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by bombcar 1034 days ago
None of these “fancy pants” mortgage ℠ companies could beat my boring old banks
2 comments
lotsofpulp 1034 days ago
Better, as well as other online lenders, were definitely offering very competitive financing, especially with the AmEx credit. See this thread for pages and pages:

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289559&star...

I never found a local lender that came close to LoanDepot/Better.

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thedougd 1034 days ago
I took the money and ran. I took the AMEX credit, an employees friends and family discount, and because of a mistake better.com covered a significant moving expense. They didn’t even ask how much it was before covering it. Anyhow, all in the discount was low 5 figures. I closed just before their peak.
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bombcar 1034 days ago
I really tried to make it work, because I wanted that deal, but the fees and other things associated with Better kept coming out worse.
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lotsofpulp 1034 days ago
I always assumed they were undercutting other lenders by burning Softbank/Middle East money.
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bombcar 1034 days ago
I'm sure there was some of that, and maybe it was my location/mortgage situation (maybe they excelled at jumbo loans?) but when I did a full comparison they were "just normal" (some things had moved around on the fees which can make it harder to compare, mind you). Maybe I came a bit after they were tightening (this was just before covid IIRC).

After all, they just resell the loans same as anyone, not sure what there really is to optimize away.

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lotsofpulp 1034 days ago
Yes, the best deals were only for jumbo loans, maybe only even in California. Refinancing smaller loans is less lucrative.
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toomuchtodo 1034 days ago
They were juicing volume for their capital market debut.
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bluecheese452 1034 days ago
Rocket mortgage beat my bank by over a percentage point. My bank wouldn’t even match.
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uslic001 1034 days ago
Rocket Mortgage was the worst mortgage company I ever worked with. I ended up using my local bank with better rates and a much faster closing.
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SkyPuncher 1034 days ago
My aunt is an agent. In the past, she’s said Rocket Mortgage is considered a less competitive offer. It sounds like they have a high reject rate.
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bombcar 1034 days ago
Key is “my banks” - I had already found low rate low fee mortgage providers and ended up using them again
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