Carrington Mortgage Services Review 2024 (2024)

• What Carrington Mortgage Services Offers
• Minimum Borrower Requirements
• What Fees Will You Pay?
• How to Apply for a Carrington Mortgage
• What to Do If You Get Turned Down
• What People Are Saying about Carrington Mortgage Services
• Methodology

Carrington Mortgage Services operates in 48 states and the District of Columbia, and its interest rates on 30-year, fixed rates conventional conforming loans are comparable to national averages.

Keep in mind that Carrington doesn’t publish its mortgage rates due to daily market changes. Instead, borrowers can get estimated rates based on their requested loan amount, down payment, income, ZIP code, and credit score.

Loan Types

Carrington provides mortgages to suit almost any need—including loans for first-time buyers as well as options for borrowers with poor or fair credit. Here are the types of fixed-rate loans available through Carrington:

• Carrington Prime Advantage
• Carrington Flexible Advantage Plus
• Carrington Flexible Advantage
• Carrington Investor Advantage
• Conventional
• Freddie Mac Super Conforming
• FHA
• FHA streamline refinance
• FHA 203(h)
• USDA
• USDA streamlined assist
• VA
• VA interest rate reduction refinance loans (IRRRL)
• VA cash-out refinance
• Fannie Mae HomeReady
• Freddie Mac Home Possible

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are also offered through Carrington, including five-, seven- or 10-year options. Keep in mind that an adjustable rate is available only on a nonqualified mortgage, which is a loan made to a borrower who doesn’t meet the typical credit or income requirements for a qualified loan.

Loan Minimum

Carrington doesn’t have a minimum loan amount. This is good news as some lenders don’t offer small mortgage loans, which can make it harder to purchase a less expensive home.

Loan Maximum

Loan maximums vary by mortgage type and borrower qualifications. The most you’ll be able to borrow through Carrington is $3.5 million. This maximum amount is available through the Carrington Prime Advantage loan, a non-qualified mortgage that allows credit scores as low as 660 and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios up to 90%.

Loan Servicing

Unlike some mortgage companies, Carrington doesn’t sell the loans it originates. So if you get a loan through Carrington, you can expect to make your payments to Carrington.

Carrington also services loans from other originators. This means that if you take out a mortgage through another company, you could still end up making payments to Carrington.

If you’re looking to purchase or refinance a home with Carrington, here are the basic eligibility criteria to expect:

Minimum Credit Score

Carrington’s minimum credit score requirements are:

• 500 for an ARM, an FHA loan or a VA loan
• 500 for a USDA loan or nonqualified mortgage
• 620 for a conventional loan or Carrington Flexible Advantage
• 660 for Carrington Prime Advantage

Minimum Down Payment

Down payment requirements for a Carrington mortgage are minimal.

• 0% for USDA and VA loans
• 3% for conventional Home Possible Advantage loans
• 5% for conventional HomePossible loans
• As little as $100 on an FHA repair escrow loan (through the Department of Housing and Development’s real estate-owned program)

Maximum Debt-to-income Ratio

Your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is the amount you owe on monthly debt payments compared to your income. You might qualify for a mortgage through Carrington with a DTI as high as 50%—even higher in some cases, according to Edward Pittman, senior vice president of communications for Carrington Mortgage Holdings.

Carrington doesn’t publish its loan fees due to the variables and special circ*mstances that can affect what fees a borrower is charged. However, with any lender, you’ll be able to evaluate the fees for your specific loan on your loan estimate before you commit.

Rate Lock Fees

With Carrington, you can lock your rate for 15, 30, 45, or 60 days; options vary by loan type. Carrington also offers a free three-day lock extension if necessary when your loan is almost ready to close. Otherwise, there’s an additional cost for a rate-lock extension, and you have to extend before your initial lock period expires.

Prepayment Penalties

Carrington doesn’t charge prepayment penalties on loans for primary residences. However, these fees could apply if you’re buying an investment property.

