Tips for Finding Best Mortgage Companies & Securing Mortgage Loans at Best Rates

When you plan to buy a home, it goes without saying that you are in it for the long haul due to the reason that a mortgage debt of 15, 20 or even 30 years is accompanied by it. Therefore, it is smart to shop around for a while to find the best mortgage company out there to accompany you in this long journey. One wrong move can result in the selection of a wrong mortgage company or a wrong product and then you could end up spending thousands of extra dollars that could have been easily saved.

Finding good mortgage loans and a good mortgage lender involves more than just the interest rate. You’ll be handling your mortgage for a minimum of 15 years and therefore, it is important that you work with nothing but the best mortgage company, staffed by professionals, who have your best interest at heart and who can expertly guide you through the entire process.

Here are some tips that will help you in finding the best lenders and grant you more bargaining power:

1.   Polish Your Credit Score: With great credit score, comes great bargaining power and great bargaining power ensures better interest rates.

2.       Know the Lending Landscape: You’ll have to compare a lot of different type of lenders in order to find out which one suits your requirements the best. Talk to online lenders, credit unions, mortgage bankers etc. You can’t rule anyone out before doing your research and comparisons.

3.       Compare Rates: It goes without saying that you’ll have to sit for hours in front of your computer screen and compare rates and terms nonstop to find the best lender.

4.    Asking the Right Questions: Find out about the lenders’ communication channels, fees, requirements etc. and do it upfront. Don’t be shy in asking the questions.

5.       Read the Fine Print Thoroughly: A mortgage loan is not just principal and interest. There are various other costs and fees associated to it. Before you finalize a lender, grab a magnifying glass and read the fine print thoroughly.

If you are planning to purchase a home, All Western Mortgage is a name that has been satisfying its customers since 1981. When it comes to residential mortgages, our happy clients speak for our work.

To know more about us, just give us a call at 702-850-2790 or visit http://www.awmlending.com/contactus.php

3 Steps to Obtain a Mortgage

If you are seriously planning to buy a home anytime soon, then the first thing that should be on your bucket list is to get your credit ratings in order. Once you clean up your credit report, identify, pay off and close most of your credit cards, the next thing you need to do is shop for a mortgage. Following are the preliminary steps that you need to follow in order to obtain a mortgage:

1. Get Pre-Qualified: Getting pre-qualified is the first step of the mortgage process. In order to get pre qualified, you meet a lender and provide him information about your income, assets and debts. Based on that information, the lender will provide you with a rough estimate of how much money you can borrow. The entire pre-qualification process is informal as the lender does not verify the information that you provide and doesn’t even charge you a fee. Neither does he formally agrees to provide the loan amount, you get pre-qualified for. However, while the pre-qualification is not a guarantee of your loan getting approved, it does provide you with a general idea of the amount lenders will agree to give you as a mortgage. This allows you to look for the properties that fall within your budget.

2. Get Pre-Approved: The pre-approval process is more or less the same as the pre-qualification process. The only difference being that pre-approval is more formal. The lender officially confirms your ability to take a mortgage by checking your credit rating and verifying your financial and employment information. He also charges a fee for pre-approving you and provides you with a written commitment that you are eligible to borrow a certain amount of money as mortgage. Having a pre-approval strengthens your ability to buy a home as sellers give preference to the offers made by pre-approved buyers. This is simply because of the fact that pre-approved buyers have proved that they can actually afford to purchase the house.

3. Finalizing a Lender: Mortgage banks, real estate agents, online lenders and mortgage brokers are all great sources of obtaining a mortgage. No single source of mortgage provides the perfect product for all kinds of shoppers, but knowing the pros and cons of all of them will help you in choosing the lender that is right for you.

• Mortgage Brokers: Brokers help more people obtain mortgage loans than any other source. The benefits of hiring a broker are that they have access to large number of lenders and they can shop the marketplace and compare the deals offered by various lenders, on behalf of the client. They can be extremely useful if you are looking for an unconventional type of loan or have damaged credit. On the other hand, the downside of working with brokers is that their goals are different than yours and they can sometimes get you a bad deal to increase the amount of their commission. Also, brokers don’t work for free and sometimes the fee charged by them can be a bit high.

• Banks: Banks are the traditional source of mortgage funding. If your local bank, where you have your savings and salary accounts, is offering you a good interest rate and alluring terms, then there is no reason to not choose them. However, if it is not offering both, then there are many other banks in town whom you can approach. The only negative aspect of working with the banks is that they offer a limited number of mortgage options and they are generally not that flexible when it comes to fees.

• Real Estate Agents: Real estate agents often introduce their clients to quality private lenders. As they are in the business of selling houses, it is natural that the agents know a lot of mortgage lenders. Many homeowners prefer to work with a lender suggested by their real estate agent instead of shopping for loans themselves. However, working with a private lender, suggested by your agent, may also offer only a limited number of mortgage programs.

• Online Lenders: Shopping for mortgages online has gained immense popularity in the past few years, due to the plethora of benefits that it offers. The major benefits of shopping for mortgages online are that it is quick, convenient and allows you to contact and compare the options provided by multiple vendors simultaneously. You don’t have to leave the comfort of your home and you can shop at any time of the day. You are no longer bound by the business hours. Even if you eventually take a loan from a brick and mortar establishment, the plethora of data gathered from comparing vendors online will provide a wealth of information that will be crucial in attaining good mortgage terms.

Getting pre-approved is necessary for making sellers seriously consider your offer. When it comes to shopping for mortgage, no method is right or wrong and every lender has some pros and cons. However, it is imperative that you plan in advance and shop carefully in order to obtain the best deal that suits your financial needs.

Want to stay updated on Real Estate & Mortgage industry, follow us on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. Or if you need any advice regarding home loans, feel free to contact All Western Mortgage Lending at 702-850-2790.

The Basics of Adjustable Rate Mortgage

Adjustable Rate Mortgages’, aka ARMs, monthly payments can move up or down as per the fluctuations of interest rates and financial indexes. Most of the ARMs have an initial period of fixed rate where the interest and monthly payments remain the same and after the expiry of that fixed rate period, the interest rates begin to change at preset intervals. This can be monthly, yearly half-yearly or quarterly.

Advantages of ARMs

• The initial fixed rate period offers lower interest rate as compared to the Fixed-Rate Mortgages
• After the expiry of the initial fixed-rate period, the interest rate can fall even further, making the monthly payments even lower.

Disadvantages of ARMs

• After the end of the initial fixed-rate period, the interest rate can go up as well, making the monthly payments higher
• Interest rates and financial indexes are unpredictable. So, you never know how much you’re going to pay as interest in the future.

Indexes and Margins

After the expiry of the fixed rate period, the interest rates on ARMs begin to increase or decrease as per an index plus a set margin. Most of the ARMs are tied to one of the following three indexes:
• The maturity yield on one-year Treasury Bills
• The 11th District cost of funds index
• The London Interbank Offered Rate

Sky is Not the Limit! There are Caps on Interest Rates

The fluctuations of interest rates don’t mean that your monthly payments can skyrocket. There are certain caps on the interest rates that protect the interests of both the borrowers and the lenders. The types of caps levied on the Adjustable Rate Mortgage are:

• A periodic rate cap that governs how much the interest rate can change from one year to the next
• A lifetime cap that governs how much the rates can rise during the life of the loan
• A payment cap that limits the amount of monthly payments

For more info on Adjustable Rate Mortgages, feel free to call All Western Mortgage at 702-850-2790