Product Review: America's Lending Partners

About the company: At America's Lending Partners you submit your home loan request just once. We then match you with up to four of our lending partners who range from national to local lenders. Our lending partners contact you directly so you can compare offers, compare options and decide which loan is best for you.

The big pitch: Complete one form and up to four lenders will contact you with offers. Over $51b in home loans matches since 1999.

Founded by executives of FirstPlus Financial and The Money Store, America's Lending Partners is not an actual lending institution. They are, rather, a website that gathers your information if you're looking for a home loan, refinancing, home improvement funds, second mortgage, home equity loan, or debt consolidation package, and passes it on to a series of other lenders. It's then up to those lenders to actually contact you with an offer, if they deem you worthy.

For the sake of our testing purposes, we put ourselves forth as looking for a new home loan for a condominium in New Jersey, with fair but not great credit, for an amount of $200,000, with no money down. We went through the process, which took all of about 45 seconds, but at the end we received no offers at all, at least not on the thank you screen (they do say that lenders will contact us later, but still)...

All of which is a little annoying. I mean, if you're looking for a good deal, you're likely to be shopping around, and if other websites are giving you approximations of the rate you're likely to get and America's Lending Partners isn't, then chances are a lot of people who might be have otherwise been helped by them, are going elsewhere in the meantime.

In our research, however, is does seem that America's Lending Partners is very helpful in getting zero money down home loans at a reasonable interest rate, as well as finding financing for borrowers who don't have a great credit rating, and who don't want to pay fees to get their loan application looked at. While companies like E-Loan and ING seem to get a great rate for people who have great credit, America's Lending Partners looks to be the one to go to if you're getting the runaround elsewhere.

Expect interest rates around 5.2% per annum (give or take a half a percent), zero fees, and an easy process to start with, and as always, please, please, please look over your loan agreement before taking on any sort of debt whatsoever. Without taking on a 'test mortgage', the only qualities of a lender than we can assess at this site are the opinions of others, what their rates are, and how simple their process is.

America's Lending Partners is often advertised on CNN, Court TV, Fox News, The History Channel, The Weather Channel, MSNBC, ESPN, USA Network, FX, Spike TV, TV Land, Food Network, TNT, HGTV, Lifetime, and in several national glossy magazines such as Food and Wine, Country Home, This Old House, House and Garden, and House Beautiful - but don't take that as a sign of honesty and authority - if they're advertising heavily, the money to do so has to come from somewhere... somewhere like you. Don't be swayed by marketing - the best possible deal for you is just as likely to come from a small company in Dubuque as it is from a huge multinational. Do your research, haggle like crazy, and beware the fine print.

The Product Trends rating: From what we can see, there's definitely a need for America's Lending Partners out there, and they seem to be making waves in the business. We'd like to see a few things improved, but if you need low or no-deposit financing, this should be your first step. Three stars.

To try America's Lending Partners for yourself, click the image below: