Mortgage Price Quotes
Rates and points quoted by loan providers. You cannot safely assume that mortgage price quotes are always timely, niche-adjusted, complete, or reliable. Timeliness: Most mortgage lenders change their prices daily, generally in the morning after secondary markets open, and sometimes they will change them during the day as well. This is a major problem for shoppers using traditional distribution channels, since prices collected from lender 1 on Monday and from lender 2 on Tuesday will not be comparable if the market has changed in the meantime. Niche-Adjusted: Most mortgage price quotes are based on the most favorable assumptions possible about your niche. Niche-adjusted prices are available from a loan officer by volunteering the information needed to determine the correct price. Usually, the loan officer will ask you to fill out an application in the process, which makes it difficult to shop. The easier way to shop niche-adjusted prices is at Web sites that offer a 'customized' price. To receive it, you must first fill out a form that provides the required information about your deal, but you don't have to apply. Multiple Web sites can be shopped in one sitting. Completeness: Most price quotes consist of rate and points only. They omit fixed-dollar fees, and on ARMs they also omit features that affect the ARM rate after the initial rate period ends. Reliability: A reliable price quote is one that, assuming the market does not change, the loan provider intends to honor when you lock. Some loan providers offer low-ball quotes they have no intention of honoring. The objective is to rope you in. They figure that once you are in the application process, they have a good chance of landing you as a borrower. If you are purchasing a house, the cost of terminating the process with one loan provider and starting again with another becomes increasingly high as you move toward the home closing date. Your bargaining power recedes with the passage of time.
Popular Mortgage Terms
A borrower who must use tax returns to document income rather than information provided by an employer. ...
The present value of a house, given the elderly owner's right to live there until she dies or voluntarily moves out, under FHA's reverse mortgage program. ...
The maximum allowable increase in the interest rate on an ARM each time the rate is adjusted. It is usually one or two percentage points. ...
A payment made after the grace period stipulated in the note, usually 10-15 days. ...
A mortgage on which half the monthly payment is paid twice a month. It should be called a 'semi-monthly mortgage' but market practice often trumps logic. In contrast to a biweekly, a ...
Prices that assume a more or less standardized set of transaction characteristics that generally command the lowest prices. Generic prices are distinguished from transaction specific ...
An agreement by the lender not to exercise the legal right to foreclose in exchange for an agreement by the borrower to a payment plan that will cure the borrowers delinquency. ...
Rolling short-term debt into a home mortgage loan, either at the time of home purchase or later. The Case for Consolidation: Borrowers consolidate in order to reduce their finance costs. ...
A very large increase in the payment on an ARM that may surprise the borrower. The term is also used to refer to a large difference between the rent being paid by a first-time home buyer ...
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