Evaluating Mortgages and Comparing Lenders

How do you evaluate which mortgage lender to go with when buying properties? How do you compare lenders?

In this class you'll learn:

  • An experiment emailing lenders for rates (an experiment with real results)
  • My email template for asking for rates
  • Email response times (or lack of response)
  • What to provide to each lender to get the closet apples to apples comparison
  • What you might get back from the lenders
  • What is the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and why it matters and why it doesn't matter
  • Appraisals and why it is hard to compare appraisals between lenders
  • Getting a lender letter
  • Getting pre-qualified
  • How lenders quote points and why you might not be fairly comparing lender A to lender B (and its their own fault)
  • In an ideal world, this is what you want to get from your prospective lender...
  • Some situation specific concerns and how to deal with them
  • Lender fees: which are static/less lender specific and which are lender specific and variable
  • Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and how it varies for each lender (see our entire separate class on Private Mortgage Insurance)
  • Understanding how lenders get paid
  • Selecting a lender after gathering your research
  • Why it is not always about rate for me when selecting a lender and what I am willing to pay a (small) premium for
  • Some lenders will compete to get your business (many won't)
  • Lenders going above and beyond offering additional perks and services
  • Plus much more...

Duration: 1 hour and 59 minutes
Recorded: November 13, 2019
Instructor: James Orr