Would you recommend the Countrywide Home Loan mortgate company?

[M&M's Mommy]

As you know we're in the process of buying our first home, and the big part of that process is to find a good, reputable & dependable lender. I'm thinking about getting a loan through Countrywide Home Loan, so i wonder if any of you is their current customer, and what do you think about your experience with them. What, if there are any other lenders, would you recommend me to consider?

Thanks in advance,
Theresa

[Craftlady]

We refinanced with Countrywide and are very satisifed. Been with them several years now.
Also have an equity line with them, so I guess we really do like them LOL

[dukedogsmom]

I'll have to ask my mom. I know she had a mortgage with them but don't know if it was a good experience or not.

[Daisy and Delilah]

I have them too. So far so good. I can't complain. I write the check every month and they cash it :)

[LuckyNumber7]

I would recommend them - I used to work there, and our mortgage is through there. They're a very good, reputable company.

[joycenalex]

be careful, their reputation can vary, office to office, state to state. i refinanced thru another company 4 years ago, and that company sold my mortgage within 2 months to CW. my dearest friends had CW amd were having massive problems with them, failing to post payments in a timely fashion,"missing payments", poor customer service and, very slow return of papers and so forth. after hearing this, i gulped and sent the first 3 years of payments in with return reciept from the post office, a week early, so it was posted on time, and i had record. i kept my returned checks, just in case. i got calls, emails, letters at least 3 times a month for refis' with them. they've had small glitches with me, but nothing i couldn't resolve, but it gives me pause.
just like anything else, you gotta do your homework and stay alert to your records. can you get preapproved from at least 2 or 3 companies?

[pitc9]

We were financed by Country Wide when we first bought our house, I never had problems with them.
But like Joyce said, check out a few companies!
There are tons out there!

[cmayer31]

I have CW for my mortgage. As long as I don't have to deal with their customer service I have no issues with them. Recently though a payment didn't post and it took over a month for them to resolve the issue. Meanwhile they stated that I had a late fee because the mortgage was payed late. It was payed late because they didn't process it and I was the one who caught the error.

I've learned now that when I call to talk to a customer service person, I just ask for the floor superviser. I will not talk to the first or even second person that answers because I had so many issues with them not giving accurarte info.

[M&M's Mommy]

Thanks guys for your advices. As for the reviews, I've heard both good & bad ones, the same with any other companies. I have friends who would do business with CW over and over again, yet some would have none of it. - So, I think I should only look at these reviews to get ideas of what to expect, not as something to base my decision upon.

Right now I got three pre-approval letters, 1 from CW, 1 from my bank (BofA), and 1 from the bank recommended by my broker. I lean toward CW because they offer lowest rate & closing costs (assuming in good faith that they'll keep what they promised), plus I thought by going through a direct lender I can save some $ than going to a third party, who is my broker. Am i wrong?

As for the payments, and keeping records, I plan to setup direct withdrawal from my checking account. This way, I don't have to worry about being late on payments, and everything is recorded.

Also, CW offers to "buy points" for a lower rate, which, if I choose to do, I'd pay back in two years. In another words, if I stay with the same loan for more than two years, I would start to benefit from this, but if the rate goes down in less than two years, and I refinance, then I would not save anything. For example, with the rate 6.125%, my monthly mortgate would be ~ $70 more than that with the rate of 5.875%, but in order to get the lower rate, I would have to pay $1560 upfront. It would take me 23 months to recoup this amount. Should I go for it??, provided that I can write off $1560 on my tax next year.

I would also like to pay the home insurance & taxes on my own, but in order to do this, I would have to pay CW $1040. This one-time-only fee can also be written off on my taxes... Have any of you done this, or you always pay them all together with your mortgate payment?

I know I asked too many questions, but this is my first time buying, and I have no ideas what I am doing :o

[Craftlady]

I'm not sure about the "buy points" aspect, this is something we didnt do with our mortgage. We have a 30 year fixed mortgage so the interest rate doesnt go up but the monthly amount can go up due to increase in property taxes, home owners insurance increases, which ours did for first time in several years. Only went up $12 a month.

From our house payments amounts are taken out for our home owners insurance, property taxes (monthly pro-rated) which are then put into escrow account, at the end of the year they pay all the amounts due for us.

All those upfront costs, can be deducted from income taxes.

