Ben Conklin

You can save yourself thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage if you spend an hour or two setting up your overall goals for the type of mortgage you want. Think about the kind of loan you need and how long you will keep the property.

Ask your friends, family, co-worker and Realtor for referrals to loan officers who took good care of them.

Once you find a few, give each loan officer a call. While the loan officer is prequalifying you for a loan, I recommend that you prequalify the loan officer. This is the time to do your homework and interview each loan officer. Trust your gut instincts and go with the loan officer who listens to you. Ask all the questions that you have, be sure you understand their explanations about their recommendations. Don't hold back. If they cannot answer your questions, move on to the next.

When you finally find a loan officer that you are comfortable with, then move forward having them pull your credit report. Always assume that if you give someone your Social Security that you have pretty much given them permission to run your credit report.

In the mortgage business, we look at all three scores and use the middle score as the number that determines what rate you can expect to be offered for a specific loan. Down payment or equity in the property is also considered.

Be aware that your credit report may be pulled an additional two or three times during the course of the loan being processed. If you are working with a broker, that broker will pull their own credit report and the lender that the loan is placed with will pull his or her own report. If you are using one of the companies advertised on the Internet where your loan scenario is submitted to say, five or more lenders, please be aware that five different lenders will pull five different credit reports.

All those inquiries can knock down your credit scores, if only a few points. A few points can mean the difference between 4.75% and 5.00% on the interest rate of your mortgage. It is awful to find out that your score dropped five or ten points because of inquiries. Those with scores below 640 will be especially hard hit by all those inquiries.

The next step to preparing for a new mortgage is to gather your income documentation. That will include you last 2 years of Federal tax returns along with your W-2s and your paycheck stubs for the past month. You will also need bank statements from all of your checking and savings accounts for the past 90 days. Investment statements and any mortgage statements are also a good idea. This is a simple list of what might be needed on a conventional loan. Additional information may be needed for your personal situation.

You can do the actual loan application on the phone, on the lender's website, by mail, or with a visit to your loan officer's office. In most cases it is always a good idea to make the appointment to meet face to face.

I hope this will give you a good start on getting ready for a new mortgage and feel free to contact me if you ever have any mortgage needs.