A Millennial’s Home-Buying (and Mortgage) Journey

At Celent we take a very customer-centric view of the banking experience. My husband and I recently relocated and bought a new house. As first-time home buyers, we were nervous about the biggest purchase of our lives. Where do we start? How much will it cost? How do we know what type of loan is right for us? Before I start, there a few things you should know about us.

1. We’re millennials, for better or for worse.
2. Like most millennials, we are fans of online/mobile banking and rarely step inside a branch. In the last few years, I’ve only been to a bank branch a handful of times.
3. We both have very good credit (mid 700s) and had enough saved up to put 20% down to avoid PMI. Anyone else who has gone through this process knows that these factors can strongly impact which lenders will approve your loan. So even though this was our first major loan, we were considered relatively low-risk.
4. We have a fee-only financial advisor who I’ve been using for the last 10 years.

One piece of advice from my financial advisor that stuck with me was, “As tempting as it is, don’t just go with the lowest advertised rate you see on the side pane of Zillow.” He warned me that interest rates are only one of several factors to consider when shopping for a mortgage and that those ads are only giving you one piece of the puzzle. This advice stuck with me because that’s exactly how I had been shopping for mortgages! Clearly, I had no idea what I was doing.

As I got further into my shopping experience I quickly learned that those low advertised rates obnoxiously flashing in a pop-up window were rarely the rates you were actually quoted. This is especially true if you are young and a first-time mortgage customer. In fact, some of the actual rates I was quoted were almost double the advertised rate. Many other lenders just simply never got back to me or made it difficult to reach a live representative.

One of the things I valued most was customer service, including the ability to talk to someone without going through a million different menu options only to be put on hold for 20 minutes. Like many others in my age group, I don’t like talking on the phone; I prefer communicating via email and text. This, though, felt different. I felt like I needed much more handholding and someone to explain all of the legal jargon in this daunting process.

My financial advisor suggested I reach out to Wells Fargo since many of his other clients have had pleasant experiences with them. I took his advice and requested an application for a Wells Fargo mortgage, and I received a phone call the next day from one of their home mortgage consultants. Right away, I noticed he had a kind and personable demeanor, and about 15 minutes later, I was preapproved for a loan. During our conversation, he explained how the mortgage process worked and introduced me to this handy online tool they call yourLoanTracker.

Figure 1: yourLoanTracker Homepage

Source: Wells Fargo

Basically, it tracks the loan’s progress and acts as a portal for everything related to the loan: documents, disclosures, contact information, due dates, etc. If there was something I needed to sign, I could digitally sign the document via the portal. The mobile app was another feature that I found somewhat helpful, but was mostly there just to provide an easy way of seeing the loan’s progress on the go. There was also the option to receive text and email alerts when I had a new “task” on my to-do list and to remind me of approaching due dates.

Figure 2: Mobile Alerts and Apps

Source: Wells Fargo mobile app

A few “closing” remarks (no pun intended!):

• We were not and still are not Wells Fargo banking customers, and aside from recommending a few products during our initial conversation, I appreciated that we were never aggressively cross-sold or pushed to open a checking account.
• About 75% of the entire process was done digitally. We never visited a branch or talked to anyone in person; everything was done either digitally or over the phone. While some may prefer in-person visits, I found that phone conversations were more than sufficed.
• After closing, our consultant called to ask how everything went and if we were happy with our experience (a nice personal touch).
• Our actual interest rate was only two-tenths of a percent higher than what was advertised, and they were up front about all fees. In fact, we paid less in closing costs than what they initially quoted us.
• We closed on time, just under eight weeks after being preapproved.

While Wells Fargo didn’t have the lowest rates, the combination of digital tools and customer service was worth the slightly higher rate. Yes, simple touches like customer service and communication are valued even among millennials, particularly when they’re going through something new and complicated! Shocking, right?