Moving to "the darkside" of the "ARITLP"

[photopress:darkside.gif,thumb,alignright]This morning I posted “the easy version” (post below this one) of the Real Estate Agent’s Role in the Lending Process.  I will now take it over to “the darkside” where the correct answer is a zero down, stated income, stacked costs, sub-prime loan with a pre-payment penalty. 

I call it “the darkside” because it goes to least conservative loan product.  But both are examples of CORRECT ways to proceed.

Buyer:  I want to see townhomes priced at $350,000.

Agent:  Have you spoken with a lender?

Buyer: Yes, and here is a pre-approval letter for up to $350,000.

Agent: OK, let’s go see some townhomes.

Buyer finds one he wants to purchase for exactly $350,000.

Agent:  How much are you planning to put down (Needed to write offer, as downpayment amount goes into the Finance Contingency.)

Buyer: Zero Down

Agent: Do you have the GFE from your lender? 

Buyer: Yes.  Here it is.

Agent: OK.  So looks like you will need $10,000 for closing costs and prepaids.  Do you have that?

Buyer: No, I need you to have the seller pay them. 

Agent:  OK, well the property has been on market for 20 days.  Let me call the listing agent and see if he has any other offers.  OK, no other offers.  Let’s try to get the property for $10,000 less by offering full price with the seller paying $10,000 toward closing costs.

Buyer:  What if the seller won’t pay them? 

Agent:  We might have to stack the costs, or part of the costs, on top, which would push the price up.  But based on the comps, it should appraise with no problem.  Let me call your lender and see if we can push this to $355,000 or $360,000, if we need to stack the costs, and how much that will increase your payment.

Buyer:  OK.  Thanks.  Here’s my lender’s number.

We call the lender.

Lender says:  You can push the price up, as long as buyer is OK with the payment at the higher price.  We’re using “stated” income because he’s hourly, and I can’t get his current income to average out for qualifying purposes.  But he has plenty of money to make the payment up to $400,000.  I just can’t get the income to qualify on a full doc.  So it will be sub-prime with a 1 year pre-payment penalty, until he has two years’ history at his current income.  Then he can refi.

Agent:  What rates are you using and what did you use for taxes and insurance when you pre-qualled him? 

Lender: 6.25% on the first and 9% on the second.  I used $250 a month for the taxes and $250 for the condo fee.

Agent:  Sounds good.  The taxes on this one are $270 but the condo fee is only $230, so it’s a wash.  Anything else I need to know to write the offer?  I’m using $10,000 for closing costs from the GFE.  Does that sound right? 

Lender:  Better make that $11,000 to be safe. Zero downs are getting harder to do on a stated income basis with stacked costs.  Not sure I can squeeze the costs back on the 2nd these days the way I used to.

Agent:  Looks like the payment on your first at $350,000 is going to be $1,725 and on the second it’s $564. plus taxes and HOA dues, that’s a payment of $2,790 a month.  If we have to stack the costs to $360,000, that will push the payment up on the first by $50 and the second by $15 making the total $2,855.

Buyer:  That’s OK.  I have no other payments and am working on my credit score to get it up by the time I refi after the pre-payment penalty is over.  I have an old judgment I’m working on to get it off my record from my divorce.  But I can always get plenty of overtime, so I can handle the payment.  I had to rent after the divorce, and I’m just tired of not having my own place and I want to get a lot closer to work with all the overtime I’m doing.  Let’s try to make the offer with the costs included in the asking price.  But I’m OK if the price pushes up with the costs stacked on top.

*******

It is the agent’s role to know that the offer they are writing is “doable”, that the buyer is aware of his payment and prepayment penalties, and is OK with all that.

I don’t have to be his “Mommy”.  I just have to know that he understands FULLY what he is “taking on” and is in full agreement with full knowledge.

Another scenario same as above could be:

Buyer: $2,855 is a lot of money until I pay off my car in a year.  Can I do interest only?  If I did interest only on the first, how much would that save me a month.

Agent:  About $250 a month.

Buyer:  Well, let’s just make the offer and I’ll be OK with the higher payment if I have to go that high.  I’ll talk about other options with the lender if we get into escrow.  If it can’t be interest only, that’s OK.  But thanks for showing me the difference in payment.  Doesn’t seem like enough to make that much of a difference.  I’ll decide later.

Buyer:  What about insurance?

