THE MORTGAGE CORNER
Where NOT to Find Your Next Lender By: Chris Brown, Trinity Mortgage Company
There are many places that you can go to try and find a dependable, reliable, trustworthy mortgage source… there are even more places you can go to find those that are not! I urge you not to find your lender in the Sunday paper, or even on the Internet. (Ironic isn't it... as you read this article adapted to my website FROM the paper!! Read on and you will see why this isn't contradictory.)
The reason is simple. Rates. I don't publish rates and never will. First, because by the time that they are in print, they are outdated! Second, when you are shopping interest rates by looking in the paper or online, there is tremendous pressure for lenders publishing those rates to, how shall we say…uh…. exaggerate! Lenders advertise their rates this way for one reason…to make the phone ring. Take the Sunday paper for example... are you going to call the guy with the highest rate? Oh and don’t you just love the guys that name their company AAAA Aardvark Mortgage, just so they are listed first??!!! Puh-leez. Even places like Bankrate.com are offering rates that may or may not be accurate because they deal with companies that face the same kinds of temptation
When considering Internet lenders, be doubly diligent. Companies that work on a national level are, many times, unaware of state specific fees and costs. For example, in Florida we have high Intangible taxes and Doc Stamps. (Part of the reason we are able to avoid a state income tax.) Because of that, when you compare a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) from a local lender and one from the Internet, the charges from an Internet lender may be artificially low. By no means does this excuse you from those charges; they just become a surprise at closing instead of something you can plan for. Now, the GFE is just that… an estimate, so don’t think you have recourse when the lender surprises you with possibly a few thousand dollars extra when you sit down to sign everything. The only option then is to walk away from the table, but doing that may cost you your earnest money to the seller.
This doesn’t mean you can’t find a good lender online, but be very weary of published rates and GFEs from lenders that do not reside in the state of Florida. If you have a lender currently and would like me to eyeball the GFE for you at no charge, please give me a call. If they are hammering you, I will tell you… if not, I will tell you that as well. I offer this, not because I "get” all those deals, but I DO help 2-3 out of 5!
To Contact Chris with Trintiy Mortgage Company, call 407-389-2060 x 210 or email him at: Chris@OrlandoMortgagePro.com
This article was originally printed in the Seminole Real Estate Marketplace in April, 2005