How do I get a Good Faith Estimate?

Probably the easiest way to acquire a good faith estimate is to contact either a local or national mortgage brokers or lenders.  Most of the originations done online are through phone contact and rarely done in the office anymore.

Each operation does business differently, some may charge an upfront fees before you get anything in writing from them, and others will give you almost everything for free right to closing.  Whatever your approach make sure that you keep the costs low, the information secure, and credit pulls to a minimum.  It may be beneficial to get good faith estimates from mortgage broker or mortgage lenders that don’t require an upfront application fee, because generally those fees are not refundable.  Don’t bypass lenders or brokers that charge an upfront fee, because they could actually be cheaper than the rest,; just understand how to get the information you need before giving the any money.  I highly recommend comparing three mortgage brokers against each other to get an accurate reflection on what the fees would roughly come to in your area. 

Generally speaking you should be able to get an accurate reflection from local or national companies.  I warn you; some mortgage lenders and mortgage brokers try and hide / bury fees into their good faith estimates.  Some lenders not familiar with the area may low ball the “reserves deposited with lender” section 1000-1005.  Although at the end of the whole mortgage process each lender / broker will end up with the same numbers some companies will play games to look better than others.  If you see that one good faith estimate has a large number in the reserves column and the other one doesn’t would that look better and cheaper to you?  Yes, I agree.  If you do your homework and truly are comparing apples to apples you will know what areas to concentrate on when comparing. Some lenders will try and “bait-and switch” the customer all-together just to get the business in the door and work out the details later. 

Some of my own personal experiences say to me to be very careful about the mortgage brokers or mortgage lenders that will not give you a mortgage quote /rate or a good faith estimate until you make a full mortgage application.  I’ve seen many cases where the customer gets deep (time wise) into the process and basically can’t get out.  Some companies will basically ride your mortgage process out up to closing and then tell you what the rate and fees are, and by the time you’ve figured out that they seem to high there’s not much you can do, so you are basically forced to close with whatever term they give you.  By the time you get the rates and costs of the loan you could be withing 10 days or so of getting your new home and generally speaking that’s not enough time to start the process over with another mortgage company.  You could be left with the question “do I close with a high rate and fees” or “possibly lose my deposit and my dream home”?  Again, I’m just warning you that you know whom you are dealing with on the other end. 

I highly recommend using the Better Business Bureau in your area to find out as much information you can about the company you are going to do business with.  They have some good solid information to help you with choosing a reputable mortgage company.

Lastely I recommend using mortgage companies that have displayed banners or textlinks on this site to support goodfaithestimate.biz, but if you don’t choose to than I recommend looking at companies on:

www.moving.com -  Getting a mortgage quote from Moving.com is easy. Simply enter your state, the type of mortgage, loan type and point range. We'll show you a list of lenders and recently updated rates. Once you've found a lender, you can lock in a quote – just check a mortgage box and they'll get back to you within two business days. It's that easy!

www.bankrate.com - Free, objective information and rate quotes for consumer bank products such as mortgage rates, home loans, credit cards, CDs, auto loans, home equity loans, ...

www.interest.com - Search mortgage rates in your local area. Shop and compare today's current interest rates and mortgage home loans that suit your personal financial needs.

www.compareinterestrates.com - Real time mortgage interest rate survey of mortgage lenders and mortgage brokers in all 50 states.

Good luck choosing a mortgage company for your good faith estimate needs.