Home owners please come in:

Mrs50%

I asked this on the BAH board but got no responses. Guess I'm not poop-ular enough there. lol.

 Ok so here's my very lame-  very rookie question:

How the heck did you decide who to finance your home through? Like, how did you choose your mortgage broker or bank. I feel like there are so many options (most sound about the same in rates they are offering) .. I'm just kind of at a loss on how to make a choice.

StephanieDeanne

We used recommendations from friends whom we trusted.  Otherwise I think we'd have just shopped around for a good mortgage.

ssinca

first time I used family rec, 2nd time I *think* it was through amerisave.

ssinca

p.s. it might be worth it to go to a credit union or bank just to get a starting point, then you can do research on the internets.  having someone explain everything to you (points, etc) in person would probably be easier.  I'm thinking a CU just because I've heard they are more customer-friendly.

nabum

We went though my SIL's recommendation to get our preapproval for this loan. mH spoke with him about our situation since it is unique and he was able to provide some pretty good guidance and we got our preapproval within about a week. If only finding the right house was as easy

 

laurapalmer

We used our credit union (Schools First aka OCTFCU). We love them for everything else and the rates were competitive.?

10YearsTogether

I would personally get several recs from friends and rate shop, along with quotes from my local bank and c/u. 

JD 2 B

We use V's BFF. He's great at watching out for our best interests (i.e. telling us when is/isn't a good time to do things, etc) and Wells has always been competitive with the rates we have recieved.

mrsmj2008

We used a family friend but before settling with her we rated shopped.

Just my lesson learned throughout this experience, through our family friend we ended up getting our mortgage with an out of state mortgage lending company and in hindsight I wish we had just gone to a bank or a credit union, especially one with local branches. I hate that our mortgage lender is in Florida and the only way I can reach them is waiting forever on the phone. Especially with the loan modification program that came out a few months ago, it would have been nice to be able to go into a branch and get my questions answered. Next time I think we'll go straight to a bank or credit union.

NikiGee

We used a very old/good friend of dh's who we knew had our best interests at heart.  Worked out great and we felt very comfortable.

Nessdogg

We tried to go through husbands credit union at first, but felt that the person we were dealing with was not very experienced. So we went with a mortgage broker who was recommended by my mom and he shopped around for the best deal with different banks.

daveshell1

at first we got approved with BofA because they carried DH's mortgage on his first house.  Then we decided to go with the home builder because they gave us a better rate (we only checked them out because we had to, it was in the contract to give them a chance to quote us)

ModernBrideOC

I didn't even know DH when he bought his first place, so I don't know about then.  2nd purchase he shopped around.  3rd (recent) purchase, we went with a recommendation from a friend in the real estate biz.

ajones1

When we bought, it was right around the time that all the crazy was happening and the market was starting to go down. We tried to go through H's work, but that was a bit of a cluster. We eventually went with someone recommended by our REA, who was able to match the deal we were supposed to get through H's work.