Hello from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Welcome to the IowaMortgageGuy Blog!  Glad to have you as a guest and hope to see you back again soon.  Hope you find the information useful and informative.

Selecting the right mortgage is critical to the home buying process.  Therefore, it's important to understand what goes into figuring interest rates for your new loan.   When considering a mortgage and rates there are several things the Iowa Mortgage Guy likes to ask his clients to be prepared to go into calculating an accurate interest rate.

WHATS NEW?

So many changes have been occuring recently over how rates are figured that I have came up with a few tips to help you get a more accurate quote on mortgage rates when you are shopping.  If you ask for rates and don't clarify a few things first, you set yourself (the customer) up for interest rates that you potentially may not be able to get and potentially have your expectations set too high only to have your hopes dashed at lock time.  Some lenders will quote their very best rates with 30% down and the very best credit scores and maximum loan amount which obviously doesn't apply to all borrowers.  Rates can be very volatile and credit policy has been too so things can change in a matter of days or even hours. 

HELP YOURSELF AND HELP YOUR PREFERRED MORTGAGE PROVIDER...

SO WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?

The Eight things you need to get an accurate quote on an Interest Rate today.

It's important to ask the right questions before relying upon the simple phone call, simple answer quote for an interest rate on any given day. 

1.     Family Loan Type - Are you looking at doing an FHA, VA or Conventional Loan?

2.     Product and Loan Term - Are you looking for a Fixed or Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) and what amortization period/term are you looking for: 10,15,20,25,30 years?

3.     Purpose - What's the purpose of the loan?  Is it to Purchase, Rate and Term Refinance, Debt Consolidation or Cash-out Refinance?

4.     Property Type - Are you financing a Single Family Home, Condo, 2 Unit or 3-4 Unit, ect?

5.     Occupancy - Do you plan to Owner Occupy the property or is a 2nd Home or Investment Property?

6.     Loan Amount - How much are you desiring to borrow?

7.     Market Value - What is the Purchase Price or Value of the home?

8.     Credit - What are the credit scores of the borrowers to be on the loan and if you know them, what's the lowest middle credit score of all borrowers on application?

The bottom line is that you must have some sort of idea of what you are requesting respect to your home, financial objectives, goals and wealth strategies and discuss them with a professional mortgage originator and make the educated choices that are best suited to YOUR goals and objectives.

Putting my interest in yours,

Jeff Harding