Interview with a Local Lender from Pierce County

We sat down with loan officer Chelsea Cline from Fairway Mortgage to get all the facts on why you would want to work with a local lender and how that benefits you when purchasing your new home in Tacoma!

LA: What makes a good lender vs a bad lender when you're buying a home and how do you find that out?

CC: First and foremost, their reputation. You can’t necessarily ask the lender, but ask yourself- who is referring this lender to you? Are they known for closing on time? Was their pre-approval what they said it would be for at the end of the day? Are they known for extensions or not closing? Etc. etc.

A good lender will be verifying your income, and letting you know the actual funds that will be needed to close. Additionally, they won’t give you a preapproval or tell you a number until they have received all of your documents and pulled your credit.

LA: Agreed, I recently had a client who thought that they were pre-approved for $750,000 because they had a lender give them that crazy number based off only their salary wage! The client was disappointed when down the road, with their debt-to-income and credit score in, they only qualified for $450,000…. $300k less than they were “promised.”

CC: Exactly. Definitely be wary of any lender that just throws a number out there. A lender who is good at their job will start the process by asking you different questions such as, “What are your home buying goals? How much money do you want to put down? How long do you plan on staying in the home? Are you purchasing this home by yourself? Will your partner be on the loan? How many years have you been in your field of work,” and so on.

After I were to ask all those questions, I would then send you an application that pulls your credit, asks for your income and all details about your financials. Once the application is in, I start to request documents from you, for example your W-2’s, recent bank statements, photo id, pay stubs, and so on. Me and my team at Fairway Mortgage will get them a quote within 24 hours of receiving ALL (keyword all haha) of the requested documents. 

Most important thing is that our pre-approvals are solid and we are able to close on those loans AND close on time. The most important thing for us for our reputation. When a listing agent sees our approval, they will feel confident that the contract will close on time. Essentially what this means is that you the buyer are getting a better representation with your loan. 

One big difference between me and other potential lenders is that I advocate for my clients. My clients have my cell phone number, and I am sending approval letters at night or on the weekends. I also make sure to call the listing agents on the property my clients want to purchase to explain that I’ve done my due diligence and that my clients are strong buyers with a great team behind them!

LA: Thank you Chelsea! I think my favorite thing about Fairway Mortgage is that you guys setup an appointment consultation to go over options and explain everything to the buyer. Such as which loans they qualify for, what will work best for them, approximate payments, explaining of closing costs, etc. I think one other really big aspect that sets you apart is that Fairway is willing and able to order the appraisal on mutual (meaning they order the appraisal for your property the minute your offer is accepted!) and don’t force the buyer to pay for the appraisal up front, instead they include it in the closing costs to be paid at closing. What this does is help ensure that the contract will close on time.