Important Information If You Are Shopping Around!

If you are one someone who is in the market for a mortgage, you have come to the right place. Some people have a current relationship with a lender, some go by who their friends refer, and others shop around. It seems most people fall into the latter 2 categories. Checking around and getting a few recommendations seems to be the best way to do it. In today's market you want to find someone who has proven themselves time and time again. What better way to do this that check with past clients. For those that are avid shoppers, this post is for you.
What are the key components you are looking for when shopping?
Rate?
Closing Costs?
Customer Service?
Knowledge?
Expertise?
Experience?

These are all important. The rate and closing costs that are quoted should be the easiest to compare, as long as everyone discloses them properly. (this could be another article in itself)
The others are a bit harder to judge. I am sure anyone you talk to can talk the game and act like they are on the ball. You just have to be able to judge who is for real and who is not.
Here are a few questions you can ask each loan officer as you shop around in today's volatile market. These questions can serve 2 purposes. They will give you valuable rate information to go with the rate they are quoting and will help expose loan officers that don't know the simple but important answers.

Here they are:

1. What are mortgage rates based on?
2. What is the next economic report or event that could cause interest rate movement?
3. When the FED changes rates, what does this mean and what impact does it have on mortgage rates?
4. Do you have access to live , real time, mortgage bond quotes?

These are some very basic questions with simple answers. If any lender is not able to give you quick answers that make sense, BEWARE! In today's market it is crucial they know this stuff. What good is a low rate quote if they do not know what influences the rate they gave you? They need to know when to Lock and when to Float. They could quote you 6% and not pay attention to the market and the next day it is 6.5%. Now that time you took to shop around is wasted!
I did not list the answers to these questions. If you are someone who is shopping around, please send us an email (eric.hemmer@pmg-inc.net or shawnvt@pmg-inc.net)
and we will be happy to provide you with the ammo to shop. We of course would like you to use PMG. However, with this information you should be able to feel more comfortable with your final choice, no matter who you choose.

Note:
As some of you have experienced, PMG has used a similar set of questions in the past. However, we have improved on this idea with the help of the Mortgage Market Guide. This is a great service and one of a couple sources that we use to monitor the market. We want to thank them for providing the tips to expand on this idea! It is truly a wonderul tip for consumers.

Brought to you by:
Professional Mortgage Group, Inc.
"Your Columbia, MO Mortgage Broker"