The 5 Best Chicago Mortgage Lenders for First-time Home Buyers in 2024
Achieving your homeownership dreams can be both exciting and daunting, and having a reliable and trustworthy mortgage broker by your side is absolutely essential.
Public or private, large or local, we’ve gathered all of the best Chicago mortgage lenders to make your first-time home buying experience a breeze!
“Most buyers don’t have $400,000 of their own money to buy a house...”
Chicago Financial Services
Founded in the 1990s right here in the West Town area of Chicago, CFS remains one of the best options for those looking to get into the real estate market quickly and affordably.
Their numerous locations and large staff size ensures that you can get pre-approval and financing for loans faster than you would with smaller lenders, all without sacrificing quality of service, skipping over details, or outsourcing any part of the mortgage process to third parties.
CFS may be a tad old-fashioned, with little social media presence and a dated website, but you’re unlikely to find a faster or more knowledgeable response anywhere else in Chicago.
“It didn’t matter what day of the week or time of the day, when I sent them an email, I received a response promptly.”
A&N Mortgage
A&N Mortgage may be popular with real estate brokers in the greater Chicago area, but their efforts to educate beginners in the real estate market make them an excellent choice for your first time buying a home as well. With regular panels on home investing and a veritable buffet of mortgage resources to look over, those who feel overwhelmed by the mortgage application process can finally get up to speed.
On top of being knowledgeable where it counts, A&N has some of the fastest brokers anywhere east of the Mississippi. Sometimes it all comes down to the basics in mortgage lending, and A&N is on top of it all from beginning to end.
Corby Mortgage
Buying your first home means dealing with the unexpected, something Colby Mortgage has done for the past 25 years without breaking a sweat.
From start to finish you’re in the hands of brokers who know real estate like the back of your hand, guiding you past the pitfalls and challenges of pre-approval, financing, and closing. The catch? Corby Mortgage is a small lender, and while this means better customer service it also means they’re not bringing the same level of resources as the big players to the table. Corby Mortgage also lends primarily through referrals, which means you’ll need a broker to send you their way first.
“Responding to phone calls and emails at all hours of the day, working on weekends, switching out loans a week out from our close because of changing circumstances...they made it all happen!”
Guaranteed Rate
If you’re looking for a dream team of mortgage loan officers that has large resources and a laser focus on the Chicago market, then Guaranteed Rate is the firm for you.
They’re one of the marquee mortgage lending companies in the Chicagoland area, with over 20 years of experience and enough capital to make most of the other entries on this list blush. Despite this, Guaranteed Rate has remained committed to customer service and efficiency, saving home buyers hours of their time by digitizing the tedious parts of the mortgage application process. With agents as friendly and whip-smart as Randy, who joined us in our mortgage 101 video, Guaranteed Rate offers first-timers everything they need to tackle home ownership without breaking a sweat.
Proper Rate has since joined with another major player in the real estate field, making it a subsidiary of the newly-formed real estate titan OriginPoint. This allows Proper Rate to be the best of both worlds, combining its local focus with the resources of a nationwide leader in the mortgage lending industry.
OriginPoint
There’s no question: OriginPoint reigns as king of the Chicago mortgage lending jungle–and it’s not even close.
With over $80 billion in resources and an army of real estate experts big enough to fill half of the Chicago properties listed on our website right now, OriginPoint has everything a mortgage lender could possibly need and more. Other mortgage lenders close in 30-45 days? OriginPoint can do it in one. Other mortgage lenders offer competitive rates? OriginPoint’s savings program offers rates with zero competition.
You can’t beat the best, something OriginPoint’s founders understood well when they combined the best real estate brokerage with the #1 mortgage lender in America.
Oh, and did we mention that they come with the best brokers in Chicago too?
Your Dream Home
is Waiting…
Make your homeownership dreams into a reality today by talking with our team of real estate experts…
Sources
Your first mortgage payment might not be as soon as you think! - YouTube
HIGH MORTGAGE RATES: Should You Still Buy a House in 2023? - YouTube
Mortgage 101: What you need to know to start your home buying process | Chicago Real Estate - YouTube
Worth It? - Chicago 2024 Cost of Living Analysis & Comparison — The Ben Lalez Team
2023 Vs. 2024 Q1 Housing National & Chicago-level Comparison: Time to Buy? — The Ben Lalez Team
