Better Mortgage

The whole process took 23 days at the time. They'll have taskbars that come up. There were 45ish tasks there. As you go through and you're filling out all these different little items and gathering all your financial information, they're just confirming it online. Occasionally, the task will hang there for two to three days but because I have dealt with Wells Fargo, I'm like, “Hey, take all the time you want.” I do recognize that as a consumer, those tasks are sitting there because it's hard to find people to hire who can pass the background checks that the federal government requires to deal with my information. So, I'm okay with the tasks being there. It would be good if there was a way for them to be able to say, “Hey, this is a dedicated team, and even with our underwriters, here are your underwriters that are dedicated to your case, and they will respond within two days.”

If they just would inform the consumer that it may take three days for an answer on something, then that would eliminate a lot of people's anxiety for sure. Other than that, I'm always very satisfied with Better. They’re very honest. It's kind of interesting when you deal with them. When you put in the first initial application and you're approved, they suddenly draw up a list of, “Hey, here you go. Here are five to seven different lenders that it says will take your loan. Here’s what this one will do. Here's what your final closing costs are. Here’s what your interest rate is.” It's very straightforward.

The online application went well for me. I had my documents in PDF form and if I occasionally had to scan something to get it into a PDF, that was not a problem. When it starts going through underwriting and I sometimes get multiple emails in a day going, "You have a new task. You have a new task. You have a new task," it is what it is. It's just better that it's online rather than somebody constantly calling you. My rep, Cody, was great. Whenever I needed anything, he always responded very quickly. He did do a very good job of telling me, "Okay, here's where you are now. Here's what's coming next. You're gonna get this. You're gonna get that." He was very good at prepping me for what was next in the process.

The only thing is my cash to close changed about three times in the last couple of days. They're constantly getting new information. It flowed pretty well. My biggest complaint about the process was that while I did not get solicitations from other non-Better entities when I first reached out to the company, after I closed, I got inundated with mail asking me to purchase. I got multiple pieces of mail that said they weren't from Better, but they were given my name by Better. It was for things like insurance and other offers of ancillary products that, if I was interested in, I would have already gotten. I didn't really need 10 pieces of mail in my mailbox the week after I closed.

Whenever I spoke to someone, they were good. I used their online chat a lot and they usually get back so fast. The people were there 24 hours a day. Because of the employee squeeze they had though, the loan officers were running ragged, so sometimes, it was tough to tell them to email me and my agent and give us an update. It took a long time because if they had 20 mortgages closing this week, they don't care about mine that closes in three weeks. They're not even worried about it. But when it came down to the week of closing, because we were lining up six different transactions and one title company, three houses, purchases and sales, like a whole bunch of people buying and selling houses, in order to line them up on the same day, they were good.

Better Mortgage did things faster than all the other mortgage companies. The loan advisor I had at the beginning, for some reason, left the company midway through and they had to shift, and then they lost a bunch of people. I was stressed out because of the random occurrences and I happened to leave right in the middle of my transaction. That's not anyone's fault.

Better Mortgage could have done better, like honest appraisals and they shouldn't have gotten rid of so many people. The people I was talking to were swamped and it was an indication of their company probably releasing too many people. If they're super busy, you're not gonna get as many updates. When it's going well, they don't send out too many updates. Normally, you'll only hear if something goes wrong. So, some people are nervous about these big transactions. But there's nothing going on so they do not even email you. There's no reason to. Maybe they can implement a weekly update to make people relax a little bit.

I'm still in the market again for a house. Then I had to redo a few things. This time, there was an extra. I had to take some kind of a course for home buying. So, that was a little bit different. I felt like that was a little bit weird because I had just gone through the process a couple of months before. But overall, I was very impressed by the application process and the ease of it.

I worked with a couple of different sets of representatives. I had one set of people that I was working with through all the stuff in November. Then I started to work with some of them the second time around, but it felt like there were a lot more hands touching it the second time around right before I bought this house. Better was also going through some restructuring during that timeframe from what I could read in the media. It was a little bit weird on that end because then once I was done with all my loan documents and everything was set, I felt like there wasn't a good transition to my closing agents with Better. Because everything had been all documented and through email and very formal and suddenly, I started getting phone calls. I felt like the guy didn't introduce himself well. It even lists what your preferences are, and I felt like he wasn't abiding by that. I would get random phone calls from him.

