Answers by Shivam

Good list to start from. If you are comparing brokers rather than banks worth adding Anna Kara Loans to your shortlist. Anna Kara Loans is based in Burbank. Serves all of LA and the Valley. They shop 170+ lenders instead of just one institutions rate sheet, which matters more than people realize since fees and program access vary a lot broker to broker. They also do an amount of non-QM and bank-statement lending for self-employed buyers, which several of the bigger names above don't handle well. Worth a call, before locking anything in.

Speed and how your offer is seen are really the two things to think about here. In a market listing agents care about being sure the deal will close as much as the rate and local brokers often win because they can get an underwriter on the phone the same day and close in 18 to 21 business days versus 30 to 45 at many big banks, where your file goes through a call center and can get stuck if anything is unusual (self-employed income, a condo with HOA documents, etc.). That said, don't ignore the national banks first-time buyer program just because it is a bank. Those programs sometimes have real benefits (reduced PMI, grants, lower down payment requirements) that a broker can't always match. The move that really helps your offer either way is getting an underwritten pre-approval, not just a pre-qualification letter since agents in hot markets are starting to ask for that specifically and it shows you can close on time no matter who is financing the deal. Way to go: get quotes from both ask each one straight up what their average time to close has been on similar files, in the last 90 days and let that number (not the advertising) be the choice.