HVCC And The Lender Decision

A client of mine told me today he would like to get started on a refinance. He asked me who the lender is going to be. I told him the four main lenders I am using right now are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citimortgage, and Suntrust Bank. He was OK with those lenders. He wants to float his rate. He sent me his documents and gave me his credit card number to order the appraisal.

Like our old buddy George up above, I'm feeling a bit confused - which lender do I order the appraisal from? Ordering an appraisal used to be easy, pre-HVCC. Now I have to think about these issues:

- Citimortgage has the best rate for this client today
- Wells Fargo does not have the best rate, nor the best turn times, but they have the best float-down policy
- Bank of America and Suntrust have the fastest turn-times, but their renegotiation policies are not as competitive

My gut tells me to go to Citimortgage, so that is my plan of action. If one of the other lenders comes out with aggressive pricing for this client, I will have to get the appraisal from Citimortgage. I have not had the wonderful opportunity of asking a lender to release an appraisal to another lender - I am sure some of you have.

Do you have any stories to share about this process? I am sure we would all love to know the most efficient way to make it happen quickly.

My Goal With This Blog For Mortgage Pros

My goal with starting this blog is simple: to make more money! I believe by sharing what I know about what I face as a Bay Area Mortgage Pro, other mortgage pros like yourself will share their best ideas and practices also.

We mortgage pros in the Bay Area face many of the same problems (lack of jumbo programs, for example), so that is why I have decided to focus on this segment of the origination market.

I intend to focus on everything that concerns me as an originator - hopefully you will have the same concerns. Through our dialogue, my hope is we all learn something, which will make us better Mortgage Pros, which will help us all make more money!