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Comment by chrisBob

6 days ago

Credit unions, or small banks are likely to be helpful in some situations. When building our house 8 years ago we had a lot of trouble getting the construction loan mostly because of 1-2 bad comps in our area. One of the big banks turned us down with no recourse with an assessment that included a picture of the wrong lot (a farm field across the street). Another said no one should build a house under 3k square feet, so no to our plan. Our little local bank was able to actually take a look and approve us.

> we had a lot of trouble getting the construction loan mostly because of 1-2 bad comps in our area

Yup. The broadest categorization is are you first minimizing cost or chasing approval. If the latter, you’re better off with someone intensely local. If the former, you want economies of scale. (Of course, one should still shop around even if focusing on approval first.)