Unlike elsewhere in your personal finance, mortage shopping mistakes are often costly, and sometimes deadly.

Select The Loan Provider Offering The Best Price Over The Telephone Or In The Newspaper

If you cast a wide net, you are bound to find a rogue who will beat all the other prices, but has neither the capacity nor the intention of delivering such prices. His objective is to rope you in and move the process along until it is too late for you to back out. At that point, he raises the price using any of a dozen tricks available for that purpose.

Remember: Because the market is constantly changing, you can't hold a broker or lender to a price quote until you lock the prices. A lock is the lender's agreement guaranteeing the prices.

Assume That You Can Shop Lender A Today And Lender B Tomorrow

Because of market volatility, prices obtained on different days are not comparable. Unless you shop all sources on the same day, you are wasting your time.

Solicit Price Information Without Providing All The Information About Your Loan That May Affect The Price

Prices vary with numerous borrower, property and transaction characteristics that lenders believe affect their risk and cost. These include loan size, credit rating, type of house, your ability to document income and assets, etc.

Unless informed to the contrary, lenders quoting prices assume a set of standard specifications that generates the lowest price. If the specs on your loan differ at all, the price will be higher.

For example, lenders assume you are purchasing a single-family house as your permanent residence. If in fact you are buying a condo, or the house is intended as a second home, expect to pay more.