Author: Carrie Reeder

A good online mortgage lender can make the home mortgage shopping experience bearable if not pleasant. With competitive rates and good customer service, a home mortgage lender can help you buy your home within a reasonable timeframe. To find such a lender, start by researching recommended lenders. Ask questions about loan rates, terms, and payment process. Once you find a perfect match, start the application process to lock in rates.

Start With Recommended Sites

While you can easily find lenders through a search engine, a better choice is to look at different recommended lending sites. Mortgage broker sites offer convenience, providing you with multiple mortgage loan quotes in almost no time. Individual lender sites also provide loan quotes, along with financing information.

Take advantage of loan estimates since they don’t hurt your credit report – as long as you don’t give them permission to access your report. By requesting personalized quotes, you get a realistic picture of your loan costs. You can also find the most competitive offer.

Check Out The Details Before You Sign

Rates are important, but so are fees and terms. Analyze the closing costs and any additional fees that might be associated with the home loan. You should also ask about additional loan features, such as refinancing options or interest reductions for automatic payment.

Selecting terms will not only affect your interest rates, but also your monthly payment. While most lenders will quote a 15 or 30 year term, more options are available to you if you ask.

Evaluate The Service

Requesting loan quotes is also a test run of the lender’s customer service. Did the company respond in a timely manner? Did they answer your questions? Was the information clear and complete? If you answer yes to these questions, then you can reasonable trust that future questions will also be answered.

Finally, give yourself enough time to find the best lender. In a few hours you can have dozens of mortgage offers waiting for your review. Spend a few minutes looking over each to find the one that meets your home buying needs.

Author: Carrie Reeder

A mortgage is usually the biggest purchase that an individual makes, and because of that, many people tend to get nervous during the process. But wouldn’t it make things easier if you felt that you had a “handle” on the process—or at least the terminology? After all, in order to get the best deal on your mortgage loan, you will need to understand certain things such as points, interest rates and closing costs.

If you feel like you could stand to brush up on your mortgage loan terminology, why not read the following common terms and their definitions?

Points

A point is amount that a borrower will pay in order to reduce the interest rate on their mortgage. One point is generally equal to 1% of the loan amount. For example, if you were taking out a 100,000 mortgage, and wanted lower interest rates, you might have to pay anywhere from 1-3 points (or $1,000-3,000 dollars) to get that rate. It’s important to note that some lenders will advertise very low interest rates, and only when you read the fine print will you learn that you will have to pay points in order to get them.

Interest Rates

When a lender makes a loan, they make money by charging interest on that loan. With a mortgage loan, all of that interest is front-loaded, which means that for the first few years, every payment that you will make will go mostly toward the interest.

When applying for a mortgage, you will have the option of “locking-in,” or “floating” your interest rate. If you choose to lock-in your rate, then you will be assured—for about 60 days—that when you close it will be at that rate. However, if it appears that interest rates will go lower, you can choose to float the interest rate, which means that you can watch the rates carefully, and then lock it in whenever it reaches an amount that you are comfortable with.

Closing Costs

When you go to close on your home at the title company, both the buyer and seller will have to pay a pre-determined amount of closing costs. These are determined by the type of loan you get, and the area where you live. Your lender is required by law to inform you of any closing costs beforehand, so be sure to ask for your truth in lending estimate.

As you can see, mortgage terms aren’t that mysterious! Do some research or read some more articles on this site to become familiar with the lending terms that you need to know.

There are also many mortgage companies online that can help you find direct mortgage lenders and home loan brokers that will best suit your needs. This is a quick way to find a good mortgage loan and compare rates and offers from multiple lenders. When lenders compete for your business, it works to your advantage.