The term “preferred lender” gets thrown around a lot in real estate, but why is using your agent’s preferred lender actually important? After all, your personal bank already has all of your bank statements and financial information, so isn’t it easier for them to just help you get your mortgage? In our team’s experience, absolutely not. In fact, there’s no quicker way to throw a wrench in the deal than work with someone who isn’t familiar with local ordinances or the current market of a particular location. Why? Read below for our top reasons why you’re far more likely to come out on top when you listen to your agent’s lender recommendation.

Large banks and lenders from other states don’t always know how title searches work in Georgia. 

One of the most stressful deals one of our agents has been a part of is one where they were listing a home where the buyer insisted on working with their out of state lender. Since their offer was the best and they were coming from out of state themselves, the sellers decided to accept their offer in spite of this. Two weeks into the process, however, after multiple inquiries from the attorney for information from the attorney, the lender still didn’t understand what they needed to do in order to get the process rolling, and they had no idea that they needed to work with the attorney in order to get clear title back since in their home state, the process was entirely different. Some extra communication and a slightly pushed back closing date solved the problem, but it would have been much easier had the buyers worked with their agent’s preferred lender instead of choosing someone who wasn’t aware of their role in the process due to it being outside of their area of expertise. 

One of the most stressful deals one of our agents has been a part of is one where they were listing a home where the buyer insisted on working with their out of state lender. Since their offer was the best and they were coming from out of state themselves, the sellers decided to accept their offer in spite of this. Two weeks into the process, however, after multiple inquiries from the attorney for information from the attorney, the lender still didn’t understand what they needed to do in order to get the process rolling, and they had no idea that they needed to work with the attorney in order to get clear title back since in their home state, the process was entirely different. Some extra communication and a slightly pushed back closing date solved the problem, but it would have been much easier had the buyers worked with their agent’s preferred lender instead of choosing someone who wasn’t aware of their role in the process due to it being outside of their area of expertise. 

You'll never get put on hold.

Don’t you just hate being on hold? We know we do, and having to sit there after dialing four different extension numbers and yelling into your phone at a robot for three minutes isn’t exactly the experience we want you to have when you’re trying to ask your lender a quick question. After all, once you go under contract, your agent is only going to be one part of your team, and the mortgage officer you’re working with takes point on most of the process, so you may find yourself needing to get in contact with them two or three times a week. Would you prefer that contact to be able to happen by way of a quick text/phone call or having to wait on hold for 5 minutes before talking to someone entirely new every time? Thinking about it this way, working with your agent’s preferred lender should be a no brainer! 

They work weekends.

Real estate is primarily an evening/weekend business, so you want to make sure that you can reach your lender during these hours when you aren’t busy at work yourself. Trust us when we say that building yourself a team of workaholics is going to make your life so much easier and will also make your offers more competitive because you will be able to have confidence that your lender and agent are going to do everything they need to meet even shortened timelines. 

They have a proven track record of success. 

Your agent won’t recommend someone that they don’t trust to get you to the closing table. After all, they quite literally won’t get paid unless you make it to closing, so they are going to make absolutely sure that the lenders they recommend to you are going to be able to get the job done smoothly. 

Do research into the area

If you’re moving into a new area that you don’t know much about, it’s always a good idea to use your due diligence period to make sure that the area is right for you. That can include everything from figuring out the best local restaurants to looking into the school ratings your home is districted to. Your agent will be able to help you with some of these things, but their expertise and scope of work only goes so far, so this is a great time to do some legwork of your own to make sure that the area is a good fit for you! 

Listing agents will ask in a multiple offer scenario.

In the market we’re in right now where multiple offers are pretty much a given, you want to do everything you can do to give your offer a competitive edge. After all, a smart listing agent knows to look out for red flags including lenders they’ve had bad experiences with or banks that they know won’t be able to move as quickly from their own deals where they’ve had to work with, and they will often bring this up with their clients when they are reviewing. If they don’t recognize a lender, it is common for the listing agent to ask your buyer’s agent if their clients are working with their preferred agent, and you always want them to be able to say yes so they can rave from personal experience about how easy they will make the deal, thereby calming any of the listing agent’s worries that you won’t be able to follow through with the deal.

We hope that this information has been helpful in assisting you make the decision in whether you want to work with your agent’s preferred lender or not. After all, at the end of the day, it is your decision, and you want to make the best financial decision for you. However, we heartily recommend that you think long and hard before working with someone other than your agent loves working with because they aren’t going top recommend anyone other than the person most likely to get you to the closing table, and that’s where you want to end up! If you have any other questions, please reach out to us by texting or calling (878) 242-9981 or by sending us a message through the messenger icon located on this page. We hope to hear from you soon!