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1. Choosing a lender is a long-term relationship. You want to work with someone who will hold you hand and who will explain to you the process. Don't simply pick a lender primarily because it offers the lowest rates but failed to close on time, difficult to get a hold of and inability to explain to you every steps of the process.  You may want to refinance or buy another home in the future so you want to work with people you can trust.   

2. Many lenders will offer you free rate quotes based on a few details such as your credit score range, loan amount, term or length of your loan and type of loan that you are interested in such as Fixed vs. ARM.  However, to firm-up your quote - you must apply for a mortgage or loan application and you must provide supporting documents as requested. This is where we will verify your 4C's : Cash (or down payment), Capacity ( or your job), Collateral (or subject property) and Credit (or your FICO score).  You should shy away from any lender that provide you with a Pre-Approval without going through all of the above items. 

3. Closing costs - by comparing lenders you will see variations in  i) lender-origination fees, ii) discount points, iii) Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and third-party fees. At Pacific Coast Financial, we do not charge origination fee and offer competitive PMI. Third-party fees such as escrow, title, recording fees are indifferent from lender to lender. So I would recommend focusing on the first 3 items while shopping in addition to comparing rates of course. 

4. Shopping with a variety of lenders such as national banks, credit unions, online lenders and a mortgage broker will help you compare who's charging what. Since rates fluctuate on an hourly/daily basis - it is imperative that you compare rates in the same day from multiple lenders.  For example, rate that you were quoted on Monday will be different tomorrow. In order to obtain useful comparison and to compare apples to apples - you will need a document called a Loan Estimate from each lender. In order to obtain a Loan Estimate - you must provide each lender with 6 items as required per TRID. 

While shopping for rates - you will get a sense of what kind of customer service you'll receive based on how smoothly the communication goes, how responsive the loan originator is and how efficiently your loan application is being processed. Here are more reasons why you should work with a mortgage broker such as myself. I am responsive, locally owned and operated in Seattle since 2004, I will hold your hand every step of the way and as a small mortgage broker with low overhead costs - I am able to pass on the savings to you and your family.