Buying a home is a big deal, and a huge part of the process is finding and securing financing for that purchase.  Thus, it is essential that your lender does their job extremely well.  If a lender does a great job on 99 loans out of 100, that doesn't make it any better for that 100th buyer who has a terrible experience. 

One of my clients is to close on their new home tomorrow morning (Jan 20, 2009) at 9:00 a.m.  On Friday afternoon/evening (the last business day before the 9:00 a.m. closing, because today is a holiday), she received a phone call indicating that there were a few minor changes on her loan:

• She was to receive 95% financing, and thus was preparing to bring a cashier's check for 5% of the purchase price, plus closing costs.  The first change was that she would now only be able to borrow 90%, and thus would need to nearly double the amount of money she was bringing to closing.  Again --- this is on the last business day prior to the closing.
• Since the amount being financed was being changed, the interest rate also had to change --- and the new rate was higher than the interest rate promised throughout the lending process.

Neither of these changes had anything to do with the purchaser --- her situation hadn't changed --- the lender had some reasons / explanations / excuses for it, but obviously, these are the types of last minute phone calls a buyer never want to receive.

Many buyers ask for my recommendations for a lender, and I now have one fewer that I will recommend -- at least for now.  The lenders I recommend to my buyer clients are those who:

• have many different loan programs
• have competitive rates on those programs over time
• provide a smooth, fast, easy process for buyers
• deliver excellent service, over and over and over again
  

There are many great lenders in this area who meet the criteria above --- choose wisely!