The process felt a little 'old school' compared to some of the digital lenders. There was a lot of scanning and emailing PDFs back and forth. I wish their online portal was a bit more modern, but the results were solid.

A bit more expensive on the interest rate side, but they actually hit the closing date they promised. In this market, a 'guaranteed' closing date is worth the extra quarter-point in interest just to keep the seller happy.

I had a great experience until the very end when my loan officer went on vacation and the handoff to the processing team was a bit messy. A few things fell through the cracks, but we still closed on time.

Fairway is all about the people. Our loan officer, Sarah, was basically our life coach for three months. She answered my panicked texts at 8:00 PM on a Sunday. You don't get that kind of service from an app.

They are masters at the 'tough' loans. We were using a VA loan and our first lender was clueless, but the Fairway team knew the VA rules inside and out. They got us approved when everyone else said it couldn't be done.