How to pick a mortgage broker?

[Anonymous]

We have been shopping for a home loan, and I'm wondering how much it matters who we select for a mortgage.  How much will we be working with this person?

We went for preapproval, and in the end have choice 1 and 2.

Choice 1: He is with our realtor's company, has been extremely helpful- I can e-mail with a grocery list of questions, he will get back to me within a few hours, and answer my questions thoroughly.  However, he is only able to use some of DH's part time employment, but gave us several options to consider (ie: co-signer, pay off a few items, get the mortgage in my name, etc), talkd through the pros and cons of each.  We ended up being able to pay off a car with a large month payment.  He was able to give us a verbal approval for 140,000 originally, but now is more like 135,000- 137,000 because of the rate increase.  FHA- original quote for 5.5%, but it has gone up.  He will give us a specific amt tomorrow.

Choice 2: It took him forever to pull our credit report for the app, and ended up being after our 14 day window (I was furious!).  Several days later, he called to go over the report, a few days later, to tell ask a few questions about employment, and a few days later to tell us that we could def be approved for 'at least 150,000' and that he would send it to us in writing.  One time, I called and he promised he would call by 5:00pm that day, and called a few days later.  We had written him off along the way.  Since he gave us the approval amt, he has called several times, asking for the address of the house we were interested in, what offer we were going to make, how much we were going to put down, and basically rushing things now and being pushy (when we could not get him to do anything before). 

Obviously, I like choice 1 much better, personality wise.  But, the specific house we are looking at is right at 140,000, and we want them to pay closing, so I am not sure what the final mortgage will be (we will be putting 3% down).  Choice 2 is able to approve us for more, which will allow us to buy more house.  How much do we work with this person through the process?

TIA!

-iwannahouse

[Anonymous]

My broker was AWESOME!  He & his processor took care of everything!  This is my first hosue and there is absolutely no way I could have done it without someone that knew what they were doing.  Timeliness is important too, especially if you have a tight closing deadline.  Ours continued to shop for a loan even after we were pre-approved.  He found us a MUCH better deal part way through the process, and expedited everything to meet our closing.

[Anonymous]

Make an offer of 135K and ask for 3% closing cost help (listing agent should not have a cow!) - Go with guy #1.

get your pre-approval and then make your offer (tell him to hussle!) - cash buyer essentially (and in this mortgage market a pre-approved buyer is gold!).

[pattycake]

Lady Scarlet, how long does pre-approval take? 

I agree that broker #1 sounds better.  I was talking to one who took too long to get back to me twice, but he had a lot of good advice.  I may use him later on when I decide to re-fi, if I do refinance.

I went with CU last week, signed all the disclosures, sent all my pay and bank account, assets, etc. info.  Their fees are competitive, and they are easy to work with. 

[Anonymous]

best way to know - call the loan offer and ask.  If you included everything thye wanted then probably within a week.  I've seen 2 days to weeks (they priortize by when you want to close) but the LO can push the right buttons....