Very few lenders are portfolio lenders. Very few people qualify for portfolio loans. Talk to a mortgage specialist to see if you qualify.

If you have a loan which is difficult to fund because your scenario is outside of the standard underwriting guidelines, we can often look at portfolio lenders with you and negotiate for exceptions to the underwriting rules on your behalf.

Because the default risks associated with making Portfolio Loans, portfolio lenders always charge a higher interest rate to justify the higher risks. In addition to the intrinsic risks, portfolio loans, by definition, are mortgages that lenders will hold in their portfolio for the entire loan term, and cannot resell the loan to recoup their investment capitals, portfolio loan borrowers should expect to be charged higher fees.

The are also some lenders that are not considered tradional portfolio lenders, but do have some programs that are portfolio programs only. These lenders are lending money from their own portfolios and hold onto the mortgage. A couple examples would be Washington Mutual and Bank United.

World Savings is an example of a portfolio lender. They do not sell their loans to other investors or lenders.

The underwriting guidelines for a porfolio product can be far more flexible than for a loan which is being sold to a secondary investor. This flexibility can often mean that the underwriter of the portfolio program can use a much more common sense approach when evaluating things such as past credit problems, prior bankruptcies, lack of cash reserves, etc. In some portfolio programs there is no minimum credit score requirement although the borrowers use of other credit and past credit history is a determining factor in any loan program.

There are lenders available that will keep a portion of their loans as portfolio loans and sell the rest to recoup money and continue to lend. The percentage of the loans they keep depends on the investor involved and how much funding they have.

Thee really is no benifit to the comsumer to stay with a portfolio lender other then never having to change where you send your payment. In todays modern world you can pay your bill online even if the mortgage is sold to a loan servicer. So do not be afraid of you mortgage being sold and do not let a local bank use this as a scare tactic to keep you away from mortgage brokers.