All Forum Posts by: Daniel Hennek

You shouldn't be worried about losing your funding; if you got it in the first place they are going to be there for you at closing.  They still want to make money off you, trust me.  Hopefully, I can help put your mind at ease a little more.

The thing about hard money is that many people think it's really hard to find, or harder to qualify for than a conventional mortgage.  It can be hard to find, but only if you don't know where to look.  As far as qualifying, many private/hard money loans do not have as strict guidelines as conventional mortgages.  The truth is there are lots of hard money lenders out there vying for consumer business just like yours, but they don't advertise to you so you won't see them often.  They advertise to me almost every day because I'm a preferred target, a mortgage company operating as a mortgage broker.  So I have lots of names to share if you need them.

A mortgage broker, like me, in your area might have relationships with certain private/hard money lenders.  Some brokers choose to not take on the additional compliance burden that comes with hard money, but many mortgage brokers do have access to an extensive selection of hard/private money products.  If something happens with your financing I suggest contacting a mortgage broker in your area; if they don't do private/hard money loans they might know who does.  Or as mentioned above I can share some names if you run into a dead end.

Good luck!  You have to make sure you finish the story for us though, we all want to know how it ends.

It sounds like your agent is not doing a great job of reading the situation.  Going back to the seller with October 18th was shooting yourself in the foot and your agent should have known that and advised you to just accept the 28th and the 7th.  Or, like others suggested, you should have just told them to make the closing after she moves out.  You've waited 9 months already, what was the need to squeeze for 10 more days?  After 9 months I'm surprised you and your agent decided to push for that extra 10 days.  Something that simple can kill a deal because the other side just decides they don't like the way things are being done.  People get real weird and confrontational when they're selling their homes because they've got their life wrapped up in that house and its hard to separate all that emotion.  That being said, if I had been trying to sell my house for 9 months to the same person and then they tried to rush me 10 days at the end I'd probably be irritated too because it would seem arbitrary and pointless especially if I'm not moving out until the 7th anyways.

Also a situation where agents are not communicating with each other is unprofessional.  They are likely both at fault, but a good agent will work with a difficult one and figure out how to get through to them.  If these are two agents that work for brokers and they are not the brokers themselves then I would call the brokerages and get them involved in this ridiculousness because sometimes the kids just need a timeout.

Whatever happens I wish you luck.  

The answers to all those questions are dependent upon your future ideas and plans which should be part of any conversation you have with a mortgage originator. If you are left with those questions I would suggest you have a loan officer that isn't very thorough, which means they aren't very good. A good originator would have an in depth discussion with you about all of those things so we could try and uncover the best balance. It's hard to have that conversation through email or on a forum. You're wrestling with how much cash to take out and what to do with it; those issues can be spoken to intelligently by a loan officer that has your application, your credit, DTI, etc, and can run some financial scenarios for you. You shouldn't have all these questions after speaking with your loan officer and if that was my loan officer you were talking to I would be doing some additional training and showing them how they can leave you with less questions.

One thing I'll say is that for a newer investor it's going to likely be easier investing in things that are closer in proximity to where you live.

Second thing, your loan officer should have explained that you'll get a better interest rate by purchasing the home as your primary residence.  So, if it works out to be your primary you're going to save some money on interest.

The right answers to your questions involve a detailed analysis of you personal situation.  If the loan officer you're working with can't, or didn't go over this stuff that should be a red flag to you.  If I were you I'd be looking for a good mortgage originator I can have a phone conversation with about all of this.

Tyler,

Normally I'm interested in answering a couple unanswered discussions in the morning and offering some perspective.  However, you have 3 exactly the same!  Copying your post into 2 other sections for a total of 3 of the exact same posts within 4 minutes is not something that is typically done on an internet forum.  There are unwritten rules about not being that guy...

You pick the best section that fits your topic.  One section, no more.

Your comments speak to the issue well.  People don't care to know, consumers, MLOs and real estate professionals alike.  Most MLOs are not really interested in understanding all the details so they explain things improperly to many clients and realtors which results in that information being spread through the grapevine to confuse everyone.  Realtors and clients don't fact check or educate themselves often enough about mortgages and instead take someone's word as fact.  To compound the issue many of the biggest companies have this weird unwritten rule where they don't really want their MLOs to know how things work; they just want them to get back on the phone and get their dials up.

This is for everyone that does want to know:

Bank - Is FDIC insured. MLOs do not need state licensing. Lends its own money and services loans. May have specialty portfolio loans they keep and service. As far as the mortgage origination process goes they operate in much the same way as a "direct lender", they originate, process, underwrite and fund loans. Examples are Wells Fargo Mortgage, and Chase. Banks also offer wholesale rates to brokers and access to all of their products.

