As with all of my articles this will be based on a scenario in my home town. (Which may be similar to yours).

Loans and mortgages can be a tricky business, not to mention a costly business if you are unsure where to go and seek out help. The fact is that most local bankers and lenders will look over your present situation checking items such as your past payment history, your overall credit rating and most importantly your present income. Either yours or yours and your partners. This will in turn pretty much get you 2 or 3 options at best. So you shop around and you get the same offers almost eveywhere you go.

There is another way to help you find the best rate.

With technology advancing and with mortgages being such big business due to the lifespan of how long you will be paying the lender, your options are not nearly as limited as you may or may not be lead to believe. I was doing a seminar a few weeks ago with a room of about 20 people who were all looking at cost effective ways to get into a home and how to make sure they were getting the best option for their money. Now this is very important for several reasons :

1. It's your money, you want the best and most practical mortgage payment available.

2. This is a long term investment, so you do the math here. What makes more sense $700.00 a month or $900.00 a month? Yes, it is a trick question, because it depends on how long the terms are and how much you can afford. It may seem off but alot of times the $900.00 is worse, usually more is better but well read the fine print.

3. You want competition. Keep reading and I will explain.

Alright, the more competition you get the better it is for you in the long run because the lender wants your business. But...if you live in a small town, like I do, you may not have much competition at all. So if you don't like what they offer you what do you do? Do you necessarily take the best offer? Personally I wouldn't...I would do some digging, alot of people still don't realize that you can actually take 5 or 10 minutes at most and check out the internet for a whole slew of lenders and mortgage companies that will literally fight for your business. It's true and it's convenient for you. You don't have to make an appointment, get dressed up, take a "positive" pill and get all stressed out over the meeting. You simply go online, fill out a few forms (as many as you like) and wait for the replies. It's fast, its incredibly effective, and it will more than likely save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

That being said, you should still make sure you are comfortable wih the companies you fill the forms out with and here are a few must tips to doing this :

1. Give out as much personal information as you are comfortable with, don't fill out anything you suspect to be non-required information.

2. Make sure the companis are reputable, look for a B.B.B logo on the page. (Better Business Bureau)

3. This is not a must but a recommendation, when asked for your email give them one you check periodically, I never give out my personal email to any company unless I have been doing business with them for awhile, just to avoid alot of potential email I don't want.

4. Final option, go to www.alexa.com and see what their overall rating is online, take a look at the companies stats. Have they been around awhile? etc. and if you can view their testimonial pages. If they have alot of testimonials then chances are you have found a reputable company to go with.

Well, there it is. The internet can give you alot of options and alot of companies who will fight for your business and again, in the end you win. You will get the best mortgage available and you get to choose the company. Peace of mind.

Until next time.

Take care,