Unknown Lenders Make Your Offer Hit the Trash

Please, just stop it.  Stop it.  No Ghost Lenders.  All of those online lenders you are headed for so that you can save $10 a month...just stop it.  Here's why:

When you make an offer, the first thing the listing agent does is look for the highest number.  Then they look for the offer that has the fewest contingencies.  Then they look at the lenders. 

Here's the first two questions the listing agent will ask your buyer agent:

1. Have you ever done business with this lender before?
2. I need a direct number to contact the lender, do you have one?  By this, they mean the CELL PHONE number of the ACTUAL loan officer - not some dismal 800 number and menu tree.  NO GHOST LENDERS (ones you can't really get ahold of, or have an assistant who answers the phone but isn't licensed and couldn't say anything about the loan even in the off-chance they actually knew something about it).

If either of these answers is "no," the phone call ends and so does your offer.

Wow - that is so brutal - why are listing agents such jerks?

They're not - they are looking out for their client - they don't want "ghost" lenders.  The lender is ALWAYS the part (ok, 95% of the time) that sinks a buyer and thus the whole deal.  If they are an online volume dealer the chances of the loan failing to close on time is astronomical.  Even a traditional bank (personally, I always use mortgage brokers) is better than some online hellhole of a lender.  Loans are just not that easy - ever wonder why there are soooo many lenders?  It's because it's a complex job and takes a lot of time.  There are a zillion moving parts - any one of which can tank your deal. 

From a friend on a Realtor FB group:

I met buyers who were already preapproved with xxxxx. I tried to contact their loan agent and I got an email back from an "Agent Experience Partner" who couldn't tell me anything about the timing or terms of their loan for the contract. This person told me that their loan agents never speak to real estate agents and that he is the middle-man -- a middle-man who knew nothing about my clients or their loan.
My clients ended up working with a different lender.

Listing agents only want to deal with a lender that either they know or one that your buyer agent has closed numerous transactions with.  Why?  If they've done business with, or your agent has done a lot of business with a lender they know that if a problem arises (and they ALWAYS do), your problem is going to go to the front of the line. 

No lender wants to risk their realationship with a real estate agent - they WILL get it done.  But DoofusMortgage.com?  Yeah, they work on a volume basis - so what if 35% of the loans fail?