Tuesday, December 21, 2004
A Short Guide to Shopping Interest Rates Online
Many of you may or may not have some experience with comparing interest rates and brokers online. A few words of caution when doing this.
1. Make sure that any lenders you receive rate and fee quotes from are basing their loan quotes on the same loan amount and/or situation. To get the most accurate quote, you should really make a couple of calls.
2. Rates can change by the hour, so if you are comparing a quote from one site on Monday to a quote from another site on Friday, you are comparing apples to oranges. Try to set aside a block of time one day to do some rate shopping for the most accurate results.
3. If you do receive a Good Faith Estimate, be sure to ignore the insurance and tax figures because these factors are not dependent on the financing you choose (i.e. your property taxes are x amount no matter who your mortgage company is and your homeowner's insurance is determined by you).
4. On a purchase you should also ignore the title figures because these are determined by the title company that was most likely chosen by the seller (not always the case, but definitely the norm). If you have title, insurance, and tax figures on a Good Faith Estimate, they are simply for you to get a rough estimate of your closing figures, not for comparison purposes.
To summarize: In order to the best results when interest rate shopping, obtain Good Faith Estimates for your unique situation from a number of different lenders (on the same day) and then compare only the lender charges (section 800) and the rates. If you are planning to be in your home long term, you are looking for the lowest rate. If you are planning on being in your home short term, you are looking for the lowest upfront fees.
Arizona Mortgage Rates
1. Make sure that any lenders you receive rate and fee quotes from are basing their loan quotes on the same loan amount and/or situation. To get the most accurate quote, you should really make a couple of calls.
2. Rates can change by the hour, so if you are comparing a quote from one site on Monday to a quote from another site on Friday, you are comparing apples to oranges. Try to set aside a block of time one day to do some rate shopping for the most accurate results.
3. If you do receive a Good Faith Estimate, be sure to ignore the insurance and tax figures because these factors are not dependent on the financing you choose (i.e. your property taxes are x amount no matter who your mortgage company is and your homeowner's insurance is determined by you).
4. On a purchase you should also ignore the title figures because these are determined by the title company that was most likely chosen by the seller (not always the case, but definitely the norm). If you have title, insurance, and tax figures on a Good Faith Estimate, they are simply for you to get a rough estimate of your closing figures, not for comparison purposes.
To summarize: In order to the best results when interest rate shopping, obtain Good Faith Estimates for your unique situation from a number of different lenders (on the same day) and then compare only the lender charges (section 800) and the rates. If you are planning to be in your home long term, you are looking for the lowest rate. If you are planning on being in your home short term, you are looking for the lowest upfront fees.
Arizona Mortgage Rates
