More Types of Lenders

Hard Money Lenders

If you can’t qualify through a portfolio lender, a hard money lender may be your option of last resort. Hard money lenders tend to be private individuals with money to lend, though they may be set up as business operations. Interest rates tend to be quite high – 12 percent is not uncommon – and down payments may be 30 percent and above. Hard money lenders are typically used for short-term loans that are expected to be repaid quickly, such as for investment property, rather than long-term amortizing loans Middletown for a home purchase.

Direct Lenders

Another term you may encounter is “direct lender.” A direct lender simply means a lender that originates its own home loans Middletown – either with its own funds or borrowed funds. It can therefore be either a mortgage banker or portfolio lender. It does not, therefore, act as an agent for a wholesale lender. Direct lenders are inevitably retail lenders as well, because they do not involve third parties or middlemen in making loans to consumers.

Correspondent Lenders

A final term you may hear is “correspondent lender.” Whereas some types of lenders are distinguished by the process leading up to the loan, correspondent lenders are defined by what happens after the loan is issued. Correspondent lenders work with an investor, called a sponsor, who purchases any mortgages they make that meet certain criteria.

Correspondent lenders earn their money by collecting a point or two when the mortgage is issued. Immediately selling the loan to a sponsor pretty much guarantees they’ll make money, since the correspondent no longer carries the risk for a default. However, the sponsor may decline the loan if it turns out not to meet the sponsor’s standards, in which case the correspondent must either find another investor or carry the loan itself.

Again, these terms are not always exclusive, but instead generally describe types of mortgage functions that various lenders may perform, sometimes at the same time. But understanding what each of these does can be a great help in understanding how the mortgage process Middletown works and form a basis for evaluating mortgage offers.