Quicken Loans

[Anonymous]

As a result of checking our ficos the other day, I said yes to the question of getting mortgage refi info. A nice gentleman from Quicken Loans called today and I think we are going to pull the trigger on refinancing our 6.5 to a 4.5 15 yr fixed. It is called an FHA Streamline Refinance. Evidently this is something relatively new <?>. Anyone here have comments or experience?

It is almost unbelievable how easy this is. I feel somewhat leery. No requlifying, no income verification, NO NEW APPRAISAL. Nothing. Our current mortgage is only a year old, and I hesitated, but gosh, it will go down 2 whole interest rate points. How can we not do it? I just can't believe how easy and how fast it is. If you currently have an FHA mortgage and you want the best rate going, it might be worth it to look at this. No PMI for us either!!

From what I gathered from my conversations, the qualifications are such: you have a current FHA mortgage at least 6 months old, fico scores of at least 620(they pull tri-merge), you have not been late in at least 12 months, you are only borrowing up to 90% of the value of the property. I can't remember what else. It seems too good to be true and they close in 3 weeks, and all electronic, no lawyers this time. WOW. Please comment if you have any experience with either the FHA streamline or Quicken Loans.

[Anonymous]

Hi Brody - I work at Quicken Loans so I figured I'd reply with a quick comment. I can assure you this isn't too good to be true. And it's not something that is unique to Quicken Loans. The FHA Streamline program is available through the Federal Housing Administration and it was created by the government for one reason - to allow homeowners like you to take advantage of today's lower rates and refinance their FHA loan into a lower mortgage rate. A lower mortgage rate, of course, means a lower mortgage payment - which is what the government wants you to have. It's a pretty simple concept. If people can lower their mortgage payments, they'll be less likely to have trouble making their payments and falling into mortgage trouble and eventually, foreclosure.

The thing Quicken Loans offers is on online and very fast process. I just wanted to verify that this is indeed completely legitimate and not some sort of special offer that is "too good to be true." You can read more about the program on the FHA or HUD website. Hope this info helps.

[Anonymous]

We had a "battle" between QuickenLoans and CountryWide for our mortgage loan (not a refi). Although we ended up using CW, Quicken seemed to be the most honest and responsive. Though we did get a bit of a "salesman" vibe from them.

In our case, we had already paid the fees to CW and wanted to switch to Quicken. Each time we'd call CW and tell them what a great deal Quicken was offering us, CW would match or exceed it. Finally, it was just easier to stick with CW ... plus, DH was a bit apprehensive about going with Quicken because he wasn't familiar with them as a mortgage lender.

I think the prejudice and suspicion against Quicken arises from the fact that when you think "mortgages" you think of the "big guys" first - CountryWide, Wells Fargo, etc. You think "Quicken" you think about the software, not their loan products.

In the end, though, I think Quicken would have been decent. But as always, YMMV.

I think you need to go with your gut. A mortgage is prolly much more of a commitment than a marriage. It's for 30 years (usually) and it's harder to get out of.