Agent:  The Master Policy is included in the HOA dues, but you should have a policy for your contents and some other supplements to the Master Policy.  But that will not be included in your monthly payment to the mortgage company.

Buyer:  OK.  I have apartment insurance now, so no big deal.  Let’s just write it up and see if the seller will pay any of the closing costs without our having to stack them.

Agent:  $11,000 is a lot to get a seller to suck up in this price range, but we should be able to get $5,000 to $8,000.

Buyer:  That’s OK.  I’ll be happy with that.

Sometimes the lender gives a pre-approval for the purchase price, without going over the payment amount and prepayment penalty.  Even if the lender did, the payment could change based on the actual taxes and homeowner dues of the actual property selected.  Best for the agent to verify when the offer is written, that the buyer is OK with the monthly payment and terms of the loan, before he signs the offer.

Buyer remorse often equals that the buyer wasn’t FULLY aware of all of these factors at the time he made the offer.  Better to confirm all details of what the buyer is getting himself into, before the buyer is in escrow and his Earnest Money is in jeopardy.

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About ARDELL

ARDELL is a Managing Broker with Better Properties METRO King County. ARDELL was named one of the Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers in the U.S. by Inman News and has 33+ years experience in Real Estate up and down both Coasts, representing both buyers and sellers of homes in Seattle and on The Eastside. email: ardelld@gmail.com cell: 206-910-1000

37 thoughts on “Moving to "the darkside" of the "ARITLP"

  1. Ardell,

    I really like these post (one before included). I think that it is a great follow up to Jillayne’s post. The whole has been great!

    I would think that these post of yours would make for a good check off list for real estate sales brokers and agents to use in questions to ask clients and verify with their clients lender(s). I will be noting these to refer to others I know in sales. Thank you.

  2. Great series, Ardell. I’m assuming you review the TIL to confirm with the buyer if there is a prepayment penalty? And do you inquire with the lender if the buyer will be required to sign a 4506 if they’re going stated?

  3. Oh but if it were so simple! As stated before, this series is an excellent example of how the two should play well together..

    When the proverbial mud hits the wall, and the agent calls the lender, this is where I noticed the problems. The agent starts “negotiating” fees to look like a hero. Here’s the problem with that: zero down deals don’t have a lot of margin in them. Any lender with half a heart is trying to help that buyer out.

    I might suggest that the agent, attempting to “help” the buyer by “banging on the lender” for fees, offer a dollar for dollar credit with the originator. I have had 3-4 agents offer that up front and it makes me much more amenable to the prospect of paying buyer’s fees for them.

  4. Shane: I’m not a big fan of checklists. I’m using rudimentary examples here which make it appear to be checklistable.

    In reality, it’s more important that an agent understand the basic criteria used by an underwriter, as the questions will change as the answers change, and no two consumers have the same answers.

    Red flags that I pick up are often about hourly vs. salaried or self employed vs. salaried. A straight salary person is the easiest.

    I’ve left out Credit Score in these posts, but actually that is one of the key questions. In both of the posts I’ve written, the buyer has already been to a lender. That is actually not often the case. I’ll have to do several more, but I don’t like doing them all back to back. Plus I have a signing in Bellevue at 10, so no posts this morning 🙂

    I think I could literally have an entire blog on the basic conversations between buyers and sellers. I haven’t been using my blog much. Maybe I’ll throw up these “workshop” posts in a string of all possible conversations, and then link them here in one link post.

    The light bulb is going on about what “transparency” really is. We’ve been hearing that people want “transparency in the real estate transaction” from blogs. We just haven’t figured out what that means, but I think we’re on to something here.

  5. There can be nothing but good that comes of these types of honest, clarifying discussions. As Brian points out the problems can arise when the agent starts to use the closing costs and other terms as simply a “sales tool” to flip the borrower to their preferred lender. Now instead of acting as a fudiciary an agent is now acting as, well, an agent for a different lender.

    In a world where everyone plays nice and truly puts the customer interest first this works well. Unfortunately there are a lot of agents (an loan people to be sure) who “sometimes” put their self-interest first and use this type of honest exchange to better their personal situation in on way or the other.

    Thanks for doing the dark side post Ardell!

  6. Rhonda,

    One of my pet peeves is that “the fiduciary in the room” is not privy to the TIL and the GFE. I’ve made a lot of progress with getting GFEs, but not TILs, as I haven’t needed them so far. I don’t have many pre-payment penalty situations and usually believe the lender,and then double check at signing, when I see the actual docs.

