Provo Mortgage: Get The Best Deal

October 8th, 2008

There seems to be no stopping the tide of bad news surrounding the real estate market these days. Lenders are getting pickier and pickier about who they give out mortgage loans to. It even seems that good credit and steady income aren’t quite enough to secure a mortgage. While you’re in the process of getting your Provo mortgage, you should be aware of the fact that there are a lot of areas that you can negotiate on to both lower your closing costs and make your mortgage payments more affordable on a monthly basis. You really should be proactive about it because you can save money right now, but also for as long as the next 30 years or so.

If you take the bull by the horns and start negotiating, you’re putting yourself in the position to save thousands of dollars. This alone is incentive enough to “itemize” your closing costs and mortgage terms and try and save some money on each item. Of course, you still have to keep in mind that with such a large transaction, you want qualified professionals on your side, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do a bit of comparison shopping. The fees are set in print, not in stone!

The easiest way to save money on closing costs on your Provo mortgage is to shop around for lower prices on title insurance, title examination, title searching and attorney’s and settlement fees. Not only is it legal for you to offer your business to the company of your choosing for those services, but with the increased competition in the real estate market, you might be surprised how good a deal you might get by just scoping the competition! You can also save money by talking down your application, origination, processing, and document preparation fees. Every single one of those fees can be legally passed on to you, but if you show that you know the game, then you’ll see savings magically appear.

When it comes to interest rates, if your loan is handled by a Provo mortgage broker, make sure to ask about their compensation, since they essentially get paid by “marking up” the interest rate that the bank is offering (which means that they might tack for example and extra 0.50% to your interest rate). Ask this question, because they’re legally obligated to disclose that information to you.

Even if you don’t have a mortgage broker, make sure you sit down with your Provo loan officer and negotiate your interest rate. This is extremely important because this is something you might be paying for the next 30 years. Investigate every avenue that could lead you to get a lower interest rate on your mortgage loan. You can even shop your loan application without it hurting your credit because the credit reporting industry has corrected this previously damaging loophole. Now all inquiries from the same type of lender within a 14 day period (which suggests that you’re comparison shopping) count as one inquiry.

So sit down with your loan officer and go over the points that you’re being charged, your interest rate, your home insurance rate (you can’t get a mortgage if your home is not insured) and the premium you’ll have to pay, and so forth. Take all the information and go home and crunch the numbers to come up with the best mortgage you can find. Over the years, as the savings pile up, you’ll be very glad you did your homework.