Learn me choosing where to go for a mortgage

I've decided it's time for me to move. I need to get prequalified for a mortgage. How do I choose where to go?

I called a local mortgage broker and asked him for a reccomendation. He did all the shopping for me.

If you are a minority, or low to moderate income, and buying in a low to moderate income area in Chicagoland, go to the PrivateBank. They were recently almost in trouble due to not giving enough loans in those areas and to those clients, and due to that may be offering better deals.

Various online comparison tools exist, such as this one: http://www.bankrate.com/mortgage.aspx

The usual recommendation for a purchase is to check smaller local banks and local credit unions, plus a local mortgage broker. Please note the repetitive use of the word "local" , that's because a) you can yell at them in person if there are any delays and b) they probably know the local market best. I'd also skip the TBTF banks, their offerings usually aren't that great.

I'd also look at the big nationwide credit unions, PenFed for example has rather spectacular rates for home loans - my local CU can't come close.

Thanks guys!

Check with your Realtor too and see if they have any recommendations. We were in a bit of an unusual situation in knowing our Realtor better than most (he was my wife's now-former landlord) and he checked and got preliminary quotes from several mortgage brokers he knew which we were able to use to push down the rate on a 15-year mortgage through my bank to a ridiculously low number. Don't hesitate to play them against each other! Many times they'll match or beat each other's rates to get your business...

Oh, good idea! I haven't for sure decided on the realtor but I'm most likely going to use a friend of mine, so something like that could work out...

TunaDad said: Realtors are all shiny happy people. Lying, cheating backstabbing shiny happy people. Don't waste any more breath on them then you absolutely have to.

I used a local guy for my mortgage refi (and the second refi, 2.75%!!) and he kicked ass.

Another for local broker. I am starting another refi this week with the same guy that has done my last two.

Local Credit Union. They won't sell your loan down the road, and offer very competitive rates. We've done the big banks and every time they sold our loan so we ended up dealing with a different company for payments every other year.

In reply to t25torx:

Depends - small credit unions like the one that originated our mortgage often sell the "normal" mortgages to Fannie or Freddie and only keep the specialist ones on their own books.

On our first mortgage we went with a local broker. He was really good at getting us all of the tax breaks at the time. Nice guy and we are still friends with him. The loan was of course sold within months of closing.

Since then we've done 2 refinances with Quicken Loans. I don't know how good they are with the original loans, but for the refi they are amazing.

We tried to go with our credit union, but they couldn't give us as good of a rate as Quicken.

Churchill Mortgage. Dave Ramsey endorsed and was the easiest refi I ever did.

Thanks all! I have an appointment with the mortgage officer at my credit union, will see how that goes.