What too look for in a mortgage broker

[Justin234]

Yeah, I have one more real estate question. What can I say, I trust you guys!

We're in the process of thinking about a house purchase, and we want to have preapproval so that a) we know what kind of loan we are likely to get; and b) so that if we see an opportunity we can act.

But I seem to have a serious resistance to tackling this process... I have somehow gotten the impression that these brokers are equivalent to car salesmen, and I don't want to have anything to do with them! This has been going on for a month; I have a list of brokers/banks I need to call, but I'm afraid they are going spout out a lot of B.S. that I don't understand. So I am wondering what you all would say are the key things to look out for in choosing a broker.

Is it just an arithmetic decision - a matter of rates, points, and fees? Or are there hidden fees?
Does it matter whether I know how the broker is getting paid?
What are the basic questions you would ask to make sure you are getting all the information you need?

If you have any tips on books to check out, that would be great too. I've read a few general home buying books but they sort of gloss over the pre-approval process in a paragraph, and I want more info. Thanks!

[Spork]

My experience has been that it is a dollars thing only*.  I have generally gone in, gotten approval, then never ever seen the broker again.  One loan (a refi, if I remember) was done entirely on the phone without ever even seeing them.


*one exception: we did one very non-traditional mortgage where I actually needed a helpful guy and talked to him quite a bit to work something out.

[KS]

We're in the same boat as you, just getting started but have now done our pre-approval. We found our broker through our realtor, they work together and she told us about a free first-time homebuyers seminar he was hosting. Afterwards we felt really good about being able to trust him, he genuinely wanted to help people understand the process, etc. And that opinion was carried out when we met with him for our approval, he ran through tons of numbers with us and took the time to make sure we understood what was going on.

Anyway what I was going to say is if you have a realtor you like and trust, it doesn't hurt to at least meet with one they recommend. Our realtor and broker are often working in the same building, and it really makes things easier having the two of them work well together, plus when we need to, we'll be able to move fast (homes in our ridiculous high-cost area are getting an average of at least 15 offers and generally pending within the first week. And yes I know this means we should probably stick to renting... we're thinking about it but really do want our own place even if FI takes a little longer). And our realtor can get all the information she needs quickly and often without us having to take much time out of our busy schedule to provide it.