NBKC Bank Mortgage Review: What To Know Before You Apply | NerdWallet

Are you looking for a mortgage lender that offers online convenience and top-notch customer service? You might want to consider NBKC Bank. If you're outside of the Kansas City area, you might not have heard of NBKC. Kansas City is where they're based, and it's where most of their branches are. So if in-person service is your thing, that's where you'll need to be too. But their home loans are available nationwide, and customer service is just a click or a call away. But what do I know about all this? Well, I write about mortgages and home buying for NerdWallet, and I spend lots of time evaluating mortgage lenders. There are a ton of lenders out there, and the right lender for you is going to depend on, well, you. Also, research shows that comparing mortgage lenders can save you hundreds of dollars a year in interest payments. So let's talk about getting a mortgage from NBKC Bank. NBKC offers a pretty decent mix of home loans. They've got fixed and adjustable rate conventional loans, FHA loans, and VA loans. VA loans, which are intended for service members and veterans, are somewhat of a specialty for NBKC. About one in five mortgages that they originate is a VA loan. NBKC also has some more unusual loan types, like home loans for airplane pilots. But they don't have everything. If you're looking for a renovation loan, you're out of luck. And if you want to construction a permanent mortgage in order to build a house, that house is going to need to be in or around Kansas City. If you're shopping around for mortgage lenders, which, again, you should do to find the right lender for you and get the best mortgage rate, NBKC makes it very easy to compare rates. Simply answer a couple of questions without providing an email address or any other personal information, and you can see detailed, customized sample rates. NBKC will show you mortgage rate options that include the interest rate, the APR, or annual percentage rate, which is your interest rate, combined with some of the fees that you're going to be paying, and estimated monthly principal and interest payments. They will also show you the number of mortgage points or units of prepaid interest that you might need to buy in order to get that specific APR. Some lenders make you provide your contact information in order to see personalized mortgage rates, but not NBKC. NBKC makes it easy to apply online for mortgage pre-approval. You can upload W-2s and other financial info directly to their site. Once you've been pre-approved, NBKC will send you a pre-approval letter that you can use to show sellers that you're a serious buyer. Once you've found a house and had an offer accepted, applying for a mortgage with NBKC is a straightforward online process. Once your application's in, you'll be contacted on the phone by a loan officer to go over the details. One thing to note is that all of this online application is going to be happening on the NBKC website. Though they do have a robust app, it's very much focused on serving their banking customers, not so much mortgage applicants. If you're a homebuyer with a pretty strong financial profile and you're looking for a conventional FHA or VA loan, NBKC might be a good mortgage lender for you. But if you're looking for a more niche type of loan, or you really want to be able to walk into a branch and talk with a loan officer, you're going to need to be in the Kansas City area. But no matter where you live, you can easily compare personalized mortgage rates and NBKC's mortgage application process is almost entirely online. Want to explore more options? Head to NerdWallet and check out our list of the best online mortgage lenders. I'm Kate Wood, and I write about mortgages and home buying for NerdWallet. If you're looking for a mortgage lender, we have dozens of lender reviews on our website.