Comments on: LendingTree Not As Fast, or Good, With Refinancing Quotes Now

By: jim

jim — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:35:35 +0000

I’ll take 4.875% today rather than a potential 4.5% in six months, given the option because you never know what can happen. Think of everything that’s happened in the last month or two months, it’s unpredictable. The whole mantra of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush comes to mind in this case.

I’ve been doing the research now just to get my mind all right about how the process goes, what’s important, how the process works, etc. I haven’t done anything home financing related in three years so none of this stuff is fresh in my mind, it might be worth it for you to see what your options are today (it costs nothing, LendingTree does a soft pull on your credit, which has no effect) like I’m doing just so that in 6 months you’ll be familiar with the process and just focusing on the particulars.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:31:51 +0000

They were major banks offering standard rates, but you select what you want. I only entertained 30-fixed, 15-fixed, 5/1 and I think 10/1 just for comparisons sake. This time I only put 15-year and 30-year, no ARMs, and that could’ve been the difference.

I don’t doubt LendingTree’s honesty, but I’m certain a bunch of the mortgage brokers that buy the data are a little less clean, but that’s how the business is.

By: philip

philip — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:18:38 +0000

I am hoping to bring my credit score up within the next 6 months and hopefully get some decent equity into my house. I have a smaller loan comparativly <$135,000, but what are your thoughts on if the rates will still be down in 6 months, possibly even lower if the gov’t gets them down around the 4.5? At that point it will not be worth it for you to refi again, but you may have missed out on some .25% or so.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:14:33 +0000

I honestly don’t know if its the market or lending tree- when you first used lending tree and got a bunch of offers, were any of them for 30yr fixed through major banks, or just mortgage companies that probably bundled them up and sold them off? My gut tells me that the people at lending tree are honest themselves (they are probaby getting paid a commission, like any other mortgage broker) but that they attract smaller banks/mortgage companies who don’t have the big name.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:14:52 +0000

That’s really interesting… the guy I talked to didn’t really seem like he knew what was going on. He didn’t say his firm’s name at first, didn’t mentioned LendingTree until a few sentences in, it seemed all in all pretty shady.

Do you think it’s the market? Or LendingTree?

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:45:25 +0000

I bought my house in June and when I submitted my request to lending tree, I got ZERO quotes. My wife and I have awesome credit (both over 800), so I thought there was perhaps a mistake. When I called up lending tree, they told me that everything was correct, but no one wanted my mortgage. I had selected a quote on only a 30 yr fixed (I also had 20% to put down), so I thought that perhaps I had entered in some data incorrectly. Once I spoke with them, I figured that only the mortgage company sharks (who are now mostly out of business) worked through lending tree and typically offered bad deals to people with “subpar” credit.