We Tell it Like It Is

Who you choose to get your mortgage from can make buying a home easier or more difficult believe it or not. Please please please understand that its not all about the advertised low rates and discounted fees. If someone advertises these great features, they'll charge you in other ways. They will not take less money than the next guy; they just find different ways of getting cash from you. Here are some very important tips when you are shopping around for a mortgage person:

1a) DO NOT use an automated online pre-approval system. Sure, its fast and easy. But, my clients & I have had some very bad experiences. One client recently had the online system calculate $3,000 as their closing costs. However, after looking it over for them, I found that the system left out some charges and the costs should be more like $7-8,000. Ok, that's a big difference. 2 other clients of mine had some issues that needed immediate attention and we did not have a live person to talk to. We had to call a main phone number and talk to someone out of state that was not familiar with the account and could not help us. We were connected over and over again until we finally got to someone that could help. When we called that person back the next day with another question, they were gone and someone else was assigned to the account and we had to start all over again.

1b) DO use a real, local person. Someone you can meet with face to face if you want to. The same person assigned to you throughout the whole transaction that you can call anytime at the same number. Someone that will even attend the closing with you to make sure everything goes status quo.

Stay tuned for tip #2.