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Best mortgage bankers around?

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Commercial Real Estate Agent with Communitas Realty Partners
Looking for other mortgage broker/bankers opinions...I am looking to join a mortgage banker to expand the products we can offer, the states we can originate in, etc.  Seems as a "broker" there is someone with better pricing all the time now, and I am thinking it might be time to merge the company I own with a banker.  Would love to hear everyone's opinion on which mortgage banker out there offers the most, is easy to work with, etc.  Thanks!
Gareth Bourriague
Benchmark Mortgage of Louisiana - Baton Rouge, LA
Benchmark Mortgage

I don't know about "the best", but Benchmark Mortgage is a great company - competitive rates, low fees ($375 per loan), no minimum requirement for in-house fundings, and they have 300 branches across the country.  The main website is www.benchmarkbranchpartners.com.

Aug 02, 2007 06:37 AM
Jeff Tompkins
Communitas Realty Partners - Thornton, CO
Gareth, are they mortgage bankers, meaning do they have their own warehouse lines to fund their own loans?
Aug 02, 2007 06:57 AM
Paul McFadden
Responsive Pest Control - Seattle, WA
Pest Control, Seattle, WA.

Jeff:  I have friends who work for M&T bank here in Seattle and seem to enjoy it.  Check them out if they're in Denver.  Good luck!

 

Paul

Aug 02, 2007 09:42 AM
Gareth Bourriague
Benchmark Mortgage of Louisiana - Baton Rouge, LA
Benchmark Mortgage

Yes, we are mortgage bankers with our own lines - totalling approximately $150mm.  We are not a federally chartered bank, however - so we are required to be licensed in most states.  We are exempt in a few.

CoFed (Colorado Federal) is another company, and they're actually a federally chartered bank.  I don't have any contact info for them; just do a search on Google.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Aug 02, 2007 10:05 AM
Aaron Gordon
Branch Manager - Las Vegas, NV
Home Loan Consultant - Las Vegas, NV

Jeff---

It comes down to one thing I believe...who do you market to?  If you market to real estate agents and homebuilders, I believe you have to be a banker so you can "control" your loans as that's what they expect.

If you do mainly refinances, I don't see much difference.

I can tell you I have been a banker for over seven years and have brokered two loans in my life and pray I never have to broker another one. 

We recently switched affiliations to become a net branch of Maverick Mortgage and we are thrilled by the move.   We are currently licensed in 37 states and three more will be on-board by year's end.

Feel free to contact me and I can walk you through all of benefits.

Aug 05, 2007 04:34 PM
Anonymous
Dave Tucker - MileHighMortgage.com

Cofed with Craig Pica is probably not an option...ever close a loan with PF?

http://www.ots.treas.gov/?p=InstitutionSearch&iid=18114&hid=

 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/16/11th-hour-deal-averts-closure-of-colo-thrift/

 Benchmark is a stable company but the pricing in my opinion is

probably not any better than what you have now...

Maverick ? Don't know a whole lot about them but these types of headlines are

usually not a good sign...http://www.brokeruniverse.com/grapevine/thread/?thread=492942

M&T has a wholesale op's in Denver but is not set up for origination here.

The future of wholesale is certainly the $64,000 question...Any bank that's worth going

to is being extremely selective right now..

 

 

Aug 20, 2008 05:06 PM
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