Countrywide
Countrywide Financial was founded in 1969 in Calabasas, California and is primarily engaged in providing financial services in residential mortgage banking sector. Countrywide Financial has; mortgage banking, insurance, and loan closing services and banking.
Countrywide mortgage is one of the best known names in the mortgage industry. Countrywide bank deals primarily in financing mortgage loans and countrywide mortgage is the mortgage services provider. Countrywide mortgage has the largest mortgage customer base in USA and in 2006 twenty percent of mortgage holders in USA had been financed by Countrywide. Countrywide offers refinance, home equity, home purchase, reverse mortgage and multi-family and commercial loans. They also provide consultation to low credit score people regarding mortgaging.
Today countrywide mortgages are the leading home mortgage company in USA and they are reputed as one of the best mortgage providers in the country. They also offer free education to home owners and educate them on different types of mortgages and equity and refinancing. Their reverse mortgage is for senior citizens and they educate the senior citizens about reverse mortgage and its benefits. Countrywide provides all the services that most leading mortgage companies do and they also have a web site. People who visit their web site can also learn about the different types of mortgages that are offered and can also sign up for a free consultation. They have their toll free number right on top of their web page and anyone can call and get free consultations regarding mortgaging from them. One can also send them an email. They have call centers who contact potential customers or those who are looking for a second mortgage, home equity loans or debt consolidation. Countrywide home loans California is well known to most home owners in California as most of them are Countrywide’s customers.
Countrywide home mortgage and countrywide loans are not only well known in California but all across the states and they spend heavily on advertising and promotion. Countrywide has three primary functions which are; producing loan, servicing loans and closing loans. In producing loans the focus is on selling mortgages directly and through appointed mortgage brokers and also purchasing mortgage loans that have been sold by other vendors. The loan servicing division is responsible for collecting loan installments and if countrywide has sold the loans to the secondary market they pass the installments on to the buyers. In loan closing they assist the customer in getting property appraisals.
Countrywide also entered into a joint venture in UK with Woolwich plc and formed Global Home Loans. They provide loan processing and mortgage loan services in UK. Barclay’s took over Woolwich and for some time the relationship between Countrywide and Barclay flourished till Barclay decided to pull out and countrywide acquired their share in GHL. Countrywide also has other operations in UK and provide online home appraisal to UK home owners.
Countrywide claims to be the number one home loan provider in USA and they are very proud of the level of service that they provide to their customers. Their main business area continues to be California although they operate in virtually all the states of USA. Some customers do claim that they have not received the level of service that they expected to get from a company like Countrywide and most of these complaints are generated by customers who took a mortgage with another lender and the mortgage was then acquired by Countrywide mortgage company. However any company that has over 20% of the total home owners of USA as their customers are bound to have complaints from some customers.
Countrywide mortgage do not put any cap on the amount of mortgage loan that one can take and they do cater for all large, medium and small size home mortgages. They have a preference to providing home mortgage loans to single family residences.
