Quicken Loans is offering a 15-yr mortgage refinance of $173,000 @ 4.375% fixed. My credit is excellent. Buy-down fee is 1.25 pts or $2,162. My goal is to switch from 5.875% for 30-yr fixed, and take advantage of the lower rate while building equity at an increasing pace until I retire in 10 years. My current loan was purchased in Nov 2005.  There is no 2nd mortgage and the home has about 30% equity even in this depressed market. My payment will increase by $50/month (I am overpaying my current loan by $150/month) which is within my budget. Is Quicken Loans a reputable lender?  Does this sound like a good decision?  Any advice is appreciated.

My two cents would be to check the BBB or rip off report.com if you want to due some due dillagence on the company as a whole. Keep in mind that you should place more weight on who your Mortgage Professional is than on the Company they work for. As we have seen all too often, compaines can get a bad rap from just a few bad apples.

To cut your term in half and get a much lower rate considering your payment will only increase $50 is a great deal. You should be more than happy with that.

Bob

Mike has given you very good info above regarding the Mortgage Professional. My only additional advice is to possibly wait a while and you may be able to achieve  4.375% without paying for it.

Thank you for the quick replies!!

Indeed...I did a cursory review of Ripoff.com and found 3 weaknesses with Quicken; (1) The Loan Officer won't povide a written Good Faith Estimate without a loan application to lock the rate. Loan application requires up-front $575 Processing Fee that may (or may not ) be refundanble...I haven't asked.  (2) The Loan Officer is pressuring me for a decision "right now".  He says the points to buy-down the rate to 4.375% are very likely to rise later today. (3) The Loan Officer implied Quicken Loans is a direct lender, but I doubt that is true. I think they are a loan broker and will eventually sell the loan to the highest bidder.

I told the Loan Officer at Quicken I was uncomfortable pulling the trigger "right now" without a little more research. I want to call my current mortgage lender, Wells Fargo Mortgage, and get their perspective on my goals, their rates, and timing of the refinance.

Any time it appears that you have to pay for a Good Faith Estimate, which in this case presents that appearance, it is wise to keep shopping.  A Good Faith Estimate by law has to be provided within 3 days of application.  Providing the information for an application is the same as applying.  Whether or not a fee has been collected bears no meaning on the legal obligation to provide a Good Faith Estimate within that timeframe.

Personally I would call one of the guys on this forum, any of the ones on this thread especially if they can lend in your area, or if commercial/business call me haha. I don't mean to bad mouth any company as thats in bad taste, but I personally know 4 different people who went to Quicken originally for financing, and were bait and switched come closing even though I had warned them when I saw some of the forms and incompleteness and if I recall their application fee is non-refundable, I don't even think any were provided a rate lock sheet. Quicken is correspondent, so like you said they fund and sell off their warehouse lines. Quoting means nothing, get a rate lock form proving your terms.

Bob Dragoon:

Loan application requires up-front $575 Processing Fee that may (or may not ) be refundanble

Let me preface my comment by saying that one of the guys we just hired happens to be an ex Quicken loans employee for several reasons but he says the $575 is not refundable. He also says that the vast majority of Quickens loan officers are fresh out of college and new in the business. He also stated that one of the reasons he left quicken in 03 is that they are taught to be super aggressive in getting the clients commitment and $575 even if there is a slight chance the deal might fall out.

Just reporting what was told to me. Take it for what it's worth.

King

To echo someone elses comments - I assisted a client to get away from her loan being with Quicken loans and she was more than willing to do it despite me offering a higher interest rate as she refinanced in the summer when rates were higher.

If someone is willing to take a higher rate to get away from a company, then that tells you enough.

As far as a G.F.E. - most companies have an application fee and per RESPA law, lenders do not have to provide a GFE until you apply.

I have never heard anything good about the lenders like Quicken, Ditech, Eloan, and other similiarly structured loan companies.  If you read this forum, you will see that this Quicken rep is off on all of their claims.  I would recommend speaking with a Mortgage Broker that can shop different lenders.  Retail lenders like Wells only have one 15 year fixed program and you might not get the best rate with them.  Often other smaller wholesale lenders lead the market with lower rates.  A mortgage broker would be able to get your loan to the wholesale lender who is offering the best rates for your scenario at that time.

He is saying that he has NOT applied yet, therefore no GFE would be given. To get a GFE you must apply which means a credit, income, asset, employment, etc. check. Otherwise your Loan Officer is shooting from the hip and is going to low ball you.

However there are too many other companies that do not charge just to apply.

Anyone who pays any deposit, app fee, or any amount of money at all for any service that might otherwise not be refunded if you decide to cancel for any reason is a sucker.  Rip off report should list itself as a rip off in that pick just about any bank, lender, or financial institution, search for them there, and there will be some sort of cry baby complaint about something or other.  There are plenty of large call center type origination fueled companies backed by direct warehouse lines, like Quicken, or CashCall, or Greenlight, that brokers just can not compete with.  Unless of course, you want to take into account they dress in nice suits, and can make a very persuasive argument as to why their service is so much more personable.  I think there are other places offering that same rate with 0 fees, 0 points, 0 anything, depending on your final loan amount - keep searching.

