The Yahoo view: Newrez’s strongest features are its 45-day rate lock program, close-on-time guarantee, and 0.50% closing cost discount if you use a real estate agent through the company. However, its customer satisfaction ratings are well below average — among both lenders and mortgage servicers.
Newrez is a national mortgage company that originates loans in all 50 states and several U.S. territories. The lender offers various types of mortgage loans, including conventional, FHA, VA, and home equity loans, as well as purchase, refinance, and investment property mortgages.
Unfortunately, Newrez isn’t known for its customer service. According to 2024 J.D. Power surveys, the company ranks well below average in customer satisfaction for both mortgage origination and mortgage servicing. (Its servicing arm, Shellpoint Mortgage, also recently settled a class action lawsuit regarding illegal inspection fees.)
Read more: Best mortgage lenders for first-time home buyers
Key benefits
-
Newrez offers a wide range of loan products, including conventional, FHA, and VA loans, as well as home equity loans and investment property loans.
-
Buyers can get a closing cost credit worth 0.50% of their home’s purchase price by using a Newrez partner real estate agent.
-
The lender allows for a baseline 45-day rate lock, and if rates drop, you can re-lock at the lower rate for no extra cost. Some buyers can qualify for rate locks for up to 75 days.
-
A close-on-time guarantee will pay eligible borrowers $5,000 if your loan doesn’t close on time.
Need to know
-
Newrez doesn’t offer USDA loans, jumbo loans, or HELOCs.
-
The lender has no physical branches. You can apply online or call a loan officer over the phone to start your application.
-
The company ranks below average in customer satisfaction, both in mortgage servicing and origination.
-
According to government data, conventional loans account for the bulk of Newrez’s loan volume, followed by FHA loans.
-
The lender recently acquired Caliber Home Loans. Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing is also a part of the Newrez organization.
Visit the Newrez mortgage website to get started.
Newrez offers the following types of home loans:
Newrez does not offer:
-
USDA loans (only available through its wholesale business)
-
Jumbo loans
-
Lot loans
-
Construction loans
-
Guest house loans
-
Second home mortgages
-
Non-QM loans
-
Energy-efficient mortgages
-
Renovation loans
-
1% down loans
-
Bridge loans
-
Manufactured home loans
-
Piggyback loans
-
ITIN mortgages
-
Medical professional loans
-
HELOCs
Read more: How investment property loans work
Newrez offers FHA loans for both purchasing a home and refinancing an existing mortgage. In fact, FHA loans account for nearly 30% of the company’s total mortgage origination volume, according to 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. FHA loans are Newrez’s second-most popular mortgage product behind conventional loans.
Learn more: Best FHA lenders
For veterans, military members, and their families, Newrez also offers VA loans — a type of mortgage insured by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Newrez offers both VA purchase loans and VA refinances, including IRRRLs — Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. These are also known as VA streamline refinance loans, and they allow you to refinance easily from one VA loan to another (and with less paperwork). In total, VA loans account for about 13% of all Newrez’s mortgage volume.
Read more: Best VA loan lenders
For homeowners looking to take cash out of their houses, Newrez offers cash-out refinancing. With this type of mortgage refinance, you replace your current mortgage loan with a larger one and get the difference back in cash. (Keep in mind: It also replaces your loan’s term and interest rate, so this might not be wise if you have an ultra-low, pandemic-era interest rate on your current loan.)
Newrez does not offer home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), but it does have home equity loans. Learn more about these below.
Newrez provides home equity loans, which allow you to borrow from the equity you’ve built in your house and get a lump-sum payment in return. These are a type of second mortgage and come with a second monthly payment in addition to the payment on your first mortgage.
Newrez allows you to borrow up to $350,000 with a HEL, depending on how much equity you have in your home. You’ll need at least a 660 credit score to qualify.
Various fees may come with Newrez loans, including home equity loans. For example, there may be a subordination fee of up to $300 (since the loan will be “subordinate” to your main mortgage loan) or appraisal or property valuation fees to determine the value and equity of your property. These range from $80 to $1,000.
Dig deeper: How does a home equity loan work? A complete overview
Newrez is not very up-front with its interest rates. Its website has no advertised or sample rates available, and to get a rate quote, you’ll need to fill out an online application with the lender or talk to a loan officer over the phone. This is the case for all Newrez loan types and programs.
Read more: 5 ways to get the lowest mortgage rates possible
Yahoo Finance uses 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data made up of 10 million home loan applications to score mortgage lenders on issued mortgage rates and total loan costs. We score each lender on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
For example, regarding mortgage rates, a lender with a lower score charged a higher-than-median mortgage interest rate for loans issued in 2023. A higher score indicates that a lender granted borrowers lower-than-median home loan interest rates in 2023.
With total home loan costs, a lower score would indicate that a lender charged higher-than-median total home loan costs in 2023. A high rating would mean that a mortgage lender offered lower-than-median all-in home loan costs in 2023.
What this means: Newrez offered a higher-than-median mortgage rate of 6.75% and a higher-than-median total loan cost of $7,8019.17 to borrowers in 2023.
You can apply for a Newrez mortgage online using the lender’s digital application or by calling 888-556-9979. This goes for purchase loans, refinances, and home equity loans. When applying, you’ll need to provide personal information, details about the home you’re purchasing, your down payment amount, and other financial details.
Newrez offers up-front preapproval for its loans. This requires submitting various financial documents, which the lender will then verify. Once processed, you’ll receive a letter that details how much you can borrow. You can use this when submitting offers on properties.
Preapprovals are fee-free. You can get started on yours by calling 888-556-9979.
Learn more: What documents do I need for mortgage preapproval?
Newrez offers a wide variety of online tools and resources for borrowers.
You’ll find the following types of mortgage calculators:
-
Monthly mortgage payment calculator
-
Refinance calculator that shows how much you could save by refinancing
-
Loan amount calculator to reveal how much house you can afford
-
Rent vs. buy comparison
-
Loan term comparison
Newrez also has a deep library of resources, FAQs, and blog posts.
Dig deeper: Use Yahoo Finance’s free mortgage payment calculator
-
Lots of online resources: Newrez offers five handy calculators, a deep database of recently updated blogs and articles, various guides, FAQs, and more. It gets 4 stars in this category.
-
Plenty of affordable loan options: The lender has government-backed loans, low-down conventional loans, refinancing, and a home equity product, giving it 4 stars in our Affordability category.
-
Wide availability: Newrez offers loans in all 50 states, making its products highly accessible to many types of borrowers.
-
Poor rate transparency: Newrez does not have any sample or advertised rates you can use to gauge pricing. It receives 1 star in the Rate Transparency category.
-
High loan costs: According to government data, its rates and fees are higher than industry averages. It gets 2 stars in this area.
-
Lower-than-average customer satisfaction: Newrez rates lower than the industry average for satisfaction in both mortgage servicing and mortgage origination.
Read more: Closing costs — A guide to how they work and how much you’ll pay
Newrez and Freedom Mortgage are both national mortgage lenders, but the two vary slightly in product offerings. While Newrez offers home equity loans and interest-only options, Freedom does not. However, Freedom does have USDA mortgages for rural homebuyers — something Newrez lacks.
Both companies rank low in customer satisfaction (though Freedom is slightly higher), and neither website shows advertised or sample interest rates to compare. You can apply online with both mortgage lenders, as neither has physical branch locations.
Pennymac offers all the same mortgage options as Newrez, with the addition of USDA and jumbo loans. Pennymac rates higher in customer satisfaction on mortgage servicing, but dead-last among all participating lenders in the latest J.D. Power survey for mortgage origination. It does offer an interest rate buydown option, though, whereas Newrez does not. Pennymac is also more up-front about its mortgage rates, offering sample rates right on its homepage.
If you’re interested in a type of mortgage loan both lenders offer, try applying for preapproval with both to see which offers the better deal.
Yes, Newrez is a legitimate mortgage company that originates and services mortgage loans throughout the U.S. The Better Business Bureau has accredited the company, giving it an A+ rating.
Newrez tends to have pretty low customer reviews and rating scores. It ranks below average for customer satisfaction in mortgage origination and mortgage servicing in J.D. Power surveys, and it has just a 1.1-star rating on Trustpilot, with 95% of reviewers giving their experience with the company just one star.
In 2024, Newrez faced a class action lawsuit in Maryland stemming from claims that Newrez charged illegal inspection fees to homebuyers in the state. The suit was technically filed against Shellpoint Mortgage, a subsidiary of Newrez, and it was settled for $152,000.
Prior to 2019, Newrez used to be known as New Penn Financial. The company also acquired Caliber Home Loans in 2021; its loans have since been rolled into the Newrez business.
Newrez mortgage reviews tend to be low. The company ranks low in J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction rankings (both for servicing and origination) and has 1.37 out of 5 stars from customer reviews with the Better Business Bureau. The company also has 1.1-star rating on Trustpilot. The majority of customers (95%) gave Newrez just one star.
Methodology:
Yahoo Finance reviews and scores mortgage lenders with quintile scoring in five primary categories: 1) Interest rates. Using 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data comprised of 10 million home loan applications, we score mortgage lenders on issued mortgage rates below or above the annual median of reporting lenders. 2) Affordability. A measure of loan product availability and the willingness of a lender to offer government-backed loans, low down payments, down payment assistance, and consideration of nontraditional credit. 3) Loan costs. HMDA data is again analyzed, and lenders are rated based on total loan costs compared to the annual median. 4) Rate transparency. The ability of a website user to obtain a mortgage interest rate estimate. We score lenders based on whether rates are enhanced with discount points or high credit score requirements, disclaimers revealing rate assumptions, sample advertised rates, and whether adjustable or no discount point rate estimates are available. 5) Online features. An analysis of the educational material, calculators, and additional resources available to users.
Review of Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) data on regulatory actions can trigger a penalty to the score of any lender with a consumer mortgage-related administrative or enforcement action within the past five years.
Advertisers or sponsorships do not influence ratings.
Editorial disclosure for mortgages:
The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The details on financial products, including interest rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the lender’s website for the most current information. This site doesn’t include all currently available offers.
This article was edited by Laura Grace Tarpley.
