Sup Guys- Looking for tips as to the best way to shop for a new home mortgage. A lot of you seem pretty savvy on securing good deals, so I figured I would seek some advice before I started the process. Should I go online? go through my bank or a local broker? What fee's are possible to negotiate out and what arent? Thanks!!!
Lending Tree? EDIT: I used lending tree without issue. I can not stress enough that you need to get a temp email account before you start.
Just call some mortgage broker people on the phone. Get a quote from one and start using that as a launching point for your next call. Do this about 10 times until you get a rate that no one will beat. ????? Profit!
You have to look at a combination of the rate and the fees they are charging. The lowest rate may or may not be the best deal. You need to ask for a good faith estimate from several lenders and compare. If you are using a Realtor ask some names of who they work with. If you don't know anyone bankrate.com may be a good place to start or find out who people you know have used.
Look at the performance of Mortgage Backed Securities. If they're doing well, your rate will be better. If not, your rate will be worse. For example FNMA 30 Yr MBS was at 3.500% paying back 100.25% earlier this morning. That essentially means that 3.500% is the best possible rate you could get on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. Keep in mind that this is the wholesale price, so your rate will probably be closer to 4% or 4.500%. Lenders build in their margin into that price, so the best rate a lender can offer will take into account their margin, as well.
Go here: http://finance.yahoo.com/rates and compare both fees and rates. Don't buy points. I have always used interbanklending.com. I got a guy there that has handled my entire family.
I'm in Real Estate-- Whatever you do---- Do NOT GO with a big bank lender like Chase, BOA, Wells Fargo etc... You will regret it- I see it on a weekly basis where they screw stuff up because of their incompetence. Banks like that are in the market of banking and not home mortgages. I have a couple local lenders I could give you contact info for. I don't get anything from them but they are very good and will have you squared away and not left at the closing table not able to fund because of incompetence.
call two mortgage brokers recommended by people you know. see what their rates are looking like. I did this but got a better deal with BBVA compass (they beat the others by .5 percentage points with lower fees). The person at BBVA Compass who I used was a guy named Ray. His number is (713) 867-1143 (ask for him) Best of luck
