Submitted by Sivla-Alegna t3_z86ki9 in baltimore
I am looking for mortgage lender recommendations. Our realtor recommended two lenders, and one would only address my husband, so obviously, we won't be doing business with them. We'd like to have quotes from a couple of different lenders. Any recommendations are appreciated!
That's a good point. I'd rather do business with someone who acknowledges my existence and contribution to the transaction, especially since I am the primary earner and the one that handles the majority of the family finances.
The big three will snatch it up after sure, but the right lender absolutely does matter a whole lot in terms of the rate and relationship and you are asking the right question. We went to three lenders, one of them had a rate much lower than the others, and also offered much lower terms on mortgage insurance. They also were local, knew our realtor and their way around things. We were ready to close in no-time.
The other people we went to were rude, gave much worse rates (think 10% higher), and also accidentally emailed sensitive documents to randos they used to work with (these people were with FirstHome, which I see is getting a lot of positive reviews below...so the individual really does matter).
Anyway, my wife and I can recommend this guy: https://www.primeres.com/chadpiunti
try checking out a credit union - like State Employees Credit Union. One thing though, it seems some seller agents didn't want to work with them and since I didn't really know what I was doing, I just said ok, and worked with someone else. I assume this is because there are certain lenders that will approve anything and they were afraid of pushback from SECU. i encountered 2 sellers agents like this. I also tried using M&T, which a another sellers agent wouldn't use as they said they weren't local (?!?!). This was at the height of the housing market boom though, so things may be different now. I ended up using the lender the sellers agent wanted me to use and my loan was sold about a month later...and then again a month after that - which is exactly what I was trying to avoid.
This is definitely true. Maybe just a quirk of my own experience but my sellers wouldn’t consider my offer unless I had a local lending officer. I was coming from another state so initially presented with one of the big National lenders.
I wish we had some control over who gets our mortgage. Mine went to SunTrust, now Truist, and they repeatedly shorted me the cents on my payments. They were totally unsympathetic on the phone, told me I needed to mail or fax them proof, then never did anything when I did fax them proof. I figured out if I wrote out the cents on the amount line and not just the box they would credit it, but I'm STILL angry about it.
How did they short you cents? Btw Suntrust is Truist! It was a merger between suntrust and BB&T. Suntrust mortgage overtook BB&T and they run the show.
Say the mortgage payment was $2,000.51. They would always enter it as $2,000.00. I always overpay my mortgage too, trying to get debt free asap, so I think they thought I was ridiculous overpaying by $xxx and dickering about $0.xx.
with a credit union they might intend to service the loan themselves instead of transferring it after closing.
Lmao I wish this was not the case... But it is. Mine was sold in that time period, although the lender I originally selected still manages it from the front end.
Not sure who the big 3 are. The largest services for today's loans are Rocket, UWM, and Pennymac and Pennymac is the only one that buys loans from others. I could go on, but some local companies service loans, most do not. You have to be approved and setup to retain the servicing on the loan. Most lenders have no intention of servicing the loan, and it is setup to be transferred well before a few months, and even sometimes they transfer the loan to a company that doesn't intend to service the loan long term.
I think two of them have to be Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae
FNMA isn't a servicer, they are the 'guarantor' of MBS. Basically they take about 0.5% interest of every loan in the country in exchange for guaranteeing the end investor will be made whole up to 80% loan to value. They are the most profitable entity in the country, and basically enable a stealth tax. There is value in what they provide but they produce profits that are just crazy. Wells Fargo is still probably about the tops, but they service loans for FNMA, and aren't producing like they used to. Given their book though, they still service probably as many or more loans than anyone. Wells has been reducing its market share as of late, and has the asset cap I think. Not a big deal. Still huge.
Check the paperwork. My Credit Union keeps like 98%.
Just closed on a house using Tom Cumpston with First Home Mortgage. Him and his team were amazing to work with and bent over backwards to help me out.
We also used First Home Mortgage (specifically David Starleper for refinancing last year) and they were fantastic!
We had good experience with this company. I don’t really remember who our lender was. Made the process easy.
https://firsthome.com/loan-officers/david-starleper/
Edit Tom’s link is in previous post, hyperlinked Name.
I’ll chime in that first home is great as well.
First Home Mortgage is da bomb!
First Home is also Baltimore based.
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Dude probably had a hard time in school lol.
Are you a member of, or eligible to become a member of a credit union?
I would NOT recommend Gene Frazier, we had a horrible experience with his group.
