Are Local Loan Officers Better?
When it comes time to speak with someone about financing your house is it better to find a local loan officer or work with a national bank and a call center?
It depends on what kinds of things are important to you.
Without knowing the pros and cons, it would be something that would be easy to mess up — meaning you could use someone that is based in Mellville, New York as your loan officer to buy a house in Atlanta, Georgia 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.
The good news is that there is at least one thing you can do to avoid disaster: get a referral from people that you work with.
A great place to start is to start by asking your RE Agent. Chances are good that your Realtor will know some great loan officers: both local and national.
Once your Realtor refers you to at least a couple, you will want to personally speak with at least two of them. It is common to quickly learn that each loan officer is quite different — and we are not talking about interest rates. Some loan officers really have no clue and some are stone-cold-experts and know what they are doing. Some are funny, some are boring. Some are fairly easy to work with, some are outright boderline abusive. In the end, you really want someone that is easy to work with and can deliver on what they promise – this is really the reason that you want to interview at least two loan officers so you can compare the two.
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 the paperwork that is required to my RE Agent?
If they have no idea what you are talking about, then you have your answer and you can end the interview right there.
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!
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