Mortgage lenders

[Stash Man]

The lenders offering the best rates on bankrate.com are AmeriSave, Better, and Homefinity, none of which I am familiar with. Does anyone have experience with them?  And are there lenders that you would recommend?

I guess from the borrower's point of view not much can go wrong as long as the money is there when needed.  But maybe there're pitfalls that I'm not aware of, and I would really appreciate hearing from more experienced real estate investors.

[iluvzbeach]

We used PenFed earlier this year for two mortgages and had a great experience. Terrific rates and no fees.

[uniwelder]

When we sold our house recently, I was told the market was so competitive that real estate agents were advising their clients to chose an offer (all other things being equal) from the local lender vs big online lender.  The rational was that the local place was more selective with their appraisers, so the chances of a low appraisal coming through and upsetting the contract were slim.  Also, scheduling of the appraisal was more likely to get done on time vs possible 3 week delays.  With so many offers being made on a house, it didn't make sense to take the gamble with an online lender and having the contract fall through.

That said, we also just refinanced on a house with PenFed--- a bit different than buying a new house though.

[iluvzbeach]

PenFed waived the appraisal on both places we purchased, even the one where we only put 20% down.

[affordablehousing]

All the lenders are the same just choose the cheapest ones. They all suck, they all sell your loans to the same servicer. I don't understand why there is such insistence on differentiation or loyalty to a commodity (debt) provider.

[Dicey]

PenFed waived the appraisal on both places we purchased, even the one where we only put 20% down.

Any way to see PenFed's rates without providing personal info? We're open to re-fi our investment properties, but we're still fielding bullshit calls and email from the last time we looked into it. We never pulled the trigger because the fees were insane, but we didn't check with PenFed, and I know they're a perennial MMM favorite.

[uniwelder]

PenFed waived the appraisal on both places we purchased, even the one where we only put 20% down.

Any way to see PenFed's rates without providing personal info? We're open to re-fi our investment properties, but we're still fielding bullshit calls and email from the last time we looked into it. We never pulled the trigger because the fees were insane, but we didn't check with PenFed, and I know they're a perennial MMM favorite.

I'm not who you were asking, but when we refinanced a couple of months ago with PenFed, their online rate/fee calculator matched the actual rates/fees pretty well.  No personal information was needed.  Just go to https://applynow.penfed.org/#/quick-quote  For some reason, when I just tried it, it'll spit out a rate for primary and second homes, but gives an error when I input as investment property.  They do (did) loans for investment properties, and we even have a HELOC on an investment home through them, so not sure what's up.

[iluvzbeach]

PenFed waived the appraisal on both places we purchased, even the one where we only put 20% down.

Any way to see PenFed's rates without providing personal info? We're open to re-fi our investment properties, but we're still fielding bullshit calls and email from the last time we looked into it. We never pulled the trigger because the fees were insane, but we didn't check with PenFed, and I know they're a perennial MMM favorite.

Yes, @Dicey, use the tool linked above. You can even look at the various options for buying down the rate or getting credits at closing to reduce out of pocket expenses. Once it returns the initial rate, look for the option to view other rates to see what I’m talking (writing) about.
I'm not who you were asking, but when we refinanced a couple of months ago with PenFed, their online rate/fee calculator matched the actual rates/fees pretty well.  No personal information was needed.  Just go to https://applynow.penfed.org/#/quick-quote  For some reason, when I just tried it, it'll spit out a rate for primary and second homes, but gives an error when I input as investment property.  They do (did) loans for investment properties, and we even have a HELOC on an investment home through them, so not sure what's up.

[Fishindude]

I prefer to deal with a brick and mortar bank and actually talk to and see the person I'm dealing with rather than these online lenders.
There are benefits to having a relationship with a local bank / banker.

[sonofsven]

I did a re-fi with Lender Fi last summer that went smoothly; I'm self employed with a high credit score, low income, and wads of home equity.
I did another re fi in late May with them that closed in 15 days.
All online. The first one I actually completed just using my phone (as a computing device!), which sort of blew my mind. I used my new Chromebook for the second re fi.

[joe189man]

we have used Amerisave a few times, they are good and low cost

[dandarc]

I did a re-fi with Lender Fi last summer that went smoothly; I'm self employed with a high credit score, low income, and wads of home equity.
I did another re fi in late May with them that closed in 15 days.
All online. The first one I actually completed just using my phone (as a computing device!), which sort of blew my mind. I used my new Chromebook for the second re fi.

Currently self employed and a recent 10 month stretch of being a regular W-2 employee rendered worthless 10 years of self-employed experience with Lender Fi for me.

Whatever, don't need the money and my local bank was far worse to deal with when we refi'd in 2019 (of course that one actually did happen, but the 10 months of being a regular employee hadn't happened yet back then.

