Shopping around for a loan

Msz10587 · January 2014

We are just starting our house search. We have already been pre-approved for a loan with our bank that we go to. My husband wants to look around at other banks to see what other rates we get offered. I don't think we would get anything different. I've also heard that if you go to multiple banks that it hurts your credit score. Not sure what we should do. Should we look at a few more or stick with the one? What did you do?

LoveKiss · January 2014

Hard pulls from mortgage lenders within a single 30 day period are usually lumped together and counted by the credit bureaus as a single pull. So if you group all of your shopping into a single 30 day period, then shopping around won't negatively effect your credit scores. We didn't find much difference in rates and terms between lenders during the pre-approval stage. But we were very well qualified and knew that we could bid lenders against each other during the actual mortgage application stage. So we got pre-approved by the 2 lenders we liked the most (fastest to respond even on nights and weekends, good personalities, good word of mouth reviews) and worked with both lenders throughout the entire shopping process. Then, on the big day I spent 9 hours bidding them against each other, making them work for our business. It was crazy stressful, but ultimately saved us about $30k.

mizangi · January 2014

The rates may be similar, but the associated fees differ between lenders. I ended up getting a big break on closing costs and lender fees by going with a lender that offered a special program for government employees.

Shopping around for a loan

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