Rachael McGurr

Quick and helpful service, they are experienced and know what they’re doing and we will definitely use them again!

Great user flow with steps that are easy to track and check off.

Excellent jumbo rates (crazy good, actually - crushed the rest of the market), reasonable service. Can be difficult to get a hold of sometimes as they are getting used to a new interface system and there is no in-person component. Perfect choice for me who knows far more than the average individual about these types of deals, but might be a little bit more challenging for someone who needs significant help / education for their first-time experience. Would be worth it numbers-wise just for the rates alone (and the fact that they service their own loans! Woo!), but the accessibility portion for newcomers to the home loan process is worth thinking about. It you've never bought a house before and have little/no experience in financial / real estate matters, having an in-person relationship can help make a daunting process more manageable... so perhaps consider someone with a local presence that *also* services their own loans (like a credit union-type deal) even though you will clearly not get similar rates. I can't emphasize enough how big a plus the same-entity servicing is! Don't discount it. All of that said, literally everyone I worked with at Ally was fabulous and it was a great fit for us given that this is decidedly not my first rodeo.

The initial part of the process was very easy and straight forward. The mortgage terms and fees were very transparent and laid out. Closing was a little more difficult and a little less transparent. Not sure if it was due to the overwhelming demand and market, but it was hard to times to get a timely response during closing.

While I've happily had Ally as my bank for the past seven years, I couldn't have been less impressed by their home lending process. The Ally lending product appears to just be white-labeled better.com, so it's unclear if the problems are on Ally's side or better.com's. Either way, their communication is simultaneously lacking and confusing and they appear to be incapable of understanding foreign income. I would advise steering clear until they work through their many issues.

We are very happy with our experience with Ally Home Loans. They have great online tools and made it easy to monitor rates so we could choose the right time to lock in. They also have a great system for allowing you to view tasks, and they were quick and responsive. All the people we worked with were very polite and professional. The reason we are giving 9 instead of 10 is because of they are not open on weekends, which made it difficult when we needed to get in touch with someone about a task.

Completely online everything ran smoothtly

Lack of response and guidance by Rachael. She wouldn't respond to questions and never once contacted me directly. Yet she was listed as my main contact. They messed up my closing costs after I had already confirmed and wired the money with less than 24 hours to go. They asked MY lawyer for advice about the proper closing costs. And finally, they made my closing last several hours because they want to do it their own way. I will avoid them next time.