[ender]

PenFed waived the appraisal on both places we purchased, even the one where we only put 20% down.

Fwiw the ability to waive appraisal comes back from Fannie Mae, not the lender (unless you are doing a non-conventional mortgage).

I was curious about this the last time I bought a house  - which also did not need an appraisal - and talked to the loan officer about it.  Sounds like the way this works is the lender gets that information back from Fannie Mae and that enables them to skip the appraisal. Which means it'd be consistent across all mortgages for the same property/purchase price, regardless of lender.

This would be different if you didn't do a conventional mortgage of course as that's up to the lender itself as they'd not be able to sell it on the secondary market.

[iluvzbeach]

@ender, makes perfect sense. Both mortgages were conventional and were sold to Fannie Mae shortly after closing. PenFed remains the servicer on both.

[sonofsven]

I did a re-fi with Lender Fi last summer that went smoothly; I'm self employed with a high credit score, low income, and wads of home equity.
I did another re fi in late May with them that closed in 15 days.
All online. The first one I actually completed just using my phone (as a computing device!), which sort of blew my mind. I used my new Chromebook for the second re fi.

Currently self employed and a recent 10 month stretch of being a regular W-2 employee rendered worthless 10 years of self-employed experience with Lender Fi for me.

Whatever, don't need the money and my local bank was far worse to deal with when we refi'd in 2019 (of course that one actually did happen, but the 10 months of being a regular employee hadn't happened yet back then.

That's annoying! Lender Fi seems to work well for self employed, as long as it fits their parameters, so I stuck with them.
They only asked for 3 years of tax returns, which still doesn't help you. Good luck!

[dandarc]

I did a re-fi with Lender Fi last summer that went smoothly; I'm self employed with a high credit score, low income, and wads of home equity.
I did another re fi in late May with them that closed in 15 days.
All online. The first one I actually completed just using my phone (as a computing device!), which sort of blew my mind. I used my new Chromebook for the second re fi.

Currently self employed and a recent 10 month stretch of being a regular W-2 employee rendered worthless 10 years of self-employed experience with Lender Fi for me.

Whatever, don't need the money and my local bank was far worse to deal with when we refi'd in 2019 (of course that one actually did happen, but the 10 months of being a regular employee hadn't happened yet back then.

That's annoying! Lender Fi seems to work well for self employed, as long as it fits their parameters, so I stuck with them.
They only asked for 3 years of tax returns, which still doesn't help you. Good luck!

"I've got 10 years of tax returns of consistent self employment income and I can provide the contract I started working in May (literally the same customer as 8 of those 10 years). Plus, c'mon - it is a $650 payment . . ." wasn't good enough for them. Maybe try again next year or something.

I also thought it was odd that they never asked me to substantiate the relatively massive amount of assets (8 times the loan I was asking for, although the bulk of that is in retirement accounts) I disclosed on the application. But, you know, whatever - don't need the money.

[sonofsven]

I did a re-fi with Lender Fi last summer that went smoothly; I'm self employed with a high credit score, low income, and wads of home equity.
I did another re fi in late May with them that closed in 15 days.
All online. The first one I actually completed just using my phone (as a computing device!), which sort of blew my mind. I used my new Chromebook for the second re fi.

Currently self employed and a recent 10 month stretch of being a regular W-2 employee rendered worthless 10 years of self-employed experience with Lender Fi for me.

Whatever, don't need the money and my local bank was far worse to deal with when we refi'd in 2019 (of course that one actually did happen, but the 10 months of being a regular employee hadn't happened yet back then.

That's annoying! Lender Fi seems to work well for self employed, as long as it fits their parameters, so I stuck with them.
They only asked for 3 years of tax returns, which still doesn't help you. Good luck!

"I've got 10 years of tax returns of consistent self employment income and I can provide the contract I started working in May (literally the same customer as 8 of those 10 years). Plus, c'mon - it is a $650 payment . . ." wasn't good enough for them. Maybe try again next year or something.

I also thought it was odd that they never asked me to substantiate the relatively massive amount of assets (8 times the loan I was asking for, although the bulk of that is in retirement accounts) I disclosed on the application. But, you know, whatever - don't need the money.

Did you try anyone else? I submitted all my numbers to Better, their numbers didn't look any better for me than Lender Fi and I didn't want to play the game of pitting one against the other (and possibly blowing up the deal I had) so I never followed through, but Better was giving me the very hard sell with daily calls, texts, until I asked them to stand down. FWIW.

[dandarc]

I might when I have more mental space. "Paint the house" and "decide whether to install solar panels" are taking up all my spare cycles right at the moment. Plus the house keeps getting more valuable, according to Zillow. Next year instead of cashing out $30K, maybe it will be $50K. The larger the pot of money coming out to put into the market, the more compelling the refinance becomes.