The Online Mortgage Blog

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Online Mortgage Advice - How to Get Mortgage Quotes From the Web

Summary