Thank you! I appreciate the warning!
I used MECU. Great experience and they are local.
I second MECU, very streamlined process.
We had a great experience with Patti Click and I always recommend her to people! I'm a woman and I did most of the organizing for our mortgage and she was always respectful of both of us. She also worked really hard with us to obtain lots of special grants and funding. It was a ton of extra work for her and she did it readily.
I really liked First Home Mortgage and Fulton Mortgage Company/Fulton Bank. I would have gone with either but went with the one that gave me the best deal.
Michelle Wasamuth at Meridian. best rate for us and she was the most responsive person i’ve ever dealt with—-never lost my confidence.
Seconding this - Michelle kicked ass. Super responsive and great at explaining things. Also great at Baltimore-specific stuff like ground rent (which some national lenders did not know how to handle).
Whoa, what's ground rent?
It's local to the area. I guess there's 99 year leases on the ground for some reason, now my mortgage company has to pay some guy in Florida 75 bucks twice a year. You have the option to buy it out, but if it's in the neighborhood of 5k, not even worth it to me.
FYI a lot of properties have ground rent, but not all of them. It's a nusciance more than anything. I had no problem finding a property without it, but it might depend on what neighborhood you're looking in.
Just to add to what others have said - it’s a historical thing in Baltimore that is very common. You just pay a small amount twice a year but as a matter of Maryland law the other party doesn’t have any real rights or anything over the land as long as you pay. You also have a statutory right to redeem it so you own the whole property in fee simple, but it’s usually cheaper to just pay the ground rent (and your mortgage company is generally the one paying it for you out of your payments).
Some non-local lenders have problems with it though because to them it seems similar to buying a home built on leased land, which is often the kind of thing they won’t finance, but they may not tell you that until pretty far in the process.
We used Allan Gushue with First Home Mortgage twice (original loan and refinance). Great experience all around and always got the lowest possible rates.
I used primary residential mortgage, inc last year when I bought my place. Name of my specific officer was Kaoru Forbess - he was good, no drama. can’t speak to the husband dynamic you mention but I was buying as a single woman and he was totally professional.
Kaoru is amazing!!
Yeah I'm working with a Jeff Gunther for primary residential mortgage.
I came here to recommend Jeff Gunther, he is fantastic to work with
I worked with Primary too. They had an office in Canton that was convenient for me at the time. Had a great experience. Just know that like every small lender, they will transfer your account to a big lender like Wells Fargo about a month after closing.
Thank you all for the recommendations! I am now officially overwhelmed.
I was in the industry for a few years and just messaged you a personal recommendation of a former colleague
I know you’re likely overwhelmed but Jacque Sommer of Vellum mortgage is the best mortgage lender. She’s non discriminatory between gender and nationality/ethnicity (she has gone way out of her way to find documentation for immigrants from their home countries, which many mortgage lenders will basically blow off.) She also goes out of her way to advocate for her clients (will tell their agents and listing agents off if they’re pulling BS.) She’s usually responsive like 16 hours per day and closes loans faster than anyone else in DC/MD/VA. She also reads the federal loan guidelines for fun, will argue with underwriters when they’re wrong, and once lost a job because she refused to let an underwriter (who was legitimately in the wrong) screw over a veteran.
Note: I’m a realtor for like 30 more days, but got out of the business to go back to working in nonprofits, I get nothing for suggesting her but I’ve also seen a lot of bad loan officers ruin lives and cost people thousands.
We used Ally and had a wonderful experience their online portal made everything super easy and they were fairly responsive to us. We went with them strictly on a they were the cheapest rates and their loan estimater with no credit check was really useful when we’re in the research stage.
Mylendertroy.com. He made the whole process so easy and understandable, it made it feel like a cheat code.
I also cared a lot about this (bc how hard is it to address an email to my partner AND me!). I had a great experience with Rob Bassett. He was with a different company at the time, but he's here now: https://mcleanmortgage.com/loan_officer/rob-bassett/
I don't know if you're using any of the city or employer grant programs, but Rob was also super familiar with them (and they can be kind of tricky for how they fit into your overall financing/closing).
Avoid Meridian, the people are great but the company they sell your mortgage is terrible. Within one year, they miss calculated my taxes, they charged them twice. I had to do their work by going on the Baltimore City website and see the correct taxes on my property. After that it took them 3 months to recalculate my monthly payments, and I am still fighting to get the over payment they automatically took.
