Can someone recommend a good mortgage broker for living in the city? (San Francisco: real estate)

[NYC809]

Hi All,

1st time home buyer here looking to speak with someone in the home loan business that is nice and fair to deal with.

Suppose somebody has dealt with some decent folks in this business.

Thanks,
Krupa

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I just DM'd you the real estate agent my daughter used to buy her home in Oakland a couple of years ago. She was super knowledgeable, nice, and grew up in the Oakland area - she referred lender, handymen, inspectors, was just amazingly helpful, and a genuinely likeable person.

Anyway, I didn't know if I should post her info on the forum, so I DM'd her contact info to you.

Good luck!

[NYC809]

Thanks again @NMSFM!

[mini_cute]

I don't know anyone but I can offer some advice having jumped through the hoops for a loan recently myself. From my experience, big banks offer the lower interest rates, but have been hard to get a loan with these days. My experience with Wells Fargo was not good and our loan agent kept telling us we were getting approved (We downed 55%, have credit scores in the 800s, and even have a history of paying off a loan we had with them before) but 3 days before (why couldn't they have brought this up sooner in the process?!) our closing date, they came back and said they were not satisfied with some documentation we provided and were not going to approve our loan. We had to fight so hard with them and search for a document that would satisfy them which was a nearly impossible request. We were told by our agent that in all the years he has had clients work with Wells Fargo, it was always a difficult process and had a high chance of not going through. He said big banks are like this, and probably due to the federal regulations out these days. He says credit unions are faster, have better service and recommends them.

[thelopez2]

Originally Posted by mini_cute

big banks offer the lower interest rates, but have been hard to get a loan with these days.

Funny, that is not something that I heard, but the rest about being hard to work with will be hit and miss based on the employee.

[mini_cute]

Originally Posted by thelopez2

Funny, that is not something that I heard, but the rest about being hard to work with will be hit and miss based on the employee.

In this case the loan consultant from Wells was a bit loopy, but the people really giving us a hard time was the underwriter and then later the funder. Yes, I have heard from others they have a smooth time with Wells and we did too in the past. For some reason, this time around it was a pain in the butt.

You want to know what else they asked from us? They wanted a letter written and signed by us explaining why we would ever choose to move from San Francisco to Oakland because SF is the more desirable city and we already own a condo in and can afford to live in SF! Yes, we were not priced out and Oakland was our first choice. The fact that they had to question it and make us sign a letter as some form of legal document, I think is over-reaching and in some sense discriminatory.

Our real estate agent warned us about the troubles of going with Wells. But we have to experience it for ourselves. Once again, credit unions may be the better route. Especially if you have different sources of income and assets.