Good experience with big bank

[Liwen Gu]

I hear all the time from investors and real estate agents to stay away from the big banks and go with local lenders, and I just want to share my own personal experience that contradicts that advice.

First of all, some background information: I was a Canadian citizen working in the US since 2009 under a H1B visa, and I had built good credit and had a good stable income. I made an offer on a house with 40% down payment.

When I was looking for my first investment property in Denver back in 2012, I was working part time in the US and part time in Canada. I had no permanent residential address in the US. The agent I was working with to purchase the property recommended his wife as the loan officer at a local bank (she had a good reputation and another coworker of mine had a good experience with her). I paid the $500 appraisal fee and thought everything was good until she told me that the bank rejected my mortgage because of my residency issue. I lost the $500 appraisal fee and was forced to extend my closing date, which the seller wasn't happy about and I had to pay an additional $1000 to cover their costs for a later than expected close or else I was about to lose the house. I also went to another local lender and she told me right away that they could not do the loan. I worked with a 3rd local lender and while he was able to do the loan, he requested for a lot of documentation and made it sound like he was really going out of his way to make this happen for me. Finally, I decided that it was getting ridiculous and contacted Wells Fargo instead. Surprisingly, Wells Fargo was able to give me a 3% loan with 30 day close and no hassle at all. Plus I think they offered a lower interest rate than the local lenders.  I was extremely happy with the service that Wells provided me, and I've used them for my primary residence and 2nd investment property since. 

I know my situation was probably different than the average person out there trying to qualify for a loan, but I thought I'd share my good experience with a big bank to give everyone a different perspective. I'm now a permanent resident so I could probably work with a local lender now, but I'm not sure if I want to because of the bad experience I've had with them. I've never heard an agent or anyone recommend going with a big bank but in my case, the big bank was much easier to work with than the local lenders. Anyway, I hope this is useful information for anyone who is in a similar situation or an agent working with someone in a similar situation!

Please note that I have no financial interest in Wells Fargo, it was just the bank I went to because I had a personal checking account with them. I believe I could have gone to any of the big national banks at the time and had gotten the loan. I think the key was finding a big enough bank with enough international exposure that wasn't afraid of me leaving the country and abandoning the house.