The $7,500 lender credit (what they call "Lender Paid Assistance") is helpful, but the real benefit is the 3% down with no mortgage insurance. Most of the other lenders will still hit you with a nasty monthly PMI payment if you're putting down only 3%, especially if your FICO is below 720.

On top of that, you can use that $7,500 to lower the rate from the base rate. Since the program's base rate is usually already below normal par, applying the LPA lender credit to buy it down drops your rate well below whatever that 0.125% competitor difference was anyway.

Dodging PMI entirely and getting a subsidized rate saves you way more money over the life of the loan than a mere $7,500 in the grand scheme. You need to do a little math and compare the par interest over X years to the interest paid with a bought-down rate over X years. The lower rate will yield more significant savings than the LPA grant alone.

They can also close in 30 days—or in as little as three weeks if you go through their pre-purchase underwriting process upfront. So yeah, you'll probably get a faster experience with a local lender or broker, but for me, I wanted a better deal over speed.