer grow from about 5 people all working together as a small mortgage broker to a larger regional mortgage lender. I have personal experience of what it is like to work with a small, service-oriented mortgage broker and what it is like to work with a larger, regional lender as well.
In my opinion, the single most important factor in getting the right loan for your needs at the best possible price is your loan officer.
There are “good” loan officers at larger lenders, there are good loan officers at smaller lenders. There are “bad” loan officers at both too!
I am going to spend the next few posts talking about a few tips to help you find a good loan officer. I am sure there are hundreds of ways to find a good loan officer, but I hope to give at least a small handful of ways to find a “good one” who can best help you get the right loan for your needs.
Tip #1: Ask for a referral from a Realtor that you personally know and like.
Realtors who have been in the business generally have a small handful of lenders that they know and trust. If a loan officer does a poor job on a loan for a Realtor, guess what? The loan officer probably doesn’t get any more business from them. If a loan officer does a great job working with a client that a Realtor brought them, keeps everyone informed, under-commits and over-delivers… the chances are good that they will get more referrals from the Realtor.
It has been my experience that if a Realtor has never actually referred someone to a lender and you are the first referral that they are sending a particular lender, they will tell you. If you want to be on the ultra-safe side when asking a Realtor for a good lender, ask the Realtor how many people they have sent to that particular lender. If the number is more than 5, it would seem to me that they think the lender does a good job of helping their clients.
Side note: It has also been my experience that as a loan officer, when you get “fired” by one of the Realtors who has entrusted you with one of their clients because you did a poor job, there isn’t usually a Donald-Trump-You’re-Fired moment. They just quietly quit sending you business! So if you find yourself in the position where you keep seeing your Realtor referrals being a one-and-done experience… You may want to take a good hard look in the mirror.
Back to Susan’s question — “Is it easier to get a loan at a small bank or a larger one?“ The first part of my answer is: look for the right loan officer, no matter what size bank (or broker) they work at.
Up next: Tip #2 on how to find the right loan officer who can best help you get the right loan for your needs.
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