Mortgage rate shopping details

[CFEonline]

At what point are you comitted to a particular lender? Any penalties/fees you can run into?

[Shant]

Where I live you can lock in pre-approved mortgage rates for either 3 months or 4 months depending on the lender, and closing on the house purchase is usually a couple months after signing the contract for the house. Although the ability to move faster can make your offer more attractive to the seller.

[EM-CCM MD]

What is the time frame between placing an offer with your pre-approval letter and committing to a lender? This is, I think, where people talk about shopping rates on the "back end"

I got a preapproval letter in January when we started shopping. I put in a couple offers that didn’t go through. There was a drop the first week in February so I did a 90 day lock. We subsequently had an offer accepted and I had already locked. It took about 2 weeks to get all the mortgage stuff done, but they said they like 4 to ensure you close on time. I think 30 days is about industry standard.

[CFEonline]

What is the time frame between placing an offer with your pre-approval letter and committing to a lender? This is, I think, where people talk about shopping rates on the "back end"

[Peds]

3.275 on a 30y FRM with 15% down (only 5% required). Bank closing costs were just under 1k. Purchased in mid March, locked rate in early February. Used Suntrust - they were good.

thanks.

[EM-CCM MD]

which was?

3.275 on a 30y FRM with 15% down (only 5% required). Bank closing costs were just under 1k. Purchased in mid March, locked rate in early February. Used Suntrust - they were good.

[Peds]

I used leverage rx and also emailed about 10-15 from the wci list. I probably overdid it, but am happy with the rate I got.

which was?

[EM-CCM MD]

I used leverage rx and also emailed about 10-15 from the wci list. I probably overdid it, but am happy with the rate I got.

[Hank]

I had good results with Costco and less impressive results with a mortgage broker. Then again, this is an n of 1 and the plural of anecdote is not data.

[Shant]

I got the best deal with a mortgage broker because they accessed a bulk discount on top of the low rates. If you have decent credit you should be able to just get pre-approved with the lender with the best rate you can find then check later if anything has improved.

[CFEonline]

How many lenders did you compare rates with? Looks like there's around 7-10 on the WCI for my state, some local folks I want to check with and worth getting a quote from Costco and rocket mortgage. Is that too many to apply with all of them, provided it's within 2 weeks of each other?

How how long do you have between making an offer and needing to lock in financing, to use to shop rates on the back end? I understand you can get a pre-approval from anyone in order to make an offer, and then shop around for best rates later. However, it seems like a fairly tight window. Additionally, it seems like it might be better to put all the applications out there originally so you only get dinged for 1 hard credit pull, instead of just getting a pre-approval letter and sometime in the next three months checking around for a more rates.