I had done all of my due diligence getting to closing and I felt like I didn't need anything. I don't understand why he was checking in on me so frequently. At the end, he was like, "It's my understanding that all the tasks are completed. There's nothing else for me-- unless you need something from me.” “I'm not sure why you're calling me so frequently. Like is everything okay? Do you need something else?” “Oh, no, I was just calling to see if you needed anything from us.” We were off by 10 cents. It was a very weird set of circumstances because I called since we were off 10 cents. That's what I was told. I got an email from the title company that said, "It's off 10 cents." Better had not sent in the updated disclosure.

I was the first signing of the day. I was upset that when I called and I asked for the person, they were like, "Oh, he's out today." At the same time, my Realtor called and they were like, "Oh, he's not at his desk, but he's available." I didn't appreciate that and it was like a lot of back and forth. We were on the phone with Better for almost an hour and a half between the two of us to get that squared away. I was like, “My loan is already prefunded. I provided everything. We're literally sitting here waiting for Better to get this just squared away.” That was a super weird way to end the transaction because everything has been so flawless and seamless, and they had great communication but when it came to closing at that transition point, it was very awkward. I would still recommend Better. That last piece was just super weird. It did not match up at all to the level of customer service that I'd gotten all the way throughout in both transactions.

I liked the rate table. When I tried to look for other places, if they provided a rate table, that was not the case. I was given just one flat out rate based on the amount of down payment I would make. And if I made more down payment, the rate was down. But how much down payment I had to make for me to accept the rate was not clear. So when Better Mortgage gave me that kind of table, as well as lowered the rate percentage, they had discounts, which was unheard of, that I liked. And that lowered our closing cost. So, that was very helpful. The rates were good, better than competitors in the entire market. So, it was a no-brainer.

Better Mortgage's doing business is good, what they’re providing is good, as well as how they’re competing with other market vendors like Rocket Mortgage and all sorts who are also online. If they keep doing the same way, they’re gonna do good in this space. Because brick-and-mortar is very 2010. They need to improve on to online lenders, which don’t have these origination fees, which should not be paid by the consumer. Just because you have your business, it’s your fault to manage that kind of cost. You should not tack it on to consumer to pay for your salary.

That’s the kind of thing which I don’t see in Better Mortgage, and that makes their cost very low. So, as long as they’re managing that, I like the process. They recently pushed our loan to the other bank, FirstBank, who will manage the loan amount and payments moving forward. That was very quick as well. The process was good, the people are nice. And the cost is affordable to get a house in this economy.

The only thing was that when I called Better Mortgage and my contact was busy, then I didn't realize that it would go through a call center. I was confused. But they could easily get to a text. Better Mortgage also offered that if rates go down quite a bit within two years, I'll be able to put a substantial amount of closing cost for the refi. So I'll be doing that whenever rates comes down.

My Realtor wanted me to use a local place, specifically, one of the credit unions locally because it makes things a little bit cleaner and better communication generally. I gave those credit unions a chance, but three of them all told me the same thing that they couldn't even come close to being competitive in regards to the rate and closing costs that Better was offering me. So, that being said, I was pretty pleased knowing that I was getting a fair deal when others are telling me they couldn't match it. So, that was good. Overall, my experience was great. It was easy. We didn't really have any hiccups. It wasn't complicated. We closed on time. There's nothing I could ask for to be better.

Better Mortgage was modernized. Having the portal was super cool and easy to use. There was a lot of transparency. In previous mortgages I've done, it was like pulling teeth to get them to give you rate information or closing cost breakdowns until you got to the point where it's almost too late to change your mind. Where on the online portal that Better has, you can change your rate, see what the loan fees are gonna change. They're very transparent along the entire process, which was new for me. So, I would tell my friends that it would be a very wise choice to go that route for transparency, simplicity, and savings.