The Top 10 Reasons To Refinance Your Mortgage With Quicken Loans

1. Quicken Loans is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country. They are not mortgage brokers but instead what is called correspondent lenders. What this means is that they are large enough to fund their own loans but sometimes borrow their money from larger banks to write mortgages. Knowing that they are a larger bank you should feel at ease knowing your working with a direct lender.

2. Quicken Loans has always had high customer service ratings. This is one aspect of the company that is preached to their employees from day one. The management of Quicken Loans knows that you can go anywhere to get your mortgage so they try to go that extra step to make the application process that much easier.

3. Employees of Quicken Loans are not mortgage brokers but are considered mortgage bankers, just as if you were going to go to your local bank but only with mortgages. The training given to the mortgage bankers is quite extensive compared to other mortgage companies such as Countrywide, Chase, and Bank of America. Each mortgage banker goes through an initial and ongoing training periods through out their career.

4. Quicken does not overcharge you for your mortgage. You should still be advised that you should still shop around to make sure you are getting the best deal. Mortgage bankers are paid a salary and a commission on each loan that closes. Each mortgage banker has the opportunity to make more money on the sale by charging more points and they get a percentage of that. Most bankers that work at the company will not do this and are happy to write your loan at a par deal. Again, negotiate with them but do not tell them some ridiculous low numbers that are not available on the market that day. The mortgage bankers are trained to listen to what you are saying but then tell you why what you are hearing is not true. Sometimes its better to call other lenders like Countrywide or Wells Fargo first to get your 30 year fixed rate mortgage quote and then call Quicken Loans.

5. Don’t be alarmed if the mortgage banker is asking you a lot more questions than other companies did. One thing that is practiced at the company is not just dish out mortgage rates to you. You should actually thank them. The reason is because they have a number of different types of programs available and they want to find the best one for you. Be prepared to answer questions about when you plan to retire, how much do you have saved for your kids college education, how much longer do you plan on living at this house, etc. Quicken loans offers conventional 30, 25, 20, 15, and 10 year fixed rate mortgages. They also specialize in interest only home loans and FHA. As of July 2008 Quicken Loans is closing the most FHA loans out of any mortgage company in the country. If you know that you will need a FHA loan than you should call Quicken Loans. The only loan Quicken Loans does not do is home equity loans or second mortgages. Due to changes in the real estate market they decided to go against doing them. Be sure that you will probably see lines of credit from them in the future but it will have to be after the housing market hits bottom.

6. The customer service you will receive is better at Quicken Loans than any other company. There are some pretty intense rules at Quicken that each and every employee must follow. One of the biggest is that every client must have a phone call or e-mail returned within 24 hours. If the client is not called back and a complaint is received than that employee will be fired on the spot. It sounds pretty harsh but it promotes staying on top of things and taking care of issues right on the spot. Most phone calls will be answered with an hour and almost every employee has a Blackberry to answer emails. Don’t think you are going to be able to dodge them by calling them at 9pm at night or on the weekends. Every one of these late night phone calls are forwarded to the bankers cell phone with your message. Most bankers will call you back even if they are at home or out for the night. The company is always ranked as one of Fortune 500’s best places to work at. This means that the company must be doing something right to make their employees happy. Happy employees make happy clients.

7. The application process is very fast. You can call up Quicken Loans and have application documents within 30 minutes showing you that you have a locked in interest rate and go over everything you discussed on the phone. Quicken has the technology for you to do everything online so you do not need to print out anything at all. Quicken handles everything in house in regards to title work, setting up appraisers, and a closing date. At closing, they will send the closing documents out to you a couple days before closing for you to look at them and make sure everything is exactly the way you agreed to. Quicken does this to show you that they do not practice the bait and switch because they have an outstanding reputation to with hold. They even will send a notary to your house or where ever you want to handle the closing of the home loan.

8. You do not need to worry about Quicken Loans going bankrupt while refinancing or buying a home with them. Being a privately owned company has its benefits because they do not need to do anything for its investors. They do not have any share holders to please and are in business for themselves. Sure, Quicken has had a restructuring period from late 2007 to mid 2008 but this was bound to happen due to changes in the mortgage mess. Quicken had to let go around half of its employees during this time period but still has everything in place to close your loan and still give you excellent service.

9. Quicken Loans is not a bank so this means that they do not keep your loan but rather sell your mortgage on the secondary market. This is not a bad thing but is just the business model of the company. They would rather have quick profits and not have to deal with being a property manager in case you foreclose on your home. The interest rates you receive from them will be in line with what the interest rates are for the day. Mortgage bankers at the company are not going to charge you a higher interest rate. Feel free to negotiate with them on anything. You have the ability to get a higher or lower interest rate on any program you feel like doing. All you need to do is ask.

10. One of the best things about wrking with Quicken Loans is they would love to refinance you all the time. Hopefully, you should know that it only makes sense to do it if you can lower your interest rate by more than 1% from your current fixed rate. Quicken knows that you are not checking to see what mortgage rates are at for the day so they do it for you. Each mortgage banker has a list of their past clients and can easily scan through them to see what they are currently locked in at. If mortgage rates for the day drop below what you are currently at, be expecting a phone call from them. Its more of a courteous call than anything but its to remind you that they are looking out for you and that hopefully you will refinance or buy another home with them. There will be closing costs again with them and do not think you are getting a no closing cost mortgage. If you do not need to refinance your mortgage than only do it if they can give you the same loan at a lower interest rate with keeping the same balance. Do not do it if they are going to roll the closing costs into the mortgage to save you .25% in interest. Even though Quicken Loans is headquartered in Michigan, with all of their technology they have in place it feels like they are right down the street. Most of the mortgages they do will be closed in less than three weeks and sometimes less than two.