The words "boutique" and "niche" have no place in lending for mortgages for a subdivision type of property. If your loan officer is the "Owner", "President", or some other high-powered type of title, beware the consequences!
Two clients of mine have become victim of shoddy and slovenly practices by lenders from "boutique" agencies. While the name "boutique" conjures up ideas of unique goods and high quality, my experience with these types of lenders engenders the exact opposite.
One story involves two Sellers, and one Buyer, all clients of mine that suffered excruciating delays in their transactions due to the inexperience of the lender. We (my client and I) were told by the lender that all was fine - until within days of closing we were told that things were not fine. We could tell that things weren't going well when the other agent stopped taking phone calls or returning emails promptly.
In each case, the lender - who swore up and down that he had all the necessary documentation - needed additional documentation from the Buyer to close the loan. In one case, the documents were unobtainable because they were in the moving van somewhere between the east coast and Phoenix. In the other two cases, it was documentation that could have been obtained easily at the beginning of the transaction but wasn't because the loan officer - even thought they were the president of the company - didn't know enough to ask for them until the underwriters asked for it. The delay here was caused by the lack of follow-up on the lender. It would take them days to follow up on something when a good lender would have never had the problem.
One lender was the spouse of the agent representing a buyer who wanted to buy my Seller's house - talk about a red flag! When this was pointed out - my seller ignored the warning and decided to sell anyway. The lender had assured us that the loan was a slam-dunk and there was nothing standing in the way of a smooth close, until there was that little documentation problem that delayed things a week, which took us into a holiday requiring another week. Then it was discovered that something was incorrect in the package sent to the underwriter, which took another week. What a mess! All of these things should have been handled up front, or within 24 hours of the problem being discovered. Taking a week to fix a documentation problem is not acceptable!
Most of the Realtors out there have working relationships with lenders based on an expectation that the lender will perform as they have in previous transactions. Lenders with integrity will turn down loans that they are not experienced with.
However, if the lender recommended by a Realtor happens to be their spouse or relative, find another lender. Find out how many loan officers are in a given lender's company. If there are less than 5, be very careful! Talk to a couple different lenders to get their opinions on how a loan should be done for your circumstances. You will be surprised that there are lots of loans out there for you!
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