Maybe it’s time to buy your first home. Maybe you want to purchase a rental property. Maybe it’s time to upgrade from your current house. Regardless of the reason, it sounds like you’re going to be buying a house in the next year. Resist your urge to immediately call a REALTOR. Resist your urge to go out touring open houses on the weekends. Resist the urge to go online and look at homes for sale. Before you do any of those things you first need to hire a Loan Officer and get pre-approved.
Why do you need to hire a Loan Officer before you do anything else? For starters, when you hire your agent he is going to want an accurate price range to work with. This range is going to help your agent refine his search and show you the best possible homes within your budget. Also, you don’t want your REALTOR showing you homes you really can’t afford. If you get your heart set on something you can’t afford you’ll either 1) never find a house that lives up to your new standards, or 2) end up buying something that you’re not entirely satisfied with. Finally, when you find a house you like you’re going to want to be able to act immediately. Having a pre-approval from a lender will strengthen any offer you make and increase your chances of getting an acceptance.
You now know that you need to find a Loan Officer, but how should you go about hiring one? If you’ve worked with someone in the past that you respect and trust, give them a call. They’ll appreciate the repeat business and they’ll probably give you a discount off their regular fees (especially if you’ve been referring business to them). If you’re not sure who to call, or if you’ve had a bad experience in the past with your Loan Officer, give me a call. Not only will I provide you with the contact information of some top Loan Officers with gobs of experience, I’ll also call them on your behalf to make certain they give you a discount and make you their highest priority.
If there is one thing I want you to take away from this article it’s this: RATES ARE RATES.
Good Loan Officers have access to the same lenders and the same rates as everyone else, so trying to find the Loan Officer with the best rates is like hiring a driver who has access to the best roads. I know it’s a silly analogy, but it works. Interest rates change two to three times a day, so if you interview Loan Officers over two days based solely on the rate they can deliver, then you’re going to get one of the following:
1. The luckiest Loan Officer of the group whom you called when rates were lowest,
2. The Loan Officer with the highest fees, or
3. The Loan Officer who lied to you about the rate they could deliver.
When you interview a Loan Officer, don’t make it an inquisition . . . have a conversation with them. Find out about their experience, ask how many lenders they have access to, ask about the state of the lending market (trends, changes, regulations, etc.) Ask them how many loans they close each month. Try to get a sense of their intelligence, integrity, and ability. When it’s time to make your decision, know that your best rate and fee structure will come from a knowledgeable, trustworthy Loan Officer with a steady flow of business.
Before I finish, I’d like to leave you with one more thought. Once you’ve selected to your Loan Officer, don’t shop around. From the second you start working with your Loan Officer, they’ll be spending time and money on you without any compensation until your purchase closes. In addition, their processor, their account executives, and their underwriters will be expending a good amount of effort on your behalf that you’ll probably never be aware of. I’m not saying that you should stick with a Loan Officer that is rude, untrustworthy or unresponsive—just don’t look around for another Loan Officer unless you have significant cause to do so.
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