Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

The Good

• Specific programs for union members, first time home buyers, etc.
• Has maintained a dominant position in mortgage lending for over two decades.
• Offers home equity lines of credit and government loans

Wells Fargo finances one of every eight home loans in the USA!  That’s a lot of homes.  Wells Fargo offers pretty much every loan product you could imagine – FHA, VA, adjustable rates, fixed rate, etc.  It also offers home equity lines of credit and government loans from entities such as Department of Veteran Affairs, Agriculture, and Department of Agriculture.  They are also one of the largest lenders for jumbo loans, which is a loan above about $500,000 (depending on where you live) and requires 20% down payment.

Wells Fargo offers renovation loans where financing depends highly on the property value post-home improvement, as well as new home constructions.

As part of its special mortgage program, special benefits are given out to eligible union members.  Fargo’s unique Union plus Mortgage program has been made available to more than 59 international and national labor unions along with 30,000 odd local unions. Participants to the program were entitled to a USD 500 cash reward for the purchase of a loan and a further USD 300 cash price for a refinance.  In case an applicant gets unemployed, disabled or in case of a union strike, they are eligible for a grant coupled with an interest-free loan to repay your mortgage amount.

Fargo’s First Mortgage offers down payments which can be as low as 3% in case of fixed-rate mortgages, homebuyer education incentives and finally, expanded credit criteria.

The Bad

Mortgage loan applications are not accepted online

• Bad press and government action have left the company fighting for its reputation

One of the major drawbacks of Well Fargo’s mortgages services is its limitation on online applications. Prequalification and mortgage applications aren’t available online. This is somewhat amazing to us considering the massive volume it does, and the superior websites and much smaller organizations.  Despite the official website offering a host of educational videos, affordability tools, and mortgage rates, it’s all that you can do online.

Despite Wells Fargo offering one of the widest array of products in the business, they have dealt recently with a lot of negative press.  In May 2018, Wells Fargo was required to pay $97 million to California workers who weren’t paid appropriately when they were on break.  Around the same time, Wells Fargo was hit with a $142 million court-ordered payment due to employees creating fictitious savings, checking and lines of credit accounts to increase their own compensation.  This was unrelated to the mortgage division, but the abundance of internal issues has certainly deteriorated the overall reputation of the bank.

The Summary

The strength of Wells Fargo is that if they can find a mortgage loan product for just about any situation.  We think they are particularly strong in the jumbo mortgage, high-priced arena, but there lack of an self-service website may turn off some borrowers shopping for a jumbo loan.  Conversely, they are also strong for fist-time home buyers and those looking for government loans or special programs.