Issaquah Undressed

I Encourage You To Use Your Real Estate Agents Loan Officer

I think that owning a mortgage company gives us an important insight. There are different degrees of skill level and product knowledge from one loan officer to another. We know this as we had as many as 100 loan officers at a time. Probably the single best decision you can make in picking a lender is to contact your Realtor (c) and get one or more recommendations for who you should use for a mortgage.

The call to the lender should go something like this. “Hi Joan, Larry Cragun, Realtor gave me your name as someone I could trust to do a good job on a mortgage for me”.

This accomplishes several things. The loan officer knows his total relationship with the Realtor is at risk. That is the way it is in real estate. No agent wants his or her transaction to fall apart because of a sloppy or unskilled lender. Even a good loan officer that gets too busy and goofs up closing, or is late to close, or doesn’t deliver the rate, term, fees, or program promised is in danger of losing all future business from the Realtor. It should play a big role in assuring you delivery as promised, a decent rate, and priority attention.

If any loan is going to be neglected or procrastinated, it won’t be one with a real estate agent involved.

So your job is to lock in a relationship with both the agent and the loan officer as a team. Communicate with the real estate agent how it is going, how it went.

I don’t do loans anymore, I don’t feel I am your best choice. But if I am your agent it is my job to make sure the person handling your financing is a professional in every way. So if you bring an unknown lender to me, or to any agent in fact, be prepared for an effort of persuasion to use a loan officer that agent knows is skilled.

What do I do every time I am asked for an out of area referral on a loan officer, I call a real estate office in that area. I ask the receptionist who is the top Realtor that I could speak to. I ask the real estate agent, for a referral of a lender. I do exactly what I suggest you do.

So, please do as I ask, I want you to have a good lending experience.

Larry Cragun

PS: You are welcome to call me for a referral, I will make the call for you.