    I’m not a lender, and I don’t need to do the lender’s job, just mine. I just see some areas where I am the checks and balances person. It depends on the lender they are using. If they are using the lender I use day and night, it’s a lot easier for me to help them, and stay on top of everything.

    Most times the only time they don’t use the lender I use day and night is when there is a special program like the B of A “Too Good to be True” program or the First Time Buyer Credit Union program.

    Mostly what I need to know Rhonda, is simply what the consumer is told, not the lender’s detailed info. I find that often I am the “interpreter” or “mediator” between the consumer and the lender that simply makes sure the buyer is aware of the full ramifications of what the lender is saying.

    Sometimes that role is nil if the buyer is salaried, 20% down, understands it all, and doesn’t need me. Sometimes the buyer’s eyes “glaze over” at the word “loan” and my role becomes more important. It’s different from one client to the next.

  7. Brian,

    If I’m “banging on a lender” it’s not usually about fees. I haven’t “banged on a lender” in a very long time. If I need to “bang on the lender” to strike a fair deal or good program, I just say “next”.

    Much depends on the borrower. Not every lender is right for every borrower. The one that needs the high level of fees should pay them, the ones that don’t shouldn’t. So it’s more about having the right relationship in the first place.

    Same as real estate agent really. Some should pay less than others because of the particulars of the consumer. No “banging” needed. “Banging” usually equals square peg in round hole in the first place.

    I did just have one were I “tapped on the lender” 🙂 Problem was I tried to use the developer’s “lender of the day” because that is often a necessity to close. But he was just impossible! We had to flip out to my “day and night” lender late in the game, which is always troublesome, at best. But that signing is finally today, so all’s well that ends well.

  8. Morgan,

    Funny you wrote that comment just as I was writing the one where we DID flip to my day and night lender. But why do YOU think we DO that? What personal motive might I have to do that, that isn’t because the buyer consumer needed me to do that for the consumer’s reasons? Maybe I’ll have to write the “when do you need to flip to a different lender and why” scenario.

    Seriously, I could write a skazillion scenarios. If agents are “flipping to other lenders” as the norm, then someone should figure out what the other lender has that others can’t seem to “compete” with.

    I think I will write this one when it’s closed, as it was the most troublesome lending situation I’ve had for about two and a half years.

  9. Thanks Joe. I haven’t done them before because I think they “Clog up the Blog”. They can get pretty long. But Jillayne went to town with long…so I joined her 🙂

  10. Hmmm…well, let’s figure that out. IF the buyer already has a lender, I try to use that lender first. If I can’t, then let me think about where I can and can’t and why. Maybe we’ll all learn something from the process.

    Looking here at my files.

    #1) Buyer didn’t have lender when I met them so YES I referred to “my day and night” lender who walked them through the maze and gave me the pre-approval letter I needed to present an offer.

    MY LENDER is about my comfort zone in presenting the offer, which translates into their benefit about 70% of the time. In the negotiations between buyer and seller, my confidence in the “ability to close” sometimes translates into my conveying that comefort to the seller and or to the seller’s agent. So very important to my client that I am comfortable.

    That’s part of the offer process, Morgan. I don’t and never did tell them who to use, but I do often want the pre-approval letter from a person I have confidence in. Especially if they haven’t spoken with a lender at the time I meet them.

    Now that File #1 finds a property after 3-4 months (in that particular real case on my desk) and it turns out to be new construction. I say check the builder’s lender and see what they are offering if you use them. Often, if not always, the builder’s lender “makes them an offer they can’t refuse”. Which they did.

    So File #1 used the builder’s lender and not my “day and night” lender. Whatever the buyer wants to do is fine with me and I try to point them in the right direction depending on the situation. Now that I’m past “offer” and into “which lender to actually use”, I don’t have a client based reason to care anymore.

    See if that makes sense to you and I’ll hit another file 🙂

    Worth mentioning, that one was CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!! So sometimes I DO care and this one I didn’t. Buyer had 50% down. Shoot, a monkey could have done that one. Go for the best deal.

    That one was too easy. I’ll do another file in the next comment.

  11. File #2

    Buyer is amazingly technical. Very “Xcelspreeadsheetish” kinda guy. He’s called every lender in town and out of town 🙂 He can dig up a deal if it is buried 20 feet under. I LOVE this guy.

