When the time has come to refinance your house is it better to work with a local loan officer or one in a call center based in a different state?
It depends on how you prefer to do business.
Without knowing the difference between local loan officers and national call center loan officers, it might be easy to mess up – meaning you could use someone that is based in Orlando, Florida as your loan officer to buy a house in Queen Creek, Arizona and end up having it be a disaster. Or, and maybe just as likely, you could find a local loan officer who can’t compete on rates with the larger banks.
There is at least one simple thing that you can do to avoid either of these situations – ask around.
Start by asking your agent who is helping you buy a house. Chances are that she knows a small handful of good lenders who live and work locally because she deals with clients who are all in your same situation every day – they need a mortgage and don’t want to make the wrong choice.
Once you get a referral from your RE Agent, you will want to take the time to speak with them over the phone or even in person. It isn’t all that uncommon to discover that each loan officer is quite different – and not just as it relates to interest rates. Some loan officers are clueless and have no idea what they are doing and others are very sharp and super informed. Some you wish were your little brother or sister, some you are glad that you aren’t related to in any way. Some are fairly easy to work with, some are outright borderline abusive. In the end, you want to find someone who you feel will be easy to work with and is knowledgeable about mortgages in general – so this is why it is so important to interview at least a few loan officers so you know the difference.
After shopping for a local lender, you may also be well served to speak with a national lender with a loan officer who works somewhere that is probably out of state. When speaking with these loan officers, the best way to find out if they are going to know about helping someone who is buying a house in your local market is to ask them one question:
How soon can you get my Realtor the paperwork that they will require?
If they don’t know what you are talking about – that should put an abrupt end to your interview.
The truth of the matter is that it doesn’t matter all that much where your loan officer is located, just that you know what the differences are!