where do I start looking for a mortgage lender/broker?

[Anonymous]

We are looking to buy a home. We actually bought and sold before, but I guess we were nonchalant about the finances and just used whoever the realtor had a relationship with. This time we want to be a little better prepared. Where do we start? Do we get the pre-approval from our regular bank or should we be getting it from one of the banks on bankrate.com? Or from a mortgage broker?

[Anonymous]

We have used Penfed consistently for our mortgage and auto financing. Their rates are almost unbeatable and I have had mortgage brokers tell me they cannot match Penfed's rates.

Where you do lose out is in the process towards closing because how well it goes depends on the processor who is assigned to your loan and some are more efficient and better communicators than others. But it is stressful as you near the close and it appears that everything is not coming together.

In fairness, I will say that ultimately the closing does occur on a timely basis but they are not always the best communicators as to how things are going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have used Penfed consistently for our mortgage and auto financing. Their rates are almost unbeatable and I have had mortgage brokers tell me they cannot match Penfed's rates.

Where you do lose out is in the process towards closing because how well it goes depends on the processor who is assigned to your loan and some are more efficient and better communicators than others. But it is stressful as you near the close and it appears that everything is not coming together.

In fairness, I will say that ultimately the closing does occur on a timely basis but they are not always the best communicators as to how things are going.

do they all have a 1% origination fee? I seemed to be running into that.

[Steve]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have used Penfed consistently for our mortgage and auto financing. Their rates are almost unbeatable and I have had mortgage brokers tell me they cannot match Penfed's rates.

Where you do lose out is in the process towards closing because how well it goes depends on the processor who is assigned to your loan and some are more efficient and better communicators than others. But it is stressful as you near the close and it appears that everything is not coming together.

In fairness, I will say that ultimately the closing does occur on a timely basis but they are not always the best communicators as to how things are going.

do they all have a 1% origination fee? I seemed to be running into that.

Start here: https://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates/

You can see the origination fees, etc. But call and request (emailed) the full picture so you can compare apples to apples (credits, discount points, buy down, etc, etc)

[Anonymous]

OP- where are you looking to buy? MD? DC? VA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- where are you looking to buy? MD? DC? VA?

VA

[Anonymous]

Eagle bank

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eagle bank

+1

[Anonymous]

Go with JPM Chase.

[Anonymous]

Yelp

[Anonymous]

I work in the mortgage industry and mystery my competitors extensively for my job and the two companies that I respect the most are Quicken and Wells Fargo (I swear I don't work for either). Quicken has always done well in the J.D Powers rankings for mortgage originations but aren't local. Wells Fargo is who I have my own mortgages with.