    The first time I sold him a property, he needed help with property, but not loan. This time around, he had his ST all together! Found the property himself, did all the analysis. Found an unbeatable deal on the loan.

    Truth be told, I was a little skittish about the loan and whether or not it was doable. But I sucked it up, gave him a 25% to me/75% to him deal on the buyer agent fee, and let him run his own show.

    No problems. Closed without a hitch. Everybody was happy. He picked my brain to pieces on the first sale, same time last year, to the point where he was able to learn from that and do most of this one all by himself.

    Honestly, I felt like a proud parent watching my child get up and run across the room. He was AWEOME!

    He checked his final numbers with my “day and night lender” who was his second choice. He also referred someone else to my “day and night” lender, who did choose that one. So different people made different choices for their own different reasons.

    I LOVED that my “day and night lender” was HIS second choice and the other client’s first choice. This gave me a really good test of my “day and night” lender, for the benefit of my other clients, because this guy knows how to scour every angle and evaluate lenders. So coming in second to the “Too Good to be True” B of A deal was like coming in first for someone who doesn’t benefit from that program.

    Again, everyone happy. “day and night” lender gets a loan, just not the loan she thought she was getting. I close two sales off the same info (I had the two clients meet for lunch so client #2 could benefit from client #1’s extensive research, and he was more than happy to do that. They work at the same REALLY big place 🙂

    Everyone happy. Oops…client here…be back.

  12. “So very important to my client that I am comfortable.”

    I agree, you are the one investing the time, money, effort in to finding a home for this person/couple. I would not invest a great deal of time in to a matter that isn’t really going anywhere either, and I certainly wouldn’t want to drag some clients through an unproductive process.

    The only point I was trying to make is that some Realtors use the excuse of fiduciary responsibility as a way to refer customers to their lender – all in an attempt to maximize their comfort level with the knowledge that the deal will “go through.” The Realtor’s comfort level and fiduciary responsibility have nothing to do with one another. That is my main point.

    Thanks for entertaining me! I enjoy your insight.

    Morgan

  13. Morgan,

    You are missing the point. I only need to be comfortable with the pre-approval letter I’m using to make the offer. As my confidence at time of presentation can equal more dollars in my client’s pocket.

    MY COMFORT DOESN’T MATTER when it is time to actually PICK the lender the buyer is ACTUALLY going to use for their loan. It’s two completely different things.

    Many buyers do not realize that you PICK a LENDER AFTER you are “in contract” within the first five days. The one we used for the offer is NOT the carved in stone lender to be used to purchase the house.

    I have a post in here somewhere showing why I sometimes need three lenders for one client for three different phases of the process. Wrote it last year.

    My day and night lender produces pre-approval letters for ME to make offers with. Sometimes she gets the loan once an offer sticks and sometimes not. It would make no sense for her to ALWAYS BE the right lender for all of my clients when it comes time to apply for the loan, even if she IS ALWAYS the right one to give me the letter to make an offer with.

    An agent CANNOT represent THE OFFER well, without a lot of confidence. If the agent isn’t positive the buyer can close, it will come out somewhere in the conversations with the seller or the seller’s agent. So doing the best job for the buyer involves having total confidence in “the letter”.

    We can sweat out an iffy lender during escrow, and have the day and night lender as a backup. But we can’t sweat out an iffy lender during negotiations at offer time, or someone will see us sweating. If someone sees us sweating during negotiations, then the buyer client suffers. Not an option.

  14. Absolutely. YES. Let’s say they qualify for the BECU first time buyer program and it saves them mega bucks. Absolutely. Yes. I would steer them to a different lender, if the best loan program is only available at BECU and they qualify for that program.

    I would do that even if the prequal was with “my day and night lender” and she knows I will ALWAYS use the best lender for the client, and that ain’t always her. She does the pre-approval for me, for the offer. Who the client picks as the actual lender is a different step in the process. I can’t get a pre-approval from BECU on a weekend. I need one from someone, even if I know we are likely going to use the first time buyer program or the Too Good to be True program.

    OR, I call the lender for the closing costs to write the offer and they tell me something insane as to costs and or rates they are using. Absolutely. YES. I would say here are two names, check with all three and let me know which one you pick. If you need my help with the evaluation process, let me know.

