Go directly to lenders for the best loan and the easiest process
Written: Jun 27 '06 (Updated Jun 27 '06)
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Pros: Clever marketing.
Cons: High costs, painful process, inexperienced people, few real options in lenders or loans.
The Bottom Line: Don't even think of trying to borrow through Lending Tree, you have nothing to gain and are asking for pain.
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| pilgrim1629's Full Review: LendingTree |
To get a good mortgage loan on the web, go directly to some lenders. Go to mtgprofessor.com and follow the advice there under shopping for a mortgage online about going directly to a fair and honest lender, rather than a middleman like Lending Tree.
There are a number of advantages to talking to the lenders:
- lower costs - they have the power to cut deals, and don't have to pay for Lending Tree's marketing and overhead.
- broader range of alternatives - Lending Tree won't turn up the full range of loans products that are offered
- clear understanding of loan products, underwriting standards, and required documentation - so you know what kind of loans the lender offers, what it takes to qualify, and what info you will need to provide
- real answers to questions and real information about the process
While the mortgage industry is still terrible at customer service, and closing a loan will still be a lot of work - dealing with the right lender can at least keep the pain to tolerable levels.
When you think about the challenge of doing the job Lending Tree claims to do, it would require keeping skilled people who understand several loan products at various lenders. It would be a challenge for Lending Tree to match the level of knowledge and service that you can get talking directly to a lender. Maybe that's why they don't try! They are clearly not up to the challenge.
And I'm not sure anyone ever will do it well - it's not really in the lenders' or the middlemen's interest. Lending Tree (and the other middlemen) will try to suggest that they can get lenders to compete, or offer more choices, but that doesn't actually happen. Think about it - the companies and Lending Tree aren't going to cut each others' throats (and profits) by really competing. In the real world, you have to get some quotes from real lenders on your own and get your own best deal.
In theory Lending Tree have access to lots of lenders. In practice, you will talk to an inexperienced phone rep who doesn't have the training to understand the loan products, and isn't given the actual underwriting criteria. They can't answer questions except with guesses - they just collect the paper and submit it, then ask for all the info they didn't know enough to ask for before.
Going directly to a real lender will get you lower costs, more experienced people, and a clear sense of what you need to provide because they actually write the loans and know their process.
Lending Tree's approach is to promise you a loan and get you to agree to lock the rate. Then they ask you to sign an couple of ridiculously broad documents that give them the right to ask for anything they want, whenever in the process they think of it; ask anyone for any info they want to about you; and take as long as they like. You might feel like you've accomplished something when you submit the paperwork, but that's just the beginning of a long and painful process to actually figure out if there's a real loan there.
The bottom line: don't even think of trying to borrow through Lending Tree - they are complete clowns, not a real mortgage company at all - just a marketing company trying to position itself as a middle man, without the skills to add value and to get you a good loan.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
pilgrim1629
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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