It’s rough out here on these streets (the streets of purchasing a home in this post-great interest rate world). I shopped my interest rate with at least eight different lenders, and I can tell you that not all loans are created equal. There are points/buy downs, different interest rates, and lender’s fees/credits that must all be accounted for when selecting a mortgage. My personal goal was to get the lowest possible rate with the lowest possible loan/closing costs. If that is your goal (I am not a loan officer, broker, lawyer, or anything else that should make you think I am an expert), then it should be a pretty simple selection: look for the lowest rate with no “points” (a way to ‘buy down’ your interest rate by paying a set amount to the lender up front). As of today, average interest rates for a 30 year fixed VA loan is 6.71%. Most of my loan offers came in at 6.5% without points and excellent credit. Salute Mortgage (a Veteran Owned Small Business… if that’s important to you… as it was for me) came in significantly lower than where most of my other loan offers were. Beyond that, Steve Neyman, my loan officer, was great with communication and handed me off to their loan closing team in a manner that I did not have to rehash information I had already provided earlier, while ensuring we had no trouble closing on time. Now, I will say that Salute is the mortgage originator and are originating the loan for another bank/financial institution. That means I’ll be sending my payments to (in this instance) PennyMac and not to Salute Mortgage. I imagine this allows Salute to shop rates with multiple partnered banks and is likely what allowed them to give me that lowest rate. If the loan being assigned to an outside financial institution is a deal breaker for you (some loan offers highlighted that “we won’t sell your loan”… which I suppose only becomes a concern because you’ll have to change to whom you send your payments at some point in the life of the mortgage), I can only say that I think you are looking at this through the wrong lens. First, Interest rates have effectively more than doubled from 2020 rates, so if we are fortunate enough to see those amazing rates again, you’ll likely refinance and have to change where you send your payment anyhow. And if you’re buying a home now, you probably (even if you don’t know it yet) already subscribe to the notion that you are marrying the house and simply dating the rate. So, if your goal is to get a great rate, low origination costs, and close on time, I highly recommend the team at Salute Mortgage!
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