Guild Mortgage Review: Great for Lower Incomes or Credit Scores

Guild Mortgage is a mortgage lender offering a very wide selection of home loans. With a number of options that many other lenders don't offer, Guild is an especially good choice for first-time home buyers, low-income borrowers, and people who need down payment assistance. Also, Guild offers home loans that can be harder to find, like mortgages for manufactured homes.

Guild Mortgage also happens to have a fantastic reputation for customer satisfaction. Use our full Guild Mortgage review to learn whether Guild is the right lender for you.

This mortgage lender is a good fit for: Low- to moderate-income borrowers or first-time home buyers looking to take advantage of non-repayable down payment assistance grants and loans.

Top perks

Lots of loan options

Guild Mortgage offers more types of home loans than many other lenders. It has a wide selection of fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans. Guild Mortgage also offers:

• Conventional loans
• FHA loans
• USDA loans
• VA loans
• Jumbo loans
• Renovation loans
• Manufactured home mortgages

Plus, if you're a senior and want to access your home equity through a reverse mortgage, Guild Mortgage can help.

Bridge loan

If you are shopping for a new home and your current home is under contract but won't close soon enough for you to cover the down payment and closing costs on the home you want to buy, Guild can help you with a bridge loan. This is a short term loan to cover the down payment on the home you're buying. If you qualify for this loan, you can make an offer on your next home without a contingency related to completing the sale of your current home.

Rate lock

Guild offers a 90-day rate lock with a float down feature. You can lock in your interest rate while you shop for a home. If rates go down, Guild will lower your locked rate one time. If rates go up, you won't have to worry because your rate remains locked. You do need to have a home under contract within 45 days of locking the rate, and then you get the additional 45 days to close.

Great for first-time home buyers

With low down payment options and flexible credit requirements, many of Guild Mortgage's home loan options are designed to help first-time home buyers get into homeownership.

Down payment assistance

Guild Mortgage specializes in helping eligible borrowers get down payment assistance. Assistance comes in the form of grants or loans on a county-by-county basis.

At Guild, qualified buyers can get an FHA zero-down mortgage. The FHA home loan program requires a 3.5% down payment, but Guild will work with you to identify down payment assistance programs to cover the entire down payment.

In some cases, the down payment assistance is a forgivable loan or non-repayable grant. In others, the down payment assistance must be repaid when you sell the home or pay off the primary mortgage. Down payment assistance programs are for the home that will be your primary residence, not investment homes or second homes.

Fast closing

Guild Mortgage's Homebuyer Express 17-day Closing Guarantee ensures you can close on your loan quickly. If Guild does not close your loan within 17 days after the home is under contract, it will reimburse you $500 in closing costs. This guarantee applies to purchase loans only and has several terms and conditions -- for example, it's not available in Oregon.

Loans for manufactured homes

It's rare to find a mortgage lender with loans for manufactured homes. Guild's Fannie Mae MH Advantage® mortgage product bundles the land and manufactured home price into one loan. You'll need a FICO® Score of 620 and a 3% down payment. Not all manufactured homes qualify.

Renovation loans

You'll find both FHA 203(k) standard renovation loans and 203(k) limited renovation loans with Guild. Guild Mortgage also provides the Fannie Mae HomeStyle program for luxury improvements like financing swimming pools, energy updates, and outdoor kitchens.

Customer satisfaction

Guild enjoys a very good reputation. In the most recent J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys, Guild Mortgage placed in the top three for mortgage origination and in the top 10 for mortgage servicing.

No application or pre-approval fees

Guild Mortgage does not charge any fees unless the loan closes. There is no application fee or pre-approval fee. In most cases, Guild Mortgage does not charge an origination fee unless the mortgage is for a housing finance program. There are other fees associated with the loan, though.

What could be improved

Rate and fee transparency

Guild does not publish details on its rates and fees online. You'll have to talk to a loan officer or start your loan application to access Guild's rates.

No HELOC or home equity loans

For some borrowers, a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or home equity loan is a smart alternative to a cash-out refinance. But you'll have to look elsewhere for those options.

Not nationwide

Guild Mortgage does not make loans in New York, New Jersey, or the District of Columbia at this time.

Citi Mortgage has a wide range of loan options, as well as home equity loans and home equity lines of credit. Citi gets high marks for customer satisfaction and also has special low down payment mortgage loan options.

Consider Wells Fargo Mortgage if you want to be able to talk to someone face to face. Wells Fargo has a physical presence nearly everywhere in the U.S., with more than 5,400 branches. With competitive rates, it's also one of the largest lenders in the country.

You can apply for a Guild Mortgage anywhere in the U.S. except New Jersey, New York, or the District of Columbia.

Because Guild offers such a wide range of mortgage loan options, there are no hard-and-fast rules on how to qualify. One of Guild's loan officers will explain which loan product might be right for your situation.

Here are some general guidelines you can follow for a Guild Mortgage loan:

Credit score. For a Guild conventional loan, you'll need a FICO® Score of at least 620. For an FHA loan, you need a credit score of at least 580, unless you can make at least a 10% down payment. If so, Guild may approve your application with a score as low as 540. VA loan lenders have no minimum credit score requirements.

Debt-to-income ratio limit. For most loans, the debt-to-income (DTI) ratio limit at Guild Mortgage is 45%. The underwriting department may allow a higher DTI for FHA loans if you have strong compensating factors, such as a high credit score or large down payment.

Down payment and closing cost requirements. VA and USDA mortgages don't have down payment requirements. For all other home loans at Guild, you need at least 3%, though you might be able to qualify for down payment assistance. You may also need cash for closing, as closing costs cannot be rolled into all loans.

Mortgage process. Guild has a paperless digital mortgage application process. You can import the required asset account statements from most bank accounts. Other documents can be uploaded. The application interface is easy to use and walks you through step by step.

Guild Mortgage doesn't publish its mortgage refinance rates. You'll have to apply online or contact the company by phone if you want to find out what its current refinance rates are. When we checked, we found that Guild's rates were right on par with the national average.

Guild Mortgage's mortgage rates trend about the same as the national average. Rates are not published online, so you won't be able to play around with options while you do your preliminary research.

If you'd like to take advantage of non-repayable down payment assistance grants and loans, talk to Guild Mortgage. It isn't the only mortgage lender that can help, but it has chosen to specialize in supporting low- and moderate-income borrowers. The Guild Mortgage team are experts in navigating the down payment assistance process.