I agree, only I would work with a small to medium size Mortgage Banker (Direct Lender) w/o an application fee and a Good Reputation (maybe check BBB).

Since they fund the loan with their own money, they should be less expensive and an easier process (since you will not have a middle man).

Hey Bob - thanks for posting. Also, thanks for considering Quicken Loans! We certainly appreciate it. My name is Kelly, I work for QL and I wanted to make sure to clear up a few things.

First off,  you are entitled to see your GFE (good faith estimate), free of charge with absolutely no obligation. It is part of your application and we won't start processing your loan until you *sign* that application. But you are most assuredly entitled to view it at any time.

Second is the "fee" you and some of the others mentioned. It is not a fee. It is a deposit. And again, it is not charged until you sign your application, authorizing that charge and acknowledging our deposit policy. It'll be on a document called "Interest Rate Disclosure & Deposit Agreement." The deposit is not a fee - it is credited back to you at closing.

I can understand your hesitation in moving forward. What your banker is trying to do is keep you informed of the market. Rates are extremely volatile and all we want is to be able to follow through on what we've offered you. However, we cannot guarantee any offered rate without signed application & deposit - then we can lock your rate. We're trying to avoid the "bait & switch" here - we like to keep our promises but that's impossible to do without locking a rate. I know all the other lenders on here would at least agree with that.

We've been a direct lender for almost 25 years and are ranked America's #1 Online Lender. 9 out of 10 Quicken Loans clients would recommend us to their friends and families. We think that says a lot about the character of our company.

Bob, if you want to see comparable rates on the 15 year fixed with 0 buy down points it is available. 

I see 4.375% at the present time available without any buydown fee

I talked to a borrower who was dealing with Quicken - she picked Quicken because they are a direct lender and after she closes if rates go down she can just call Quicken and they will lower her interest rate - it's not an adjustable mortgage though because the rate can never go up! lol Then when I asked what type of loan it is - she said a no cost refi - but they told her nothing else - she didn't sign anything but had given her credit card #

I realize you can't police every loan officer but wow.....it took some convincing to let her know you can't lower your interest rate after you close...

Kelly lies. She's paid to advocate for Quicken Mortgage and rebuke online negative comments.

She states: "It is not a fee. It is a deposit. And again, it is not charged until you sign your application, authorizing that charge and acknowledging our deposit policy."

That's simply not true. I have emails from an overaggressive, inexperienced kid/"Executive Mortgage Banker" reminding me I've lost my 500 dollars because I "committed" to a rate lock over the phone. I NEVER signed ANYTHING nor did I see a GFE or any breakdown of fees.

To all that replied negatively about Quicken...Good Job!!  With over 8 years in this wonderful business, I have NEVER found a Quicken Loans proposal to be legit.

Just my two cents but I would encourage the original poster to shop, shop and shop some more and after all is said and done, I would recommend going with the best rate/closing costs being offered by ANYONE other then Quicken.

Good Luck!

My sentiments with all that's been shared.

But even more importantly, in my no-humble opinion, I cannot justify or rationalize the need and benefit to using an online lender for something as critical as my mortgage.  I buy lots of stuff on the Internet, but I want to be able to reach out and smell my loan officer if so desired.  I strongly believe that when you have the ability to drive your car to a mortgage office and hold someone accountable, you are far less likely to have lenders behaving badly.

Nothing is 100% but being local helps.  There is absolutely no lender online offering something you can't get within a reasonable distance of where you live.

Good luck to you.

Quicken -  All they have is a branded name so they can charge you more for the same rate. Go with quicken and you've paid at least 1-1.5% more than you actually needed to. Their mark-ups are at least 2.5% per loan no matter what. They are super aggressive on the credit card from the beginning of the call because they know if you go out and shop it's all over for them...done deal...no soup for you...they lost your business. BUT, if you give them your card # and then find a better deal...well....you're out the $500+ bucks if you want to switch to a new lender.

Stay far far away from Quicken.

Carol, appreciate the sentiment regarding local lenders but this forum question had absolutely nothing to do with local vs. online. As an online lender I take offense to the idea that a local lender is a better fit for people, it's simply not true. If you get all warm and fuzzy inside about sitting across the table from someone that's great but those that sit face to face are usually those that pay a lot more for the product they are purchasing. I would beat the socks off your local retail lenders' pricing ALL DAY LONG. There is simply no comparison to the difference in pricing between a wholesale lender and a retail bank. In the end you're paying top dollar for the warm and fuzzies and ending up with the same loan I could have gotten you for a lot less and with a lot less trips to the bank on your lunch hour.