Wells Fargo: Is Wells Fargo a good bank to buy a home with?

Wells Fargo has many great mortgage products but their customer satisfaction rates show that they leave a lot to be desired. 

Table of Contents:

Is Wells Fargo a good place to get a home loan?

What credit score is needed to buy a house through Wells Fargo?

Is it hard to get a Wells Fargo mortgage?

How long does it take Wells Fargo to approve a mortgage?

Does Wells Fargo use FICO 9?

Which FICO score does Wells Fargo use?

Why did Wells Fargo sell my mortgage to portfolio servicing?

Does Wells Fargo offer conventional loans?

How long does Wells Fargo underwriting take?

Does Wells Fargo have pre-approval?

Does Wells Fargo allow mortgage recasting?

Is Wells Fargo closing home equity loans?

How long does a Wells Fargo pre-approval last?

How do I pay off my Wells Fargo Mortgage?

Can I pay off my Wells Fargo mortgage at a branch?

How much is a Wells Fargo home appraisal?

What does conditionally approved mean Wells Fargo?

Is Wells Fargo a good place to get a home loan?

Wells Fargo is not as reputable as some of the other mortgage lending companies. This is because in general customer satisfaction surveys have shown that it tends to score far lower than the average satisfaction rate in the industry. Even on Trustpilot, the company’s reviews rank it as bad because of all of the dissatisfied customers. With that in mind, there are certain reasons why one may still choose to go with Wells Fargo for their mortgage. 

1. Minimum borrower requirements 

Wells Fargo tends to have reasonable requirements from its borrowers. While they require a 620-credit score, which does tend to be the average requirement for conventional loans, they do offer the option to customers to provide them with alternative credit data and information. This could include utility bills and rental payments.

2. Debt-to-income ratio

Depending on the loan that you are applying for Wells Fargo has many different maximum debt-to-income ratio variabilities. This could help you qualify for the perfect loan for your needs much faster.

3. “Dream. Plan. Home.” Program

The “Dream. Plan. Home.” Program set forth by Wells Fargo is quite innovative in that it only requires a 3% down payment for a fixed-rate mortgage. This applies to buyers whose combined qualifying income is at 80 percent or below of the area median family income.

4. Variety of mortgage products

Offers a wide range of mortgages and loans depending on the applicant’s credit score and history. The selection includes:

• Conventional
• Jumbo
• Government programs and loans including FHA, VA, and USDA
• Fixed-rate
• Adjustable-rate
• Rate-and-term and cash-out refinancing
• Construction loans
• Investment property loans

5. Mortgage rates transparency 

One of the biggest advantages of going with Wells Fargo is that they are very transparent about their mortgage rates. They make sure to have all the Wells Fargo mortgage rates available to view online. This means that you can know what to expect before you ever enter your local branch. 

6. Extensive branch network

If you are interested in banking with a company that has an extensive branch network then Wells Fargo may be the best option for you, as they have many local branches available. 

What credit score is needed to buy a house through Wells Fargo?

To apply for a mortgage with Wells Fargo you will need to have a minimum credit score of 620, however, Wells Fargo is willing to discuss alternative credit documents, so you may have a chance of getting a loan with them even without that 620-credit score. 

Is it hard to get a Wells Fargo mortgage?

The Wells Fargo process for getting a mortgage or getting a mortgage pre-approval has often been noted to be quite complicated. This could result in it being harder for you to get approved for a mortgage as you will need to take extra steps to file the application properly. Wells Fargo does not appear to have any specific mortgage requirements, such as an extremely high credit score, which could make it much harder for you to get a mortgage, so it is only a matter of sorting through their process. 

How long does it take Wells Fargo to approve a mortgage?         

In general, according to the timeline provided by Wells Fargo, it could take between 30 and 90 days for you to get approved for a mortgage. This timeline can be seen as a bit long, especially when compared to some other financial institutions, however, if you are already banking with Wells Fargo or taking advantage of their alternative credit score documentation options then the wait may be well worth it as you could end up getting a better loan than you would have gotten elsewhere. 

Does Wells Fargo use FICO 9?

Wells Fargo does use FICO 9 for some of the credit decisions that they make, however that is not the only credit score option that they use or that they make available to customers. Therefore, depending on the files that you present when applying for your mortgage, FICO 9 could be more or less important in Wells Fargo’s decision-making. 

Which FICO score does Wells Fargo use?

Wells Fargo uses a variety of credit score options, however, they do use FICO Score 9 to make certain credit decisions. As a customer, you should know that while this is typical for mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo does provide alternative options and they often look at your financial portfolio as a whole before making any decisions. 

Why did Wells Fargo sell my mortgage to portfolio servicing?

