Title:
Do You Know How
To Find The Best Mortgage Deal?
Word Count:
670
Summary:
That is why you
simply must shop around to find the best mortgage deal available for you. In
the end you could save yourself thousands of dollars. Here are five ways to
help you find the best deal
Keywords:
finance, money,
budget, personal, family, credit, debt, loan, mortgage, car, house, refinance,
consolidation, student, help, learn
Article Body:
People will spend
months or even years planning to buy their own home. They will work hard to
build good credit. They will save a sizable down payment. They will search for
the perfect house. Then they will settle for the first mortgage they see.
What is wrong with this picture?
It is important to remember that if you have good credit and a down payment
then you are in the driver's seat when it comes to negotiating a mortgage. You
are the dream customer that lenders want on their books. Even if your credit is
not perfect and your down payment is nonexistent you are still an attractive
client for many lenders.
Repeat this mantra whenever a lender acts as if they are doing you a favor by
lending you money: I am going to give them a lot of money. Yes, you are. Over
the next five to 30 years you are going to pay a lot of interest to this lender
as well as repay the principal they originally put up. They are not giving you
anything. This is a business deal and the lender stands to make a lot of money
so you need to protect yourself to get the best deal you can.
While most lenders tend to make you think you should be grateful to them for
taking this huge risk on you, it really is the other way around. A mortgage
lender can't lose. If you honor the deal they will make a lot of money and if
you don't honor the deal then they simply take your house back and keep the
interest you paid in the meantime!
However there is an even bigger fallacy that lenders like to perpetuate. They
don't want you to know how desperate they are for your business. Look around and you will realize the truth of
this. Check out the television, radio, and print ads that abound and you will
see the mortgage lenders are getting pretty competitive.
That is why you simply must shop around to find the best mortgage deal
available for you. In the end you could save yourself thousands of dollars.
Here are five ways to help you find the best deal:
~ Shop around - Get quotes from
various lenders. Look at local and national lenders and don't overlook the
internet.
~ Compare terms - Interest rates vary from
lender to lender but lenders offer different interest rates depending on the
terms of the mortgage. How long will it be (15, 20 or 30 years)? Will it be
variable or fixed?
~ Tweak some of the optional items
that you control, such as the type of insurance you will carry and whether or
not you will use escrow for taxes etc.
~ Adjust your down payment - Sometimes
being able to increase the percentage of what you are putting down can make a
difference in the lenders terms (similarly buying a less expensive house will
work the same)
~ Haggle - Yes! Lenders often act as
if their rates are written in stone but this is not the case. This is where
shopping around can really come in handy. If you can show that you've got a
slightly better deal with another lender then sometimes another lender will
lower their rate to beat the competitor. Hey it's worth a try!
Just remember that you are in control of your future. You can choose whether or
not to accept a mortgage lenders terms. There are a lot of lenders out there so
you do not need to sign with the first offer you receive.
One last hint: It might be best to go through this process before you've found
the home of your dreams! You can get preapproved for a mortgage with most
lenders and that removes the pressure and worry of losing the home of your
dreams while you negotiate with a lender. It also puts you in the driver's seat
when you are negotiating to buy that dream home when you finally find it if you
already have a mortgage ready to go.