...but you have no idea.  Remember that line when it was first uttered in MTV's Real World series? Maybe or maybe not, but the concept should ring a bell.

One of the things that is always hard to understand is the uneducated borrower who calls you up and asks you for your best rate. The reality is that each and every broker out there has the same exact lender list and each and every banker out there has the same products as the next guy at their bank.  How then do you go about finding someone to work with one of the biggest financial transactions you'll every make (getting a mortgage) by simply asking for the best rate?

The answer is that you don't! You are trying to be educated in the eyes of the lender, but guess what? We hear it all the time.  There are so many different products out there and so much variability in the market on a weekly, daily, and sometimes hourly basis, that quoting you rates really has no bearing on obtaining the best mortgage for you. 

In my mind the educated borrower is not someone that assumes they know it all. The one that asks for a couple of different options, with the lowest payments, and with the least amount of risk, is by far and away a more educated borrower than the one who just asks for rates.  Furthermore, the educated borrower actually takes the time to find a mortgage planner, and then takes the time to sit down in person and meet with them to go over their goals and aspirations first.  After all, you wouldn't go to a doctor and ask for a prescription without the doctor first doing a thorough evaluation of what's wrong with you...would you?  So with this ginormous financial transaction, why would you simply just assume you know what you are talking about before letting the mortgage planner gives his educated assessment of your situation? Again, my guess is that you probably wouldn't.

There's this great quote out there but I'm not really sure who the first person to say it was.  It goes like this, "Knowledge is Power."  Simple but yet powerful in meaning.  Be the borrower who goes out there and gets in a conversation with the guy that's out there in the trenches day in and day out (the mortgage planner).  You won't regret working with one of these professionals.

So, when you think you know, you really have no idea.  Make it happen!

For more info, check out my outside blog at http://www.mortgage-wealth.com