There are many reasons why Wells Fargo may opt to sell a mortgage and not all of them are necessarily bad. For many mortgage companies, selling their mortgages is a way of ensuring constant liquidity and making sure that they are able to originate even more loans. For this reason, they will often sell their mortgages to a servicing company that will then be responsible for the administrative tasks associated with your mortgage. They will also be the ones you will mainly repay. 

Some sources have also noted that Wells Fargo and other banking institutions and mortgage lenders will sell a mortgage to a portfolio servicing company when that loan becomes delinquent. This means that it is a loan that may end up being foreclosed on. For mortgage lenders having foreclosures associated with their brand is not a positive and as such in those cases they will choose to sell the mortgage to a portfolio servicing company so as to avoid the bad reputation that could come from the foreclosure. 

Does Wells Fargo offer conventional loans?

Wells Fargo offers several mortgage products including conventional loans. What is a bit unique about their conventional loans, is that they have a mortgage option for a conventional fixed-rate mortgage that requires only a 3% down payment. This product can really easily be utilized by those who are looking to purchase a home but come from a lower-income background. All of the Wells Fargo mortgage rates are available on their website. 

How long does Wells Fargo underwriting take?

Wells Fargo does not disclose the exact time that underwriting, that is the process of verifying your assets will take. Instead, they only note that the general timeframe for mortgage approval is between 30 and 90 days. 

Does Wells Fargo have pre-approval?

Wells Fargo does offer pre-approval for buyers looking for their new homes. Their preapproval procedure can be completed either in a branch or online through their website. This makes it really easy for buyers who want to strengthen their offer for a home to have that extra document that verifies their validity as a buyer.  

Does Wells Fargo allow mortgage recasting?

Wells Fargo does allow for mortgage recasting on some of their products but not most. In general, most often refinancing is the best option for homeowners, and as such refinancing products are much more popular than recasting products are. Because of this Wells Fargo offers more refinancing options and has the rates for refinancing available on their website. 

Is Wells Fargo closing home equity loans?

Wells Fargo has made its home equity loans unavailable for the time being. While they have not mentioned this to be a final closure, it is fairly clear that under the current market circumstances they are not willing to offer home equity loans. 

How long does a Wells Fargo pre-approval last?                 

While Wells Fargo does not note how long the pre-approval is good for in most banks a pre-approval letter remains valid for around 90 days, so it is safe to assume that Wells Fargo uses a similar timeline. When you get pre-approved for a mortgage, they should inform you about the specific timeline that your approval is valid for. 

How do I pay off my Wells Fargo Mortgage?

Paying off your Wells Fargo Mortgage should be relatively easy and the main reason for this is that they offer five separate repayment options that make it faster for you to make your monthly mortgage payment. Notably, for mortgage payments, you can either: 

• Pay Online using their web banking option
• Set up an automatic payment, this will withdraw money from your account at a specific time each month
• You can pay by mailing them your statement and cheque 
• You can pay over the phone
• You can pay by visiting your local branch

Can I pay off my Wells Fargo mortgage at a branch?

Yes, you can visit any of the Wells Fargo branches to make a payment for your mortgage. 

How much is a Wells Fargo home appraisal?

The normal cost for a home appraisal which is usually completed as part of the closing services is between $200 and $500. While Wells Fargo does not disclose the exact amount that their service providers charge for home appraisals, it is safe to assume that it will probably be somewhere within the appraisal average cost. According to some sources, the appraisal closing fees for Wells Fargo are around $515, but that is not verified on the Wells Fargo website. This can be something that you discuss with them from the start so that you can have a clearer idea of what the cost of the Wells Fargo appraisal service will be. 

What does conditionally approved mean Wells Fargo?

While most people are kind of familiar with the concept of pre-approval not as many people are actually familiar with the process of getting approved. As such the term conditionally approved is one that they may not have come across before. Normally, pre-approval means that the lender has verified most of the information that you have provided and they have run a credit check. Still, while the information provided is verified and approved an underwriter has not yet gone through it and as such the decision made is not final. Once an underwriter has provided their approval then your pre-approval will move on to the next stage. This is known as conditional approval. At this point, your mortgage is approved by the lender so long as you keep to all of the stipulations that were previously set forth. This is the process followed by every lender including Wells Fargo. 

• Pre-approval is not final an underwriter will still need to verify your information
• Once an underwriter has approved of your mortgage then you will have a conditional approval
• Conditional approval means that so long as you meet all the stipulations set forth by the lender you will receive a mortgage

Summary

While Wells Fargo is a big and well-known lender its reputation leaves a lot to be desired. In general, many people seem to be dissatisfied with the services offered by Wells Fargo even though some of their products are extremely competitive. In fact, Wells Fargo offers a very competitive fixed-rate conventional mortgage with a reduced down payment, that sets this lender apart from every other lender. Apart from their many products, and their customer support it is also worth noting that some of the closing costs that Wells Fargo has also appeared to be higher than the average, so that could further dissuade customers from approaching them for their mortgage.