When you decide to purchase a home in Pittsburg CA, two of your most important choices should come before all others. Those are the choice of a Pittsburg CA real estate agent and the choice of a Pittsburg CA mortgage lender.
Your real estate agent can make your home search easier, advise you on pricing, help you negotiate, and handle the dozens of tasks that will make your transaction proceed smoothly.
Your mortgage lender, if you choose well, will help protect your finances.
A good mortgage lender will investigate all of your mortgage options and help you do the calculations in order to choose which is right for you. He or she will also charge reasonable fees for this service.
Nationally, closing costs – including lender fees – range from 2% to 5% of the loan amount. Some of the discrepancy is regional, but some is due to the number and size of the fees a lender imposes.
Some in the industry refer to additional fees as “junk fees,” and the name is well-deserved, because they give you no added value.
This is why it’s always in your interest to interview more than one lender and to request a Good Faith Estimate from each before making a decision.
Choose from among Pittsburg CA lenders who do NOT charge an application fee. That, after all, is a junk fee.
Read the good faith estimates with an eye out for:
Inspection Fees
Underwriting fees
Rate lock fees
Processing fees
Courier fees
Administrative fees
Wire transfer fees
Document preparation fees
Commitment fees
Origination fees
Broker fees
Miscellaneous fees
Some of these fees are legitimate, but are higher from one lender to another. Some, such as origination and broker fees, are duplicates of each other.
If you borrow $200,000, the difference between 2% in fees and 5% in fees is $6,000, so beware.
The second factor to consider when hiring a Pittsburg CA lender is his or her attitude. If the lender is too busy to return your calls or to answer all of your questions and treat you as a valued customer, keep looking.
You and your lender will be working closely together, so take time to choose someone with reasonable fees AND a pleasant, helpful attitude.
If you’re thinking of purchasing a home here in Pittsburg CA and don’t know where to begin searching for a lender, call me. I’ll be glad to refer you to lenders who have served my clients well in the past.