Most Important 2 Steps to Get the Best Mortgage

Date:November 14, 2007 | Author: | Category:Home Mortgage

 Today’s Wiki Wednesday Feature: Most Important 2 Steps to Get the Best Mortgage

Just two steps to finding the best mortgage? Now that’s the kind of article that fits into Lenderanyone’s overtaxed and overburdened life — especially when buying a home. According to attny54 and his article, “Most Important 2 Steps to Get the Best Mortgage,” the two most important things you can do are:

1. Obtain information from several types of lenders
2. Shop, compare and negotiate

Although the headline makes it sound like a breezy, 30-second article, it’s in fact chock-full of  good advice and tips when dealing with lenders such as:

  • Ask each lender and broker for a list of its current mortgage interest rates and whether the rates being quoted are the lowest for that day or week.
  • Ask for points to be quoted to you as a dollar amount—rather than just as the number of points—so that you will actually know how much you will have to pay.
  • Ask if the lender or broker will waive or reduce one or more of its fees or agree to a lower rate or fewer points. You’ll want to make sure that the lender or broker is not agreeing to lower one fee while raising another or to lower the rate while raising points.

I realized while reading this article — especially the last bullet point above — that if you replace the word “lender” with “car dealer”  you’re essentially going through the same exercise of trying to get a product (loan or car) for a reasonable price without getting hit with hidden costs and charges being moved from one line item to another.  Clearly, however, purchasing a home is a much larger undertaking. 

Ed: Wiki Wednesdays is a weekly feature that highlights helpful or interesting articles from the Real Estate Guide.