We bought our first house a few months ago. I picked
Etrade as our mortgage company. The ability to see all their rates and fees upfront made the difference. They have a huge selection of lending options we picked a 7/1ARM because we planned on paying off the house before the ARM even kicked in. (
Damn, rates are .875% less than when we got ours.) I was also able to choose my own closing company. This turned out better than I expected since they waived their typical closing fees because they wanted to establish the relationship with Etrade. I was a bit disappointed with Etrade's service. As a first time buyer, I had hoped for more help from the lender. I wound up taking a crash course in lending, and found myself on the phone constantly to make sure things were getting done. Their estimate for closing costs doubled before the deal was finally closed. It was a very different experience with Roseann at
CFacts (the closing company.) She wound up working late, and even came in on her vacation day to make it happen.
Recently Etrade sold the mortgage to
GMAC Mortage (before we even made our first payment.) This was nice, as they have a very modern customer service website. I got to put it to the test yesterday when I had a question about our county taxes. They have the option of a Live Chat with a customer service rep. Even though I had used talk way back in '91 to chat online, I was still a bit uncomfortable using it to discuss my mortgage. Was I expected to type in 733t? It actually worked pretty well (no problems with Mozilla either.) My question was answered in short order. Still it felt weird... I hate the phone, but I think I might have been more comfortable calling. I kept expecting to see "Tell me more about your mother" ala
Eliza.