@KatT1 wrote:I don't mean to hijack the post but why do you say stay away from Big Banks? I'm getting ready to have to refinance my mortgage to buy out my soon to be ex. My current mortgage is with Wells Fargo (we got it through Discover Home Loans but it was bought by Wells immediately after closing). I thought doing the refi with Wells would be easier since the current one is there, but your comment has me curious as to whether I should inquire elsewhere? I need to do a cash out refi to buy him out. Middle credit score is 685, have plenty of equity but debt to income ratio is very close to 40 with just my income. Any advice where my best chances for approval might be?
There isn't anything wrong with WF as far as servicing the loan goes - and that is what you have now. Your originator was Discover Home Loans so you didn't go through the Wells Fargo origination process.
IME, Wells is fine for servicing and terrible at originating. They are extremely conservative (read: much tighter ratios). Their "loan officers" are no longer trained to be knowledgeable loan officers, they are just application takers and you don't get anyone with any knowledge to look at your app until it hits underwriting, and then it is too late. There are many times WF has turned down a loan, not due to borrowers info, but due to mistakes made at application and processing the loan. The exception to this is for jumbo loans where they use trained LO's. I'm a Realtor and the reputation of WF is so bad that when we see a pre-approval from WF, you are not likely to get your offer accepted because WF is known to deny the applicant just before closing. Not every time, but often enough to make any WF pre-approval suspect). It doesn't help you to have a current loan with them. It makes it slightly easier for WF to check your payment history, but any lender will check your payment history anyway.
Wells Fargo buys many loans to service that have been originated by others. Nothing wrong with that at all. You would be much better off getting a mortgage through a non-bank lender that does nothing but issue mortgages. The process is smooth and they have more programs available. You will probably get sold to WF again (or Chase) for servicing your mortgage, it happens all the time 