Mortgage Lender - Direct Lender - Correspondent Lender - These are all names referring to a Mortgage Company that chose to do business via correspondent relationships with banks, mortgage banks, or other mortgage companies.  They originate, process, underwrite and fund the loans.  Examples are Quicken and Guaranteed Rate.  Many of these lenders also offer wholesale rates to mortgage brokers and access to all of their products.

Broker - This refers to a mortgage company that chose to do business via broker relationships.  Brokers Originate, process, and facilitate the closing of mortgages.  They do not underwrite or fund loans and their name is not on the note.  They have less overhead and arguably more control over things compared to an MLO at a bank or a mortgage lender.  They are not an employee of the bank or lender, they are a customer that the wholesale lender dearly wants to keep coming back again and again.

The differences lie in the tasks that each performs and the accountability infused into the process.  There is an MLO in the sales position at each institution taking the mortgage application and originating the loan. Think of the broker as an independent sales division of a lender that could also sell for other lenders.  That extra separation of the sales arm from the larger mortgage machine instills more accountability and competition into the process.  Wholesale lenders compete intensely for broker business; as a broker I can tell you the things they offer are significant selling advantages and that means good things for my customers.

Why did you go to a second bank?  Did the bank that offered the $10,000 know about the $25,000 you were going to get?  Or did you go there because you thought you could keep the lenders from finding out about the other application?  Take a big step back if that was the case.

The loan applications will affect each other because you're personally guaranteeing them.  Concealing a fact to induce a lender give you a loan when they otherwise would not is considered mortgage fraud.  So, I recommend not concealing the fact that you are applying for another loan.

My guess is that WF gave you a number of $25,000 as the maximum they would lend you based on your personal guarantee.  Your personal guarantee isn't going to change just because it's a loan application for company B.

Joseph, 

I'm not sure if you're reading the same things I'm writing.  This isn't about lose verbiage, it's about making a statement that is completely and unequivocally incorrect.  There is no interpretation possible or necessary.  You said one thing, and then contradicted it in the next comment.  I'm not sure if you're trolling...

I gave you the explanation of what a "lender" is so that you could possibly understand your error. Then you make another comment that demonstrates the fact that you didn't read my post, and also shows your obvious lack of knowledge and vocabulary regarding mortgages.  Quicken is NOT a broker.  Quicken is a correspondent lender, they fund loans.

People want to find accurate information in these threads so, I would suggest anyone reading this thread ignore everything that Joseph has said.

You said "Find an Actual Lender, they have more flexibility and can offer better terms for sure."

Maybe you misspoke, but that statement is objectively wrong.  A vast majority of the time you will not find better terms, service, or more flexibility through a lender compared to a broker. 

A lender refers to the institution that actually lends the money and funds the loan at closing; a key factor is that their name is on the note and their money funded the loan.  In this context a lender can be a bank or a mortgage/finance company.  A mortgage company can choose to do business as a "lender" by entering into a correspondent relationship with a Lender(could be another mortgage/finance company or a bank) or they can choose to do business as a broker and enter into a broker relationship with that same Lender.

So, a "Mortgage Broker" and a "Mortgage Lender" are both "Mortgage Companies" that are choosing to do business differently.  Referring to a broker as a lender is fundamentally incorrect because the broker is specifically not doing business as a lender; they are not funding the loan and their name is not on the note.   

 What do you mean "actual lender"?

You mean a bank? A correspondent lender with delegated authority?  A private money lender?

What several of us "lenders" have said is use the broker to find the lender and don't go directly to the lender yourself.

A lender won't have more flexibility than a broker, that's not up for debate it's a fact.

A lender almost always will offer higher rates and fees than a broker so not "better terms for sure"...

You've got it all wrong

"Complex or creative" doesn't happen for any lender that limits their business to agency, FHA and VA only. Anyone that ever thought Quicken would work on a complex or creative deal doesn't know much about lending.. Also, that's not just a Quicken thing, many mortgage lenders choose to limit their product offerings to only things they can sell to Fannie, Freddie, or Ginnie.

Professional suggesting to the clients not to accept an offer from a Quicken approved client is just stupid.  Say what you want about Quicken but the facts speak for themselves.  They are the largest mortgage lender in the nation with a huge string of JD Power awards. They don't get those by being ****** and not closing loans.

If your deal needs something "creative" that doesn't fit Fannie, Freddie, FHA, or VA, then everyone should know that upfront and you should not be trying to get a loan from Quicken.