What Makes a Good Lender ?

Many people who are deciding to buy a house take the convenient way of being preapproval by using an online service.  Although this may be convenient, in most cases it is not the best source for that all important preapproval letter.  Purchasing a house can be a very stressful and emotional time for my clients.  There are many obstacles during the process, the last thing a buyer needs is an incompetent loan officer.  The number one cause of stress for my clients is not the inspections and escrow process, it is getting fully approved for the loan.  A lender is only as good as the loan officer who handed out the preapproval.  If the loan officer simply looks over the preapproval documents and glances at the credit history in order to rush out the preapproval it is a recipe for disastor.  A loan officer that carefully reviews all documentation, critically reviews the credit history, and asks the right questions makes the buyer feel like their in a dream during escrow period not a nightmare.

For example, I have a listing that fell out of escrow due to the buyer not being able to get fully approved for the loan.  This was after the loan officer told me that the buyer was fully approved and they were waiting for the loan docs to be drawn.  The next thing I know there is an email from the buyer's agent cancelling the contract.  One day the loan is approved and the following day the contract is cancelled.  (That's my nightmare.)  The proprety went back on the market and one of my new clients wanted to purchse the house.  These people are great clients, they are smart, know what they want, and even had two preapprovals.  Despite the online approval and the second one with an unknown lender, I requested that if they wanted to purchase the house they had to become preapproved with one of my preferred loan officers.  Sure enough during the meeting with the loan officer, which I attended, multiple issues were discovered from the questions asked by the loan officer.  These were issues not found during the preapproval process of teh other two loan officers.  But like a good Realtor, a good loan officer also knows how to correct minor problems, so the potential deal breakers were resolved in the first few days and now my clients are preparing to move without any worries.

                                            

So remember, a loan officer who does a thorough job during the preapproval process will lead you to a fully approved loan and your escrow will feel like a dream.