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See if you qualify for a Credit Union like Pen Fed and then get something competitive like Rocket Mortgage and make them match Rocket. Get at-least 3 and make them fight for it.
Thanks for the tips!
Healthy neighborhoods uses m&t bank and they'll do 1% below the average
I used to be in the mortgage business for years, so I’m pretty hard to satisfy. All the brokers will have comparable rates, and there is 100% chance the loan will be sold to a large mortgage company, no matter which broker you go with. The most important qualities to look for are efficiency, thoroughness, and responsiveness. I know a broker who is by far the best I have ever worked with. If you’d like his contact info, let me know.
All of that makes a lot of sense. I just want to be treated like a human. I'd love your recommendation. Thank you!
Sent you a pm
Not 100% unless you go to a broker. The lender will be able to tell you if it is 100% which many companies it will be because they aren't approved to begin with.
> there is 100% chance the loan will be sold
I disagree; this is if you go with a broker. My CU had on the paperwork the amount they sell (~2%) vs. keep.
That’s why I said broker. All lenders reserve the right to sell the loan and/or the servicing. The vast majority are sold various ways in the secondary market.
> one would only address my husband
Fuck that so hard... I'd recommend a Credit Union if it's not too late.
It is so infuriating. It's almost 2023 for fucks' sake! I pointed it out, and his response was, "I am sorry if I offended you." The jerk made it a million times worse with that! I just can't with people sometimes.
For some reason made me think of my write-up from last week.
My heart aches for that woman. Thankfully, my spouse isn't like that at all. I just have to deal with the random cavemen that are still roaming the earth.
I used Jeff St. Clair from Main Street Home Loans. It was my first time buying and I had no idea what I was doing but he was very helpful. I probably could have gotten a slightly better deal somewhere else but he did a fantastic job and everything went smoothly.
Blevins Home Mortgage
Marcos Sanchez at Embrace Home Loans
Richard Pazornik at Meridian mortgage is the best in town. He’s also got some really nice programs that don’t charge mortgage insurance if you’re not putting down 20%(its not LPMI either it’s just a portfolio product without MI) will save you 200-900 a month depending on the size of the mortgage
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John Haberen at NewRez is fantastic!
I’ve finance four mortgages through him and they’ve never sold my loans. I’ve recommended many people, and everyone is very happy with him.
Lmfao I worked at Newrez as a loan originator doing only Refis and I do not recommend this company. I left after like 6 months. They’re overpriced when it comes to discount points but they usually are good about trying to waive fees/points. But they’ll stack like 7 points on there to buy down a rate depending on qualification of course (which is a nightmare when it comes to what an individual qualifies for at this company). Managers in Columbia MD are also just absolutely awful human beings
Edit: especially since the merger with caliber, which I was present for, and friends with people there after it was put in place with a million system and company changes…yeah do not recommend
Patti Click at Prime Lending is great. She handled our home purchase and a recent refinance.
Danny did mine and most of my friends. Can’t recommend him enough. https://www.swbcmortgage.com/danny-reedy
I just closed on my home last month in Randallstown and was originally going with Prmg, but ended up switching lenders two weeks before closing. I ended up doing business with my man Marcos at Mortgage Capital. He got me down to a 5.6 rate and I only had to bring 19k to closing instead of dam near 36k with prmg. I would definitely recommend him, and I will try to tag him in this post. u/MJGbroker11
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I highly recommend that you shop around. I closed using a small-ish bank from Michigan. I found them via the bankrate.com mortgage rate search. When I told other banks I was getting 3.99% at the time with no points, no one believed me. Shop. Shop. Shop.
You want to get a few quotes and then leverage the best quotes to see if other lenders will match or beat them.
I would not recommend getting a loan from a "big name" bank. Their rates are not the best and they don't have much room for negotiation. A broker is going to be your best option.
Check out www.better.com - their rates are very competitive and an easy way to get a baseline quote.
I've used Harborside Home Loans several times (current home purchase and two refis on my previous home) and they are fast with closings in about 3 weeks or less: https://harborsidehl.com/
Better offered me a slightly better rate but Harborside matched it.
Keep in mind that once your apply for a quote, that information goes public and your phone or email will get blown up by other lenders trying to get your business.
I used Guaranteed Rate Affinity last year to manage a complicated post-divorce refinance on my home in Howard County. They were great and very professional.
Like others have mentioned, my loan was purchased by Chase 4 months later.
BlueFalconPunch t1_iyaa547 wrote
In my experience it doesn't matter one of the big 3 will snatch it up a few months after closing