Sunday, November 12, 2006

An Easy Way To Compare Home Loans

When you compare home loans, do you know how to make sure you are getting the right mortgage? Almost everyone looks to find the best mortgage interest rate, but getting a mortgage for your particular situation is far more important.

Even though your interest rate is a big consideration, you really should think about at how long you will live in your home before you ask about a rate.

Here are some considerations to make it easier the next time you are ready to compare home loans.

Determine how long you will live in your home because that will suggest what kind of fixed term you need on your loan. If you think that you will live in the home for more than 7 years, then a 30 year home loan makes sense. But any less and you may want to consider a short term loan with lower monthly payments.

If you are only going to live in your home for five years or less, you should consider a short term fixed loan. These loans usually offer lower interest rates than a thirty year fixed.

Why pay for a long term loan with higher interest rates if you don't really need to? With the average person changing homes every five to seven years, paying for a 30 year fixed loan may be a waste of money.

If you want to compare home loans and fees and get quotes from a couple of different lenders, ask each one for a good faith estimate form that lists all mortgage closing costs. Purchase loans and refinancing mortgage loans will both have a good faith estimate form.

A good faith estimate form lists all of the estimated mortgage closing costs and shows what the lender fees and escrow fees from each lender are. If one lender offers you the best mortgage interest rate, but the lender fees are much higher than the other lender, it's obvious he is making up that cost in higher fees.

It's easy to compare fees and costs from both good faith estimate forms side by side to see which is a better loan for you. If a lender doesn't want to give you this form, they may be trying to hide something and you need to decide if they have your bests interests in mind.

Another important consideration when you compare home loans is making sure you understand everything about your loan. The new hybrid ARM's on the market can be very confusing. You don't want any surprises because surprises in a mortgage loan usually end up costing you more money that you expected.

Ask a lot of questions and never sign anything until you feel comfortable and understand everything about the loan. Once you sign the loan documents, you are responsible for that loan no matter what the loan officer or mortgage broker told you.

The next time you want to compare home loans, consider more than just the best mortgage interest rate so you'll know exactly how your loan works and end up with the right loan that fits your unique lifestyle.


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