If you’re looking for a brighter, happier mortgage experience, you may want to turn to SOL Mortgage for your home loan needs.
The company says it’s led by a team of “dedicated career lending professionals” who are tired of hearing about bad mortgage experiences.
Their mission is to provide you with a warm and illuminating home loan journey, kind of like lying in the sand at the beach on a sunny day, except probably not that good. It is a mortgage after all.
Anyway, they say they can achieve that vision by making your mortgage fast, convenient, and transparent, with the backing of expert guidance and exceptional customer service.
Let’s learn more to see if SOL Mortgage could be a good choice for you.
SOL Mortgage Fast Facts
- Direct mortgage lender that offers home purchase and refinance loans
- Founded in 2018, located in Santa Ana, California
- A dba of parent company JMAC Lending, Inc.
- Licensed to do business in 26 states including Hawaii
- Staff also speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese
SOL Mortgage is a direct-to-consumer mortgage lender located in Santa Ana, California (which isn’t too far from Disneyland) that offers home purchase financing and refinance loans.
While it might not be as fun as visiting the Magic Kingdom, they do aim to make the mortgage experience as bright as possible.
The company was launched just a few years ago, and is actually a dba of JMAC Lending, Inc., which has been around since 2007.
SOL Mortgage appears to be the online lender division of the company, meaning you’ll be working with a loan officer and processor remotely to close your mortgage.
One helpful feature is their staff speak a variety of languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
At the moment, SOL Mortgage is licensed to do business in 26 states, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.
How to Apply with SOL Mortgage
- You can either call them up directly or visit their website for a free rate quote
- Those who are ready can simply click on “Apply” to start the home loan process
- Their digital mortgage application is powered by fintech company Maxwell
- All loan processing is handled at their secure office in Santa Ana, CA
To get started with SOL Mortgage, you can either call them up directly or visit their website.
If you do the latter, you’ll have the option of requesting a rate quote or applying online directly from their website.
You should certainly speak to a loan officer first to discuss loan pricing and eligibility to avoid wasting your time.
Once you are ready to apply, they say SOL-long to the paperwork and hello speed and convenience.
To accomplish this, they use a digital mortgage application powered by fintech company Maxwell that lets you complete as many tasks as possible electronically.
This means you should be able to link your bank account and employment information, scan/upload paperwork, eSign disclosures, and track your loan progress from start to finish via the online borrower portal.
They’re also big on personal security, with two factor authentication an option on your loan application, and all loan processing takes place in the United States at their secure building in Santa Ana, CA.
All in all, their mission is to make it both quick and easy to apply for a mortgage and actually fund the thing too!
Loan Programs Offered by SOL Mortgage
- Home purchase loans
- Refinance loans: rate and term, cash out, and streamline
- Conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
- Jumbo loans up to $2.5 million loan amounts
- FHA loans
- VA loans
- Available on primary, second, and investment properties (1-4 units)
- Both fixed-rate and adjustable-rate options are available
SOL Mortgage offers a wide array of loan programs, including home purchase loans and refinance loans.
Existing homeowners can get a rate and term refinance, cash out refinance, or a streamline refinance.
They are an approved Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae seller/servicer, meaning you can get a conforming loan, FHA loan, or VA loan. The only major loan type missing appears to be USDA loans.
However, they also offer jumbo home loans as high as $2.5 million, along with VA loans as high as $1 million.
Their mortgages are available on single family homes, condos/townhomes, PUDs, and multi-unit residential properties (2-4 units), including second homes and investment properties.
They also offer all the first-time home buyer and low down payment options such as Fannie Mae HomeReady, and Freddie Mac Home Possible and Home One.
And they make loans for Foreign Nationals and non-permanent residents with acceptable visas.
SOL Mortgage Rates
One area where SOL Mortgage could be more transparent is in the pricing department.
They don’t mention their mortgage rates or lender fees on their website, other than saying “great rates.”
As such, you’ll need to speak with a loan officer to get pricing and then compare their quote to other lenders to ensure they’re competitive.
One hint we have about their interest rates comes via their placement in mortgage comparison tables such as the one over at Bankrate.
From what I saw, they were offering one of the lower rates in the table, but perhaps not the lowest of those listed.
With regard to lender fees, they appear to charge a $995 flat underwriting fee and no loan origination fee.
Be sure to compare their mortgage APR (which factors in lender fees) to other mortgage companies when doing your mortgage rate shopping.
SOL Mortgage Reviews
On Bankrate, SOL Mortgage has a most excellent rating of 4.9 out of a possible 5 from nearly 100 customer reviews.
The majority are perfect 5-star ratings, and someone recently even referred to the process as a “delightful experience.”
At LendingTree, they have a perfect 5-star rating from about 75 reviews and a 99% recommended rating, meaning nearly all of their past customers would endorse them.
Over at Zillow, they’ve got a 4.82-star rating out of 5 from about 70 reviews, which is equally on point from a customer satisfaction point of view.
And at Yelp, it’s a similar 4.5-star rating from more than 40 reviews.
Their parent company JMAC Lending isn’t an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau, but does have an ‘A-’ rating based on customer complaint history.
SOL Mortgage Pros and Cons
The Good Things
- You can apply for a mortgage directly from their website in minutes
- They offer a digital home loan experience powered by Maxwell
- Lots of loan programs to choose from including jumbos and first-time home buyer loans
- Excellent reviews from past customers across all major ratings websites
- Parent company has an A- BBB rating
The Maybe Bad
- No mention of mortgage rates or lender fees
- They don’t service your loan
- Not licensed in all states
- Do not offer USDA loans
(photo: Markus Trienke)