Option One Mortgage is one of the leading mortgage providers in the USA. It is a residential mortgage lender and is a subsidiary of the H&R Block company.

H&R Block is a tax preparation and financial management company originally founded by the brothers Henry. W. and Richard Bloch in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1955 (the name of the company comes from there). Later, “Bloch” was replaced by “Block “to avoid mispronunciation and the company developed into one of the largest public companies over the years. It is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). H&R Block is ranked 467 in the Fortune 500 companies list and the total assets of the company equaled $5,539 million in 2006.

The services of the H&R Block extend from full service brokerage to electronic filing to tax preparation to mortgage lending, investments and banking services. Option One Mortgage can be stated as the residential mortgage-servicing arm of the H&R Block organization having its branches all over the country. Option One Mortgage helps many of its customers achieve homeownership dreams (by offering first or second mortgages) and offers advice on converting home equity into a line of credit and also provides services for consolidation of high-interest debts. Mortgage loans offered by Option One are provided on Single Family Residences, Town Homes, Condominiums, Planned Unit Developments and Rural Properties.

Some of the products offered by Option One Mortgage include a large range of mortgage interest rates to suit every type of customer for mortgage financing needs. These consist of 50/30 Adjusted Rate Mortgages (ARM), 40/30 ARM, 30 year Fixed Rate Mortgages (FRM), 15 year FRM and Interest Only Mortgage Loans. Mortgage loans offered by the company are almost 80% of the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of the property in question. There are also several other facilities offered by the company which include non-credit driven programs ideal for non-credit-score based traditional underwriting. The latitude advantage of the company includes a score-based consolidated product that allows for fast and easy borrower placement.

Option One Mortgage offers several tools to its customers or mortgage borrowers, which include automated e-mail updates, mortgage related informational brochures, news about the mortgage industry and reports of current and forecasted economic conditions. Like every other mortgage lending company, it offers online mortgage application and instant approval facilities within 48 hours of the application. Application facilities include Wholesale Broker Application Package, CorOne Lender Application Package and the New York Addendum to Broker Agreement.

The Wholesale Mortgage Lending Division offices of Option One are located throughout the USA which works with a well qualified team of professionals who help mortgage borrowers manage every mortgage loans from its origination, pre-qualification, loan set-up, underwriting, appraisal, processing and other funding services.

The National Accounts division of Option One Mortgage provides non-prime wholesale lending services to nationally recognized conforming lenders. Bulk Acquisitions division serves large non-prime mortgage bankers by purchasing performing closed loan pools. The Option One Mortgage company, in a way, serves investment banks, borrowers, lenders and trusts through their loan servicing and sub-servicing. Option One is different from all other wholesale lenders in that it is the one of the top non-prime lenders in the USA, it provides in-house decision making and processing and also flexible and common sense underwriting.

When acting according to credit-score driven programs, Option One uses the middle of three credit score or lower of two scores. Generally, the minimum credit score at which Option One will lend is 500. The Mortgagee Clause and the Hazard Insurance Clause offered by Option One to protect the lender in case of property depreciation and in case of loss to property due to fire or other hazards makes it one of the most sought after mortgage companies in the USA. However, the second policy is not an insurance binder as the first policy and is required to be purchased by the borrower.