Mortgage Info

It is very important to have some basic knowledge of what costs are involved in obtaining a mortgage so as not to be swindled on what you end up paying. Many mortgage lenders and companies charge “junk fees.” While there are pretty standard-type fees that you should be charged for establishing a mortgage, there are fees that many companies add just to make a few extra dollars off each client. After all, these companies are in business to make money.

Shopping for a mortgage should be approached just as seriously as shopping for a car. When you purchase a new car, you usually spend a lot of time researching consumer reports, shopping different dealers for different sticker pricing, and looking into auto financing. The same holds true, if not more so, for your mortgage. Unlike a car, at least your home has a chance to appreciate after you buy it!

Lies do not have to be outright lies. Lies can also be deceptive practices or bending the truth. So while some mortgage brokers or loan officers outright lie to customers, more than likely it is crafty truth bending more often than not. Here are the top five lies that consumers hear when they are shopping for a home mortgage.

When you sit down at your computer to check your emails, do you find that almost 75 percent of them are unsolicited emails, AKA. spam? While most of these emails usually have a sexual nature to them, probably coming in a close second are spam emails that have something to do with a mortgage, obtaining credit or consolidating debt.

The mortgage industry can be a cutthroat business between a borrower and a mortgage broker or a loan officer. This is due largely to the fact that the mortgage broker or loan officer is working on a commission. This means that they want to price the loan as high as they possibly can in order to put more money in their pockets.

So how can you avoid getting charged too much for your mortgage? There are a couple of paths you can follow to minimize your mortgage charges.

Have you ever bought a high-ticket item like a TV and then when you are browsing through the Sunday sale ads you see the same exact TV for $300 less? Some stores will allow you to bring the store receipt of your purchase along with the sale ad showing the cheaper price, and as long it has been within 30 days of your purchase, will refund you the price difference.

Some mortgage lenders have the same “price guarantee” offer when it comes to your closing costs.

Falling victim to a mortgage predator is very similar to falling victim to the playground bully. As you know from being a child once yourself, the school playground enforces Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest Theory. The playground bully scans the playground with a scowl on his face. When he spots the weakest and most vulnerable kid there, his eyes lock on his victim and he marches toward him.

The very same concept holds true with mortgage predators.

In the process of shopping for a mortgage, consumers tend to contact several different lenders to get price and rate quotes. Some seem to vary quite a bit from each other and it makes some people wonder why this is.

When you approach a lender for the terms that you can obtain a mortgage, the lender will provide you upfront with a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of your costs. The GFE will list out each cost line-by-line. It is extremely important that when you compare GFEs from different mortgage lenders that they contain the same information.