Guild Mortgage Review 2025
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- 50+ mortgage lenders reviewed and rated by our team of experts.
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Our Take
4.0
Guild Mortgage offers a wide range of products that may attract nontraditional borrowers, including loans with 0% or 1% down. However, interest rates aren’t published online, making it harder to shop around. Most likely to appeal to first-time home buyers and FHA borrowers, since FHA loans accounted for more than a quarter of Guild’s originations last year.
Pros
- Offers a wide range of loans, including harder-to-find products that appeal to nontraditional borrowers.
- Borrowers can get a mortgage with 0% or 1% down.
- Borrowers can apply via mobile app.
Cons
- Mortgage rates aren’t posted online.
- Origination fees are on the high side, according to the latest national data.
- Licensed in most states, but not all.
Lender | Min. credit score | Min. down payment | |
|---|---|---|---|
 Visit Lenderat NBKC at NBKC | 620 | 3% | Visit Lenderat NBKC at NBKC |
 Visit Lenderat New American Funding at New American Funding | 580 | N/A | Visit Lenderat New American Funding at New American Funding |
 Visit Lenderat Rocket Mortgage, LLC at Rocket Mortgage, LLC | 580 | 3.5% | Visit Lenderat Rocket Mortgage, LLC at Rocket Mortgage, LLC |
 4.0 Visit Lenderat GO Mortgage at GO Mortgage | 620 | 3% | Visit Lenderat GO Mortgage at GO Mortgage |
 Visit Lenderat Veterans United at Veterans United | 620 | 0% | Visit Lenderat Veterans United at Veterans United |
Full Review
At a glance: Guild Mortgage loan options
Guild Mortgage is a nonbank lender based in San Diego, CA. Loans are available nationwide, with the exception of Kentucky, New York, South Dakota, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Guild Mortgage offers a number of harder-to-find products, including proprietary loans aimed at making home buying more accessible. While a Guild Mortgage loan officer can help you apply for a HELOC or home equity loan, these are brokered products — meaning that they’re created, funded and managed by another lender.
🏠 Common mortgages
Conventional loans (fixed-rate and adjustable)
Refinancing (cash-out and rate-and-term, energy efficient mortgages)
FHA loans (purchase and refinancing)
VA loans (purchase and refinancing)
Jumbo loans
Renovation loans
🔑 Specialty loans
USDA loans
Interest-only loans
Nonwarrantable condo loans
Loans for second homes
Loans for self-employed borrowers
Reverse mortgages
Doctor loans
ITIN loans
Construction and renovation loans
Mortgages for manufactured homes
Bridge loans
Energy-efficient mortgages
Same-as-cash mortgages
Zero down payment mortgage
Loans for Native American borrowers
» MORE: How to choose a mortgage lender
Guild Mortgage special offers and discounts
Guild also offers a few unique perks that could be attractive to borrowers. These things stood out in our research.
1% Down Program: Borrowers put down 1% while Guild buys down the remaining 2% required for minimum conventional loan down payments (up to $5,000).
3-2-1 Home Plus: Provides a $2,000 Home Depot gift card along with $1,250 to $2,500 in closing cost assistance to qualifying first-time home buyers.
Same-as-cash backing, which can help make the buyer’s offer more competitive.
Alternative creditworthiness reporting, including rental payment history.
Temporary buydowns, which reduce the borrower’s interest rate for one to three years.
An interest rate lock feature for up to 120 days.
What does Guild Mortgage specialize in?
A lender’s experience with your loan type can make a big difference. We looked at the latest federal data to find the types of mortgages Guild Mortgage handles most often.
Nearly 60% of Guild’s originations last year were conventional loans, followed by FHA loans (more than a quarter) and VA loans (10%).
How we score Guild Mortgage
Each year, our writers and editors dig into the latest data and independent research on mortgage lending. Then, we rate lenders based on which categories that matter most to mortgage borrowers.
Guild Mortgage has a NerdWallet home loans rating of four 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 | |
Overall star rating |
Ah, so you’re the “read the fine print” type? We got you. Here’s how our scoring rubric works.
Average mortgage rates and fees (30%)
We review federal data (as reported by the lenders) and analyze mortgage lenders’ average fees and interest rates across all loan types. Lenders with the lowest average costs get the highest star ratings. Keep in mind: Loans that are easier to qualify for, like FHA loans, usually have higher rates and fees because lenders see them as a higher risk. Pro tip: Paying some fees upfront can sometimes lower your interest rate.
Mortgage rate transparency (25%)
We look at how easy it is to compare mortgage rates online. Lenders get higher transparency ratings if they show sample rates on their website. (Not all lenders do!) The best ratings go to lenders that offer interactive tools that let you customize a rate quote on your own.
Variety of loan types (25%)
There’s no one-size-fits-all mortgage. Lenders earn top ratings in this category when they offer a large variety of mortgage types. The more variety, the higher their score. A lender earns points for purchase and refinance; fixed and adjustable rates; FHA, VA or USDA loans; renovation or construction loans; and home equity loans or HELOCs.
Customer experience (20%)
How easy is it to work with this lender? Top-rated lenders offer helpful features like online applications, multiple ways to get support, a user-friendly mobile app and clear updates about the loan closing timeline.
Guild Mortgage bonus points and penalties
Guild Mortgage earned bonus points for its first-time home buyer assistance; for offering financing for manufactured homes; and for offering products for borrowers with credit scores below 600.
Guild Mortgage reputation and customer experience
NerdWallet’s star ratings look at objective factors like rates, fees and loan options. To give you a sense of what the borrower experience is really like, we pulled the latest customer satisfaction scores from J.D. Power and Zillow and we contacted the lender’s customer support.
2024 J.D. Power U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study
717
out of 1,000
Below-average satisfaction score: average = 727.
Mortgage origination covers the application through closing.
2025 J.D. Power U.S. Mortgage Servicing Satisfaction Study
677
out of 1,000
Above-average satisfaction score: average = 596.
A mortgage servicer handles loan payments.
Zillow Mortgage Lender Customer Rating
4.97
out of 5
Excellent rating as of date of publication.
Rating reflects more than 42,500 reviews..
Guild Mortgage customer service options
Here’s how you can get in touch with Guild Mortgage.
Ways to reach LENDER
Physical branches . . . . . . ✅ Phone support . . . . . . . . . ✅ Mobile app . . . . . . . . . . . . ✅ Online chat (bot) . . . . . . . 🚫 Online chat (human) . . . . 🚫
» MORE: How to apply for a mortgage
🤓 Our Nerds say... Guild has a brand-new app
Taylor Getler, lead writer, mortgages
Guild Mortgage’s mobile app seems to be fairly new — we couldn’t find one last year, and all reviews in Google Play and the app store are from 2025. Customers report that while borrowers can apply for a new loan in the app, they can’t make payments or manage their loan. Borrowers who prefer an in-person customer service experience can find their closest Guild Mortgage branch on the lender’s website.
Alternatives to Guild Mortgage
Our biggest tip: Get offers from at least three different mortgage lenders. Comparison shopping can save you thousands of dollars. You can get rate quotes yourself, or work with a mortgage broker to shop around on your behalf.
First-time home buyers may want to check out Rocket Mortgage, which won NerdWallet’s 2025 best-of award in that category. Borrowers looking for a lender with experience in FHA loans could be a good match for Carrington — FHA loans accounted for over half of the lender’s originations last year.
Non-traditional borrowers who like Guild’s range of alternative mortgages may want to check out CrossCountry Mortgage, which offers many of the same harder-to-find products.
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.
