Carrington Mortgage Review 2024
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Our Take
3.5
Carrington Mortgage offers VA and FHA loans as well as specialty loans for people who might have trouble qualifying for a mortgage elsewhere, like self-employed borrowers or those with heavy debt. However, the lender doesn’t post rates online — and federal data tells us its interest rates are on the high side. Most likely to appeal to borrowers recovering from credit challenges, including bankruptcy or foreclosure, who need flexible options to qualify for a mortgage.
Pros
- Considers borrowers with bad credit, foreclosure or bankruptcy.
- Accepts self-employed borrowers.
- Mortgage origination fees are on the low side, according to the latest federal data.
Cons
- Interest rates are on the high side, according to the latest federal data.
- Doesn’t post interest rates online.
- No online chat for customer service.
Lender | Min. credit score | Min. down payment | |
|---|---|---|---|
580 | 3% | Visit Lenderat New American Funding at New American Funding | |
620 | 3% | Visit Lenderat NBKC at NBKC | |
580 | 3.5% | Visit Lenderat Rocket Mortgage, LLC at Rocket Mortgage, LLC |
Full Review
Carrington Mortgage is a nonbank lender based in Anaheim, California. Loans are available in 48 states; some loan types are not available in Massachusetts, North Dakota or Texas.
🏠 Popular loan types include: fixed or adjustable rate; conventional; FHA; VA; USDA; jumbo; rate-and-term or cash-out refinance
🔑 Specialty loan options include: interest-only mortgages; loans for second homes; loans for self-employed borrowers; ITIN loans; conventional loans for manufactured homes; section 184 Indian Housing Loan Guarantee Program
💵 Home equity borrowing options: home equity loan
Carrington stands out for its selection of non-qualifying loans, known as non-QM loans. These offer purchase, refinance and cash-out options for borrowers who don’t meet traditional lending criteria. (Cash-out options are not available in Texas.) They include:
Carrington Flexible Advantage: For borrowers with bad credit and/or recent credit events (such as foreclosure, bankruptcy or missed payments), or self-employed borrowers with inconsistent income.
Carrington Flexible Advantage Plus: For borrowers with credit challenges who have since caught up on late payments.
Carrington Prime Advantage: For high credit score borrowers looking to borrow a higher amount (up to $3.5 million) who have a past credit event or otherwise miss the qualifications for a jumbo loan.
Carrington’s non-QM loans also offer the option of a 40-year term. This shrinks your monthly payment, but at a long-term cost: You’ll pay more in interest over time, and it’ll take longer to build equity. Carrington also has two affiliate companies to support customers through the homebuying process, real estate brokerage Vylla Home and title services company Vylla Title.
» MORE: How to apply for a mortgage
How we score Carrington Mortgage
Every year, NerdWallet writers and editors use the latest data and independent research to score lenders on an overall rubric, reflecting factors that are most important to mortgage borrowers. Select Why This Category Matters below to learn more.
Carrington Mortgage has a NerdWallet home loans rating of 3.5 stars overall. Here’s a breakdown of this year’s score.
Category | Star rating |
|---|---|
Average mortgage rates and fees | |
Mortgage rate transparency | |
Variety of loan types | |
Customer experience |
- Why This Category Matters
Average mortgage rates and fees (30%)
Our team analyzes federal data to compare mortgage lenders’ origination fees and offered mortgage rates, measuring annual averages across all loan types, as reported by the lenders. The lowest combination of average rates and fees earns the highest star rating in this category. (It’s worth noting that loans considered higher risk, including those such as FHA loans that are easier to qualify for, often have higher interest rates and fees.) Pro tip: In some cases, paying upfront fees may lower a borrower’s mortgage interest rate.
Mortgage rate transparency (25%)
We check how straightforward it is to comparison-shop rates online. NerdWallet’s transparency ratings are higher for lenders that post sample rates on their sites, and highest for sites with self-serve tools that allow shoppers to see what rates might be like for their particular loan. Pro tip: Borrowers who compare customized rate quotes by applying to three or more lenders could save thousands of dollars over the life of their loan.
Variety of loan types (25%)
Finding the right mortgage is different for each borrower. The highest star ratings in this category are awarded to lenders that our research shows offer a wide range of loan types, improving the odds that a borrower will find the best match for their needs: options for purchase and refinance; fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans; government-backed FHA, VA or USDA loans; renovation or construction loans; and home equity loans or HELOCs.
Customer experience (20%)
How easy is it to interact with this lender? The highest-rated lenders in this category offer features that are convenient and clarifying for borrowers, such as: an online application, multiple customer service options, a helpful mobile app and candid closing timeline communications.
Carrington earned bonus points for providing options for borrowers with credit scores below 600 and offering conventional loans for manufactured homes.
What borrowers say about Carrington Mortgage
NerdWallet’s lender star ratings assess objective qualities, including rates, fees and loan offerings. To help you understand borrowers’ subjective experiences, NerdWallet has gathered customer satisfaction ratings from J.D. Power and Zillow. We also contacted Carrington customer support.
→ Below-average score in J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study. A mortgage servicer handles loan payments.
Score: 533 out of 1,000. Industry average for servicing is 606.
→ Excellent customer rating on Zillow.
Customer rating: 4.93 out of 5, as of the date of publication. Rating reflects more than 900 customer reviews.
🤓 Our Nerds say...
Compared to other lenders we review, Carrington lags behind in its digital customer service options. The lender doesn’t offer a chatbot or live online chat on its website, and the Carrington mobile app gets low ratings on the App Store and Google Play store.
Carrington Mortgage and consumer trust
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against Carrington in November 2022 for misleading borrowers who sought temporary mortgage payment relief, known as forbearance, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lender was ordered to repay improperly charged late fees and pay $5.25 million into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.
A lender’s NerdWallet star rating is negatively affected by recent regulatory actions for violations that harmed mortgage customers. Since the CFPB action took place more than one year ago, Carrington’s star rating was not affected in 2024. When shopping for a mortgage lender, do an online search to see if the company is in the news, and why.
Alternatives to a home loan from Carrington Mortgage
We recommend comparing mortgage rate offers from three or more lenders.
New American Funding offers non-QM loans for borrowers with credit challenges.
Better, another nonbank lender, provides loan options for self-employed borrowers.
More from NerdWallet
NerdWallet’s overall ratings for mortgage lenders are evaluated based on four major categories: average mortgage rates and origination fees, rate transparency to consumers, variety of loan types (purchase, refinance, fixed and adjustable, for example) and customer experience. Among the factors we consider in these categories are: options to apply for home loans online, typical time to close, mobile app experience, level of detail about mortgage rates on lender websites, and NerdWallet’s own analysis of the rates and fees lenders reported in the latest available Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. These and other items inform detailed rubrics, which generate ratings from 1 star (poor) to 5 stars (excellent). Read more about how we rate mortgage lenders here.
