One of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the country now allows borrowers to submit their own loan applications online and receive approval in as little as 15 minutes, according to an announcement from Guaranteed Rate.

Borrowers can use Guaranteed Rate’s website to choose and customize a loan, receive free credit reports with scores from the three major credit bureaus, submit a secure application to the lender’s automated underwriting service, and receive an approval letter to purchase a home within minutes of submitting the application.

“Historically, the mortgage process is manual and puts the burden to complete the loan application on the customer and the loan officer, with many handoffs between the two. With Guaranteed Rate’s online process, customers have the same access to tools as loan officers, and now they can apply for their loan and receive approval themselves,” the lender said.

Listing portals Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com offer consumers online mortgage quotes using “pricing engines” that take into account their credit history and the size of the loan they are seeking. Realtor.com operator Move Inc., for example, says consumers using its PreQualPlus tool can “prequalify completely online” in as little as 15 minutes.

PreQualPlus employs an automated underwriting process to evaluate consumers’ credit scores and their capacity to afford monthly mortgage payments based on pricing, eligibility, underwriting, a full credit history review, credit risk analytics, and loan scenario modeling.

Borrowers using Guaranteed Rate’s website can also check the progress of their loan online at any time, and many receive a “clear to close” in just a few days, the company said. At closing, borrowers who submitted their application through the website will receive $150, the lender added.

Single family home tenants are 18 percent more likely than apartment tenants to stay in their current homes five years or longer, suggesting that demand for single family homes, the fastest growing rental category, will be more stable than multifamily demand, according to a new national opinion survey released today by Premier Property Management Group.

One of every four (26%) single family tenant plans to stay in place five years or more, compared to one out of five apartment dwellers (22%), according to a new national survey of renters by ORC International for Premier Property Management.  Founded in 1938, ORC International is a leading global market research firm and since 2007 has conducted the CNN|ORC International poll.

One factor contributing to single family stability could be high marks renters give the quality of single family property management.  Some 80 percent of tenants in single family rentals said their property management was good or excellent compared to only 63 percent of apartment renters One out of four apartment dwellers (26%) rated their management as only adequate,

“With the emergence of the single family rental option, American families have a new housing choice that brings them the aspects of associated with owning their own homes important to families such as living space, privacy, safe neighborhoods and the sense of community- without the cost and risks of homeownership.  Single family rentals can be found in virtually every community today and more and more families are choosing single family rentals either as a temporary stop on the road to becoming homeowners or as a permanent solution to their housing needs,” said Chris Clothier, director of sales & marketing and partner of Premier Property Management.

Over half, 52 percent, of renters, including 60 percent of single family renters and 44 percent of apartment dwellers, said they anticipate becoming homeowners in the next five years.  Families with three or more members (64%) and children under 13 (69%) were more likely to become homeowners than the 43 percent who don’t plan to become owners.

Clothier said near term interest in becoming homeowners among single family tenants reflects the new roles single family rentals are fulfilling as a stepping stone to homeownership for first-time buyers and as a sanctuary for large numbers of families displaced by foreclosures but who plan to buy again when they can afford to do so.

Despite reports that difficulties getting financing are keeping many U.S. renters from becoming homeowners, the survey found that the inability to get a mortgage ranks only third of among the reasons renters don’t plan to become homeowners. Among those who do not anticipate becoming homeowners (43 percent of all renters), 29 percent say they can’t get a mortgage.  More renters report that they don’t want to buy a home because they enjoy being renters (40%) or they simply don’t want to be homeowners (39%).

Short term turnover rates for both multifamily and single family rentals over the next two years are 56 percent for multifamily and 59 percent for single family rentals. Apartments typically experience an annual 50 to 60 percent tenant turnover.

The survey also found:

• Single family renters make more money and are nearly twice as likely to have children as apartment dwellers. Median income for a single family renter is $75-100,000 (66%) versus $50,000-75000 (51%) for a multifamily tenant. Single family households are larger; some 65 percent have three or more members compared to 32 percent of apartment households. Some 63 percent of single family households include children; only 34 percent of apartment renters have children living with them.

• Most single family tenants are older, aged 35-44 (53%) compared to 14-34 (46%) and 65+ (61%) for apartment dwellers.

• Compared to apartment dwellers, single family renters value neighborhood features important to children, such as parks and playgrounds (65% to 71%), good schools (72% to 82%) and safe neighborhoods (97% to 98%).

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