Builder's Mortgage Company for Telfair home? (home owners insurance, mortgage broker, credit report)

[rtdrtd20]

I am in the process of purchasing a David Weekley Home in Telfair. They have obviously given me the option of going through the builder's lender with some savings on closing costs - is that usually a good option? any insight? do they usually offer higher interest rates, i.e. what is the catch?

[chris_ut]

They prefer this because it is more likely that you will close on time. The best way to know if your getting a good deal is to get a quote from another bank or mortgage broker and compare the interest rate and fees to see if the savings are really a better deal or not.

[DotLib]

Ive noticed a lot of builders are offering this. My son had 7 lenders to choose from, with some good incentives to go with one of them. There were about 3 that would have been considered anyway...my only concern is this includes home owners insurance for a year and Ive never heard of the company...gotta check them out. Dot

[fordlover]

We had the same offer when we bought our house, and we took advantage. Just make sure your loan is what you want it to be, but I talked with a few people, one a friend in the industry, and he said even he couldn't compete with what the builder's selected lender was offering.

It probably won't matter anyhow, since your loan will almost certainly be sold to one of the bigger mortgage companies. Ours was sold about one month after our closing date to citi mortgage, and we have had nothing but trouble with them, miss applied payments several times, letters for late payments that were sent to evidently many customers who in fact weren't late. Add on top of that customer services has been outsources to India, so when you call in to get a loan, you go to the US call center, when you call in to get help on your mortgage or because they screwed up, you go to the India call center where you may or may not get lucky enough to speak to someone who can understand you, or that you can understand.

[SilverWings]

The mortgage company is really rather irrelevant. All the matters is the terms of the loan and the closing costs. I'd recommend going to Bankrate.com and finding out who's offering the best rates in the area and get a quote from two or three of the better ones. Then you can compare it to the builder's broker and if it's a better deal, go with it.

If it's your first mortgage, do yourself a favor and spend a couple hours some evening studying up on terms and stuff online. Plenty of information out there on all kinds of business and financial websites. Just google it. It's time well spent.

[chris_ut]

Compare the APR also versus just the interest rate. That is the true cost of the loan.

[nessen]

I am building with Ryland in Telfair and we got pre approved for the mortgage and got our good faith estimate with our interest rate...and I have to say it is CRAP! We called the guy who we went through with our mortgage on our current house and he said he could totally beat the estimate Rylan gave us. The house is still being built, so as it gets closer to being done we are going to get more agressive about the financing.

Ryland has also been a bit ridiculous in my opinion...we have to prove with a bank statement and copies of canceled checks that our down payments, earnest money, etc. that we have paid came from our bank account. We also have to give them a written explanation of any inquiry on our credit report since we began the process of building this house, so as we have shopped around for mortgages I kept having to write to them to explain why there were new inquiries on our credit.

Before signing papers we asked our salesperson "what if we get a better deal through someone else" and she replied, "some of the incentives you're getting is based on going through our lender, but if you can show us the better deal then we'll match it." don't know if I believe her though, I have a feeling it will be a battle. But as long as we get the interest rate we want, I don't care who it's through!

[DotLib]

*Ryland has also been a bit ridiculous in my opinion...we have to prove with a bank statement and copies of canceled checks that our down payments, earnest money, etc. that we have paid came from our bank account. We also have to give them a written explanation of any inquiry on our credit report since we began the process of building this house, so as we have shopped around for mortgages I kept having to write to them to explain why there were new inquiries on our credit.*



Nessen, thats not just Ryland, thats how the game is played....

[nessen]

Not when we bought the house we currently live in. Bank statements were fine, didn't need copies of canceled checks as well, or written statements explaining new inquiries on my credit report. Not to mention the fact that I am going to have prove this again before we close.

[spm6110]

Don't know if this helps but this is what one of my lenders told me....

"One thing you may want to mention, the new RESPA guidelines no longer allow for a builder to offer incentives to use their lender – they must offer for all lenders. It is now considered “steering”. This is a Federal rule with pretty steep fines to the builder if they are caught. It was supposed to go into effect in January, but was postponed until April 20. It is now in effect."