How To Find A Home Mortgage Lender

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

Looking for a home loan? In searching for a home loan, there are three providers which you may choose from an officer at a bank, other lending institution or you may turn to a mortgage broker. Whichever provider you choose the end result is just the same and that is you get to have a new house.

Loan officers are actually employees working in a bank, a credit union or lending institution who work to sell and process mortgages and other loans. They offer a wide selection of loan types, but all originate from that specific lender. It is usually the job of the loan officer to take care of the client?s application and look for a specific loan product that would best suit their client?s needs. Once the client get credit approval, the loan officer will then start with the processing of the home purchase transaction.

On the other hand, mortgage brokers are people who match up lenders and borrowers. They are freelance agents, usually working with many different lenders. Mortgage brokers are the scouts of the mortgage industry since they are the ones that search and evaluate home buyers. They also analyze a client?s credit situation in order to find the best lender for that client. An expert mortgage broker is capable of finding various types of lenders to suit diverse types of credit.

A mortgage broker earns by securing a client?s loan and is paid according to the quality of the transaction. For your protection as the client it would be best not to offer any interest rate but rather wait for your mortgage broker to tell you what terms they can secure. And then try to shop around in order for you to make sure that the terms your mortgage broker has given you are reasonable. Also, try to be cautious when searching for mortgages advertised online since most of them are owned by mortgage brokers.

The advantage of hiring an online mortgage broker is that you make yourself available to lenders in other parts of the country who may have better rates than the ones in your hometown. However, there is a drawback to this, since most out of town lenders won?t be familiar with the peculiarities of where you live: local heating systems and septic systems, for example, or the jargon and classifications used by the appraisers in your area. All the above mentioned slows down loans made by an out of town lender.

Local banks are the most common mortgage lenders but not always the preferred choice. They have underwriters that basically understand the local properties and compared to a distant lender will not cause any delay on the processing of loan. Moreover, banks are always much better and faster in closing loans than any mortgage broker working with a lender. However, this is not generally applicable to all banks since there are some banks that really take a long time to process loans. On the other hand, mortgage brokers are capable of finding lenders who will grant loans that a bank would deny, which is especially ideal if ever you have a bad credit history.