Hello everyone,I’m gearing up to buy my first house in the next month or so, and after going to a couple of local banks and getting pre qualified and my good faith estimates, I was considering checking out Lending Tree as another option,I have already waded through all their discloser statements and am hesitent.
Once I read everything it doesn’t seem as great as the commercials make it out to be,(imagine that).Have any of you or your family/friends had any expierence with them, good or bad?
thanks
prime
I just tried Lending Tree to see what I could get for a car loan. I have a credit monitoring service to keep an eye on who hits my credit report. By agreeing to the terms, they giv out your info to a bunch of agencies. My credit report got hit like 6 or 7 times the first couple of hours. I think that each hit on your report hurts your score a little. If you have some good rates already, my opinion is to stay away from them.
The six or seven hits on your credit report is not a big concern. When the first hit on your credit report hits, it doesn’t count following hits for 24 to 48 hours. This is due to places that run through several loan agencies and doesn’t seem like a bunch of hits.
I work for a bank that is actually an investor for many mortgage lenders and brokers. A few of my brokers are set up with Lending Tree and I have to say that they are top notch companies. I do know that Lending Tree keeps a very close watch on the brokers and lenders it deals with and if a lot of negative feedback comes back from customers, they are usually cut off from these leads very quickly. I know there are probably some bad apples out there but my experience with these companies that buy leads from LT has been positive.
If you have any more questions about this or your loan process please feel free to PM me. I can’t do your loan but I can give you the ins and outs of the business.
I was in the same boat this time last year. I got preapproved by a local bank at 6.25% went on lendingtree and ended up getting a mortgage with 5%. That resulted in dropping my monthly mortgage by about $125. It is really easy and I seriously had banks trying to outbid each other. The one I got I told about the other bank giving me 5.25% and he countered w/ 5%. All were very professional and easy to work with.
I’ll echo purdriver’s comments. I refinanced earlier this year and went through Lending Tree. The number of calls and emails got to be a little annoying, but I picked one and got a pretty good deal on the loan. Did all of the paperwork online, too.
I actually used Lending Tree when I bought my first house last November. I think it worked well. Most of the local banks I dealt with were only offering fixed rate 30yr mortgages. I really wasn’t looking for that, so I used Lending Tree.
I got a lot of offers for loans based on 5yr ARMS & 30yr Fixed. I ended up working with a Mortgage broker I found through Lending Tree. I got an excellent rate on a 5yr ARM, 4.x%. So my payment including ins./tax escrow is only 1,300 on a $215,000 house.
As long as you are willing to be a little unconventional in your approach then Lending Tree works. If you are a traditionalist, then stay away. Also, make sure you check out closing costs and fees not just IR. One company was giving me a great rate but the closing costs would have been $15 - 20k.