[joycenalex]

i had tons of questions too, first time is a learning experience. i was scared to death my first time. as for online payments, CW wanted almost $400 to set that up, check with your bank to see if you can do it without a fee, and if you can do bimonthly payments, you'll make 13 payments in a year, this can decrease the loan repayment time, alot.
i have a fixed rate 20yr, i think adjustable rate mortgages, or intrest only loans are too crazy for me. you still have to repay the principle, and a loan is a loan, the amount of money i borrowed is a finite amount, it doesn't go up and down, so why should the payments and the intrest? my property taxes, home insurance and PMI are bundled into my payments to CW, why are they charging so much, $1040, for you to pay those taxes and insurance yourself? that seems like a moneymaking scheme for them. what does your broker get from the bank s/he is recommending? have you read bankerate.com or home financing for dummies? and does your state/city offer home buying advice/grants for first timers? and really, if there are any changes from the good faith estimates that you get a few days before the signing, WALK AWAY. there are lots of other houses and mortgage companies, don't let them tell you at the last minute , you have to pay substantially more.

[M&M's Mommy]

i had tons of questions too, first time is a learning experience. i was scared to death my first time. as for online payments, CW wanted almost $400 to set that up, check with your bank to see if you can do it without a fee, and if you can do bimonthly payments, you'll make 13 payments in a year, this can decrease the loan repayment time, alot.
i have a fixed rate 20yr, i think adjustable rate mortgages, or intrest only loans are too crazy for me. you still have to repay the principle, and a loan is a loan, the amount of money i borrowed is a finite amount, it doesn't go up and down, so why should the payments and the intrest? my property taxes, home insurance and PMI are bundled into my payments to CW, why are they charging so much, $1040, for you to pay those taxes and insurance yourself? that seems like a moneymaking scheme for them. what does your broker get from the bank s/he is recommending? have you read bankerate.com or home financing for dummies? and does your state/city offer home buying advice/grants for first timers? and really, if there are any changes from the good faith estimates that you get a few days before the signing, WALK AWAY. there are lots of other houses and mortgage companies, don't let them tell you at the last minute , you have to pay substantially more.

We do plan to go with a 30 year fix rate. Luckily for me, my loan amount is below the limit for jumbo loan, so I don't have to pay any PMI. I'm still debating whether I should pay the points to get a little bit lower rate. Like I said, it'll only benefit me if I keep the house for more than two years (which I will), and/or do not refinance during that period. With the lock-in rate at 5.875%, I doubt that it will come down enough to make the refinancing worthwhile - but of course, I'm not too sure about this, as anything could happen should we experience a massive loss of jobs, or great depression..

CW told me that I could roll everything (PITI) into one payment to them, then they pay for my insurance & property taxes once they're due, CW prefers it this way, becase it's within their control that I pay these things, but if we prefer to do so ourself, we have to pay them $1040, so they can have somebody (or some organization?) to monitor our tax & insurance payments.

[joycenalex]

... we have to pay them $1040, so they can have somebody (or some organization?) to monitor our tax & insurance payments.
the insurance company will send you a bill, the county/city will send you a bill, they'll keep track of when. sometimes it's divided into twice a year payments, bigger in summer, smaller at new years. call the county and ask them how they bill.

[LuckyNumber7]

We have online payments set up with Countrywide and never had to pay a cent for it.

We also didn't escrow our homeowners insurance, and didn't pay anything for that, either. I don't know what this $1,040 fee you're talking about is...ask them what this is called, I have never in my life heard of anyone charging a fee to not escrow insurance. Sometimes, if you decide to not escrow either taxes or insurance, it bumps up the rate a bit because the loan is considered higher risk - maybe you are paying them the difference to keep the rate lower. Clarify that with them though.

The best way to deal with their customer service department is to sign up on their online site and email customer service through there - that was there is a paper trail, and they always respond within 24-48 hours.

You won't be signing a good faith estimate at closing - it's an estimate, that's why it's called a Good Faith Estimate - at closing you have to sign a HUD-1 Settlement statement - always ask for a copy of this in advance, and review it closely. Ask questions if you have any. And, if you can, I would recommend to use your own attorney to represent you at the closing, not the one that the bank uses - they are there for the bank's interests, not yours.

Any mortgage company will let you buy down your rate with points - literally, anyone you go through will do that. If you plan on keeping your house for a while, it's probably a good idea to get the best rate that you can, and keep it that way.

I've been in the mortgage business for 5+ years now, as an underwriter, a broker and a processor...so any questions you have I may be able to help with. Feel free to shoot me a message if you want :)