    I know what rates ARE well enough to know when something is sideways. So lender tells me costs are 3% of sale price and rates are 6.5% on the first and 12% on the second…BIG RED FLAG! I have had that happen once.

    What I do after that is complex 🙂

    Just had one where the buyer walked in with a pre-approval letter from the “day and night lender of previous agent they were working with”. OK. No problem. UNTIL:

    1) I can’t get the lender on the phone and we need an updated letter for our offer.
    2) Buyer says “his” lender only works Monday through Friday and we are making offer on weekend and I’m not waiting until Monday. I reluctantly use the “stale letter”.
    3) I ask the buyer what his credit score is and he says lender wouldn’t tell me. She said it was “good” and “that’s all I needed to know”.
    4) I ask the buyer what rate the lender was quoting, so I could show him his payment before he signed the offer. He said lender wouldn’t tell him and lender said “they change every day, so don’t worry about it right now”.

    I submitted the offer with the other lender’s letter. Buyer says, is that normal for them not to tell me the credit score or interest rate. I tell the truth. He switches lender.

    I never talked to the first lender BUT the freakin’ listing agent called the 1st lender from the letter 4 days into escrow, for WHAT I don’t even want to know.  Had she done that before the offer was accepted by her seller client.  OK.  But after the seller signed the offer…bad form.

    So some other agent’s “day and night” lender was not good enough for me. Had that been multiple offers, I would have needed a lender letter from my day and night lender. I did the best I could with it.

    Rhonda,

    Are you suggesting that the “pre-approval” comes with some kind of “obligation” to use that lender?

  15. An experienced real estate agent can judge when he/she needs to work closely with a borrower and a lender. True, subprime products can be quite complicated and it’s vital for the buyer to explore all avenues before deciding on one. The above sequence is very logical, well done. Should be required reading for new realtors and loan officers.

    On the other hand, there are buyers who are knowledgeable and need minimal assistance. Then the real estate agent can just step back and concentrate on finding the right property.

    Also, when an agent is still learning the business, especially the mortgage end of it, he/she should let the loan officer be the lead on financing.

  16. I guess maybe I’m a little “Pollyanna”. If I’ve invested time with a buyer, than I expect them to close the transaction with me. Often times, I have months of time with them. If there is a hot deal that I can’t beat, like a credit union special for example, and if I can’t meet or beat it after the buyer provides me the other lender’s GFE, then I give the buyer my blessings.

    This is very interesting, Ardell. Do you think most agents do this (I’m going to go cry in a glass of wine, if so).

  17. Rhonda,

    If a buyer comes to me for something I am not the BEST at, then I should refer it before I put a lot of time into it. I say, let me call Julie, because she knows Edmonds like the back of her hand.

    Same with you. You should know the “special” programs you don’t have, so as soon as they say income of $70,000 or less and 1st time buyer, you say, did you check out that BECU program first?

    No one can beat these special programs, and the funds for them are not never ending either. First Tech ran out of money last year and didn’t renew the funds this year (last I heard) and BECU had them last I checked.

    You shouldn’t want to snag a buyer who is qualifed for tht one. There arent’ that many special deals and there are not that many buyers who qualify for them.

    The best man wins on those special programs, and you should be steering them over there.

    Now if we are talking about a hair of a difference in costs or rate and months of working up their credit score from 590 to 660…different ballgame.

  18. Rhonda,

    If a buyer comes to me with an 800 credit score and 30% down, I do not recommend anything but best rate and lowest costs.

    If a buyer comes to me with a 570 score or even 630 score and zero down, I say let’s find a good broker who can help you get “up there” AND as good a deal as we can muster, and stick with the lender who helps you get there, and be prepared to pay a 1% origination fee plus other lender fees.

    It depends on the buyer and the buyer’s qualifications.

    But if I need some help with a buyer whose lender is not doing a good job, even if the buyer wants to stick with that lender, I double check with my lender and hold the 1st lender’s feet to the fire IF they are being unreasonable as to costs and or rates.

    I just had one like that and gave the 1st lender mega tries and nothing he came up with was satisfactory. When we went away and found the right program for the buyer, he whined and said he could do it too.

    So why wouldn’t he give it to us in the first place? Pushed closing out TWO WEEKS to give him his best shot. He kept pushing his “in-house” products, and buyer kept telling him what he wanted, and it was going NOWHERE, so finally I pulled it together with a different lender, closed late, pain in the butt, and he whined that we didn’t give him the final GFE and let him match it.

