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Where’s the best place to shop for a mortgage? Bankrate, Rocket Mortgage all claim to have the lowest rates but there’s direct smaller lenders that definitely

• Spooky23 7y ago
  Usually local credit unions and small banks. Sometimes rates are marginally higher but the underwriting process is better and transaction costs are usually lower. When I bought my first house, it was a 90% LTV loan that was .1% higher, but didn’t require escrow or PMI.
• gnopgnip 7y ago
  You want to check through different sources, direct to consumer, through a mortgage broker, and through a bank you have an existing relationship with. It is worth shopping around with the direct to consumer lending, there might be a $10k difference in closing costs for the same rate between the best and worst of 5 lenders. With a broker they will compare 10+ sources typically. For instance Quicken/Rocket will have different rates going direct or going through a broker. If you have a lot of money invested with Chase/BOA they could give you a better rate than you would get elsewhere. The same can be true of a credit union, or you could get a discount even if you do not have a substantial amount of money invested with your bank.
• alasdair_ 7y ago
  Shop around and play lenders against each other. I've found they absolutely WILL negotiate, even if they claim otherwise. I ended up using Better for my last refinance FWIW.