MortgagesUndressed

The easiest sucker to snooker is the person that picks up the local Sunday paper and starts calling all the banks and mortgage companies for a low rate.

I worked at a bank that thrived on this. The problem is the rate they quoted in the paper was sent to the paper on Wednesday. Now it is Monday, 5 days later. So the unethical loan officer quotes a good rate. They then exhaust the client by filling out an application on line or on the phone . This takes forever and an hour. No one wants to do that again.

So an appointment is made for Tuesday. The borrower comes in expecting 6 days ago rate. Hey the rates change daily. The loan officer quotes a high rate now, they have nabbed the poor soul, worn them out, pulled them in. A bad experiece, a common one too.

So, dont pick a lender that quotes a low rate.

However, you should know the market when you are borrowing. Not so you can squeeze every last .125 out of the rate, but so you don’t get rate raped.

From time to time I will post places to get a feeling on rates. Here is Freddie Mac’s site. Larry Cragun