Wells Fargo Home Mortgage & Lindal Cedar Homes Launch an Innovative Home Construction Lending Program
SEATTLE – May 21, 2008 – In one of the first collaborations of its kind in the manufactured home-building industry, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, a division of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., has teamed up with Lindal Cedar Homes to offer a seamless and simple new home construction lending opportunity to the clients of the first and largest manufacturer of custom cedar homes.
“Lindal is the only company in the industry to offer clients this kind of innovative financing,” said Michael Harris, Lindal’s president and COO. “Wells Fargo’s reputation for meticulous customer service and saturation throughout the United States are two distinguishing characteristics of our business as well. The mortgage can cover the cost of the client’s land, and Lindal's package, which includes construction of the home and the permanent financing.”
Lindal’s clients look to the Seattle-based company to design custom homes and provide a custom home package. Then the homebuyer hires a builder to construct it. “Not every banker understands this model,” noted Harris. “Wells Fargo embraces the concept and the pacing of a Lindal homebuyer's financial needs and has dedicated specialists, with a team leader, to focus on Lindal clients wherever they build in the 50 states.”
Michael Chappelle, Wells Fargo's national construction perm sales manager, called the alliance a natural fit.
“Both companies work in all markets across the country to serve the needs of discriminating buyers of distinctive homes.”
Lindal Cedar Homes has a computer system so accurate and fast that clients know the cost of their prospective new custom home almost as quickly as they can find out the cost of an existing home that's for sale. This system allows Lindal's dealers to prepare pre-qualification work sheets for clients. These are sent to Wells Fargo and allow the mortgage lender to confirm how much home a new homebuyer can buy.
“Wells Fargo's builder validation process and optional interest rate lock of up to two years are deal-closers,” Lindal's Harris said.
He continued, “Lindal calls the journey that begins at the birth of a dream of building a custom cedar home and includes planning and design decisions, through construction, ‘The Lindal Experience.’ We are extremely pleased to add this critical option to our clients’ experience.”
About Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is the nation's number one retail mortgage lender and servicer of home mortgages. As a division of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., it has a local presence in more than 2,300 mortgage stores and bank branches, plus the capabilities to serve the home financing needs of customers nationwide through its call centers, Internet presence and wholesale lending operations. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage services loans for more than 8 million servicing customers.
About Lindal Cedar Homes
Lindal Cedar Homes, the original and largest manufacturer of custom cedar homes in the world, has guided some 50 thousand clients through the planning, design and building of their custom dream homes. Founded in 1945 by Sir Walter Lindal, chairman emeritus, the company builds homes for over 500 clients a year in North America and abroad.
