Types of Mortgage Lenders

"Lenders can be located in person usually by appointment or via the Internet. There are basically two types of lenders for mortgages, your mortgage bankers and your mortgage brokers. Mortgage bankers are your direct lenders. They are going to be limited in the amount of loan programs they can offer you, but a huge benefit to going with a mortgage banker is going to be that oftentimes they'll keep the servicing of your loan after it closes. A mortgage broker is a middle man. Mortgage brokers have access to many loan programs, but they charge fees for their service. One of the benefits of mortgage brokers is that the lenders that they deal with do not deal with the public, so they're able to get just various loan programs that other bankers are not able to have access to. It's good to have both, a mortgage banker and a mortgage broker. The best thing to remember is to research how long they've been in business, and to always have a referral."