Monthly Fees

If you have a mortgage from Carrington, you can make your monthly payments online for free via autopay. Carrington also doesn’t charge a processing fee if you mail your payment by check or use your bank’s online bill pay service. But if you make manual payments online or through the company’s app, you’ll be charged a $5 processing fee. Phone payments cost $10.

Keep in mind that if you make a late payment, you’ll be charged a fee of 5% of principal and interest or as permitted by state law and terms of the note. Returned checks come with a fee of $7 to $50, depending on your state.

Carrington Mortgage doesn’t have an option to get quickly pre-approved online, but there is an option to begin the steps online and provide your contact information. You’ll need to work with a loan officer to complete the process.

You can connect with a loan officer by calling the company directly, searching by name or state on Carrington’s website, or getting a mortgage quote online and requesting a callback.

Approval, Underwriting and Closing Timelines

No matter what type of mortgage you apply for, you can expect to get preapproved (or declined) within 24 hours of submitting your request. Once you formally apply, the company can underwrite your loan the same day in a best-case scenario, but a more common turnaround time is 24 hours. To potentially speed up the process, you can upload application documents like bank statements and pay stubs electronically.

Carrington says it can close a streamline refinance loan in as little as 15 days. This is one of the simplest mortgages for lenders to process because it requires less documentation and fewer approvals. However, a more typical closing timeline is 42 days from the date you apply for a full-documentation loan.

Like with the application documents, you also have the option to sign your loan disclosures electronically. Carrington doesn’t yet have the capability to allow borrowers to sign their closing docs this way.

Carrington has less stringent requirements for several of its products compared to other lenders. But if you’re unable to qualify, then you’ll likely need to focus on building your credit, reducing your debt or increasing your income to increase your approval chances in the future—whether with Carrington or another lender. Keep in mind that improving these areas could also help you qualify for a better interest rate.

You might also consider applying with a co-signer or co-borrower. However, asking someone to take on a mortgage with you is a huge deal, especially if this person won’t share your home. To get an idea of what you can afford on your own, try our mortgage calculator.

It’s also a good idea to shop around and compare your options from as many mortgage lenders as possible to see where you stand. This can help you plan your next steps as well as more easily find the right loan for your needs. Note that submitting multiple mortgage applications within 45 days will have the same impact on your credit score as submitting a single application, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

As of January 2023, Carrington Mortgage Services’ Better Business Bureau (BBB) consumer review rating is 1.15 out of 5.00 stars based on an average 199 reviews. The BBB closed 173 complaints in the last 12 months and 508 complaints in the last three years.

While the BBB has not given Carrington a rating.

The CFPB’s Consumer Complaint Database shows 1,118 mortgage complaints about Carrington from January 2020 through January 2023. The most common complaints were about borrowers having trouble during the payment process or struggling to pay their mortgage. Keep in mind that the CFPB doesn’t verify the accuracy of consumers’ complaints.

While these numbers may seem high, they’re minuscule compared to the number of customers for which Carrington accepts applications, issues mortgages and services loan payments.

We graded Carrington Mortgage based on elements that have a meaningful impact on the cost of the mortgage, borrower eligibility requirements, the variety of loan options and the loan features that can impact the homebuying process. Our scoring method is based on the following categories:

• Interest rate: 20%
• Down payment requirements: 20%
• Credit score minimum requirements: 20%
• Alternative credit data considered: 10%
• Preapproval time: 10%
• Closing timelines: 10%
• Loan types: 10%
• Lender discounts offered: 5 bonus points

While there are certainly more features that lenders offer, we chose not to include these in our scoring in order to bring forward lenders that have the most competitive rates and are among the most accessible for borrowers of all financial backgrounds.

Our focus on affordability, accessibility and key features that can impact the homebuying process (like preapproval time and closing timelines) is what we consider reflective of today’s consumer’s top priorities when comparison shopping for mortgage lenders.

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