    Ooops…sorry. I wasn’t going to go there 😉

    Anyway, being a nice guy doesn’t always get you to finish last. You’ve got to be a lot more than that.

    But as you say, Rhonda. You obviously do something right to hold on to most. But, no, sorry, you can’t win em all 🙂

  19. Ardell, I think we were commenting 20 and 21 at the same time! Glad to hear Comment 20. And… I will check out BECU’s program…I’ve looked on their website the last time you mentioned this and could not find anything. When I’ve done their rate quotes, if you go through all the steps, the rates have discounts/orig. in them but you need go through all the steps before that’s revealed. (That’s something I’ll do on line with clients when they compare me to BECU with a straight program, like 30 year fixed). Thanks!

  20. “If a buyer comes to me with an 800 credit score and 30% down, I do not recommend anything but best rate and lowest costs”

    How do you know your client is getting this? The GFE means nothing unless the loan is locked. So does your borrower lock with 3 different lenders? (Brian Brady did a great post on shopping lenders BTW on his personal blog).

  21. Rhonda,

    The Credit Unions, generally speaking, are no great shakes. But the first time buyer plan with no second and no PMI is great when it’s around. B of A ‘s Too Good to be True is also a “no second, no PMI” program.

    Anything that gets rid of the second without PMI…but there aren’t many options like that.

  22. “How do you know your client is getting this? The GFE means nothing unless the loan is locked. So does your borrower lock with 3 different lenders?”

    Not all consumer do this when I recommend it, but for 17 years I’ve been telling them to call lenders the day after the contract is signed around. Take three hours off and call them all in the same timeframe. Tell them you are going to LOCK today and want the today lockable rate and at the end of the three hours LOCK IT! Best to lock it with a float down.

    A rate is not a rate unless you are ready to lock it. If they say it changed in the 3 hours it took you to call them all, they were lying in the first place. Once you get the lowest rates, call back the ones with the lowest rates and compare the costs. If you want the costs built into the rate, or most of them, then you have to compare on that basis.

    You should be able to get plenty of options in a three hour period. If you do them two three days in a row, it’s a waste of time.

    I’ll go check Brian’s post.

    For many people it is not all about rate. Many need a LOT of service, same as not everyone buying a house can take the “Do It Yourself” package.

    Different strokes for different folks.

  23. Ardell, I’m going to have to write a post on LPMI…it’s one of my favorite programs…I think you’ll like it too. 🙂 I’m calling it a night. (This was my first day w/o theraflu).

  24. Wow! Great comments. I’m going to make a few:

    1- Morgan’s comment about using a fiduciary responsibility to “steer” the client is a good one. I have seen it happen all too much.

    2- Ardell’s response about the 800 credit scor and 30% down is equally as good…UNLESS…an agent misuses their fiduciary position to “steer” away from a loan program they have no knowledge about.

    3- Rhonda is correct when she discusses the frustration of “doing the grunt work” to have someone else benefit. The answer to that is to charge an upfront application fee that puts some skin in the game. All too often, lenders work hard at processing another lender’s loan. Collect your fee upfront with a provision that you will deliver the loan at x% for $y. It’s done all of the time in commercial lending.

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  26. “If they say it changed in the 3 hours it took you to call them all, they were lying in the first place. ” Not true….rates CAN and DO change within 3 hours. They are based on mortgage bonds and lenders either offer “live pricing” or “rate sheets”. We may receive several rate changes within a day if the market is volitile. If a consumer does not want to deal with rate changes, they should call late afternoon (after 2) when the markets are closed (PST advice) on the east coast. However, if a lender may still change rates after 2pm pst if they anticipate changes.

  27. I have to agree with Rhonda, rates can change while you are staring at the computer screen trying to price a deal out. Rates, especially lately, have been jumping around quite a bit.

    The most important thing to inquire about with the lock is the length of the lock. This is especially crucial on purchases. A lender may try to undercut the competition by providing a quote based on a “short lock” – a lock under 30 days. In most purchase cases I recommend a lock of 45 days to give some wiggle room in case the 30 day escrow drags a bit. Otherwise I will set the lock according to the length of the escrow plus a cushion so that there won’t be any last-minute lock expiration issues. This may make me less competitive than the originator quoting 15-day pricing, but I can always deliver, which lets me sleep at night.

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