Dina A on Zillow 8 months ago
06/01/2022, 01:03 AM
I will spare you all of the dad-jokes my partner and I have exchanged about how inapt Better's name is in relation to the home-buying process. The fact is that, in our experience, Better is excellent in promising and woefully lacking in delivery.
We selected Better for a thirty-day close because it was tied for the lowest rate among the lenders we researched and had slightly lower fees. Our representative was fantastic out the gate and their interface was very easy -- we uploaded all of our personal and financial documents within days. We did not hear from anyone for about two weeks and assumed that we were smooth-sailing. When we turned around and needed additional help and information relating to condo documents, we learned that our representative had changed and we often had to wait days for responses from the new representative. Our agent even resorted to calling Better's overseas offices in the middle of the night to get answers. We had thought that all issues were resolved and that we were still on pace to make our closing date until our representative was, again, changed days before closing. We later learned that the new representative was out of the office and unavailable at the time they were assigned to us. We were never told that we weren't going to be able to close on time and my partner was on the phone with a teammember until shortly before close of business on our scheduled closing date (a Friday), clarifying extremely basic closing-cost information that appeared on one of the first pages of our contract and that had already been spelled-out by the title attorney. The teammember said that he had to check something and would call right back. He never did.
The following Monday, I called first thing in the morning and spoke with a teammember, who remained hung up on the same closing-cost questions. After the title attorney repeated her clarification, we were scheduled to close later that afternoon. While at the closing table, we all waited for Better to wire the funds until, fortunately, the seller agreed to proceed and allow us to have the keys, presuming that funds were on the way. The next morning, I received a frantic email from the title attorney asking if I had heard from Better because they never funded. After a few emails, the money was finally wired later that day -- 24 hours after closing.
Though there is obviously no "ideal" borrower or "ideal" property, I would note that my partner and I are both W2 employees, were able to cover closing costs with two checking accounts, have 780+ credit scores, and have minimal debt and no student loans. If our loan was any more complicated, I'm honestly not sure if we would have been able to close with Better. From experience, Better will be competitive (though not head-and-shoulders above competitors) in terms of rate and fees, but you're really taking that saved money and buying a headache.