Frequently Asked Questions

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No! If service retention is an important loan feature for you, Community Lending Solutions can place you with a lender that intends to hold on to its servicing rights of your loan. Further, you have the option of listing us as an authorized representative for your loan in perpetuity, so we can help you directly with your loan at any time, whether it's been a month or decade since you opened it. We're always happy to help our customers throughout the entire life of their loan, and afterwards, no matter the reason.

In the vast majority of cases, the lender we place you with provides us compensation for delivering the loan to them, while you also get the benefit of a discounted wholesale rate and costs from them. However, in certain instances (and the market), there CAN be advantages to foregoing that option and an origination fee could be paid to us out of the loan. We make sure to ask relevant questions about your financial objectives during the process to ensure you get the absolute best pricing and program for your situation.

Well, one of the primary reasons is because you traditionally get a better price that way (more on that in the next question), but there is a very important reason besides that to consider:

A single lender has its own set of guidelines, even on the same loan products (these are known as overlays). Each lender has a different appetite for risk, and impose limitations (or pricing adjustments) to their Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA guidelines. They can only offer THEIR products, and may make an offer to you on a less desirable loan product than you actually qualify for because of these overlays.

To further complicate things, there are proprietary products in the marketplace that don't get guaranteed through Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac (Conventional) or Ginnie Mae (FHA, VA, USDA, and Section 184). For example, a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) is one of these types of products. Many lenders (most, actually), don't have these products at all. There are many other loan products for investors, self-employed individuals, credit challenged individuals, etc. that also fall into this category. 

All lending institutions, whether it be a bank, direct lender, correspondent, or broker, have a fiduciary duty to provide their customer the product with the BEST terms in price and product for their situation and financial objective. HOWEVER, that duty is limited to the products they have AVAILABLE. So, for example, let's say you want to tap into your home's equity to build a new deck for $10,000, but you have a rate on your first mortgage of 2.50% Fixed with a balance of $200,000. If you went to a lender that didn't offer HELOC or second mortgage products, they would suggest you refinance that incredible first mortgage at an outstanding rate into a NEW loan at $210,000, with a much higher rate, and they would be meeting their fiduciary duty, despite knowing that it's not the best thing for you to do financially.

This limitation doesn't really apply to Community Lending Solutions, where we have access to an absolutely enormous variety of lenders and loan programs, and we pride ourselves on our extensive knowledge of all the loan products in the marketplace, and where to go to get the best product at the best price.

There are a few reasons for this:

First, origination costs are expensive for a lender. You're working with a loan officer, processor, and underwriter who each have multiple layers of management above them, and everyone has a salary that needs to be paid. Then there's an IT department, marketing, equipment, furniture, utilities, location rent, and more. When we deliver a loan to a lender, all of those costs get eliminated.

Secondly, working with us creates competition between lenders because we ultimately do the shopping for you. If you compared pricing yourself between hundreds of lenders, you might be able to achieve what we do after a lot of time, effort, and negotiating, but you'd need to know what guidelines and programs each lender has, and it would be an extraordinarily frustrating process. 

Instead, we complete all the steps in your loan and package it as a "ready to go" product, and the lenders bid for your business

Most importantly, being local makes it more personable, and that means working harder for our customers. Having worked for many large lenders over the years, I can attest that it becomes easy to be detached when your customer is just a voice over the phone or text on your screen from thousands of miles away. It also means less accountability to your customer when it becomes less personable.

However, another important reason that being local is an enormous benefit to a customer is a knowledge of local programs that can help supplement a mortgage to make it less expensive, like Ohio's Mortgage Tax Credit Program, OHFA down-payment assistance and grant programs, Communities First Ohio down payment assistance, and many other programs at the county (and even city level) that can help to make a home more affordable or make it possible to purchase. When you lend in many states, it becomes near impossible to remember every program in every place, when escrows are due, specific laws, etc.

Lastly, being independently owned and operated, Community Lending Solutions isn't subject to corporate policies or "minimum productivity expectations" for employees. We don't have set hours or meetings that take half of our day from us. We simply believe in doing business right, and providing a superior experience for our customers. You'll have my personal cell phone, and can reach me any day of the week, at any time, no matter where I am.

Feel free to call us at the office at (330) 510-1418 or my cell at (216) 338-4251. If you prefer to do things online, you can also start that way by following this link or sending an email to kmaher@communitylending.info