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Hawaii Lending and Hawaii Lenders

If you are buying property is Hawaii, it's a good idea to use a Hawaii lender. Hawaii lenders are familiar with the nuances of Hawaii lending and Hawaii escrows. Many times, the consequence of using an out of state lender is, your property does not close escrow, and you end up wasting a lot of time and money. At the minimum, use a lender who has successfully completed several Hawaii loans.

There are generally three different types of lenders:

A Retail or Correspondent lender is lending direct to the borrower with their money and no middle man. They make their own underwriting decisions and often offer in-house products and competitive prices that are not always available to Mortgage Brokers or Wholesale lenders. Retail and Correspondent lenders often have on-island underwriting, docs and funding which gives the loan officer and the borrower total control over the loan process. This can be an advantage in many circumstances. However, they are also usually only allowed to offer their products/programs. This can be a disadvantage is some circumstances.

A Wholesaler or Mortgage Broker has the ability to "shop" a mortgage around. This means they sometimes have access to a different variety of programs and not just one lender's product. This is an advantage. They also give up a bit of the control as the loan often gets sent to another part of the country where the final lender is and they are now subject to someone else's time frames. This can sometimes be a disadvantage.

There are pros and cons to all 3 types of lenders. A Retail lender usually has a fair amount of product and offers competitive pricing but they are limited to only their banks products. A Mortgage Broker can sometimes find niche products for hard to place loans because of the many different lenders but can have issues with timing. Correspondent lenders have the best of both worlds, with all the choices of a Broker but the control of a Retail lender. They are subject to restrictions as well, and usually the Correspondent has limitations as to what they can approve in house.

A list of Hawaii lenders is available upon request.