Prime Rate Credit

We bought a home roughly one year ago, and we are just now starting to notice we are getting offers from both our original lenders (we got two mortgages, one to cover the balance after the downpayment and one to cover the downpayment), and also from other lenders who would like nothing more than to lure us away with promises of a lower mortgage interest rate and better payment options. We however, happen to be perfectly happy with both of our mortgage lenders, who happen to be Citimortgage and Chase mortgage.

A woman who I work with at my job actually happens to be a part time real estate agent as well, and she let me in on something that most people don’t know, or when they get the news in the mail they are perplexed. Most of the time, your mortgage lenders will repackage your loan and sell it to another mortgage lender.

I still have not gotten one of these yet. She said that oftentimes, you will get a letter in the mail that says you are now making your payments to a different lender, and it’s all perfectly legit, because the original lender sold the “rights”, and risk along with it, of your mortgage to another lender for whatever reason.

I guess it’s kind of like when you have a checking account with a certain bank, and that bank gets bought out by another bank, you really have no say in who’s name appears on your checks or who you keep your money with unless you choose, voluntarily, to take your business elsewhere. I had a hard time understanding this though, especially on loans like ours which are good risks, where the mortgage company will make out in the end from gathering thousands upon thousands of dollars in interest from you on the front end especially.

Why sell it then? If anyone who has any knowledge in this field has a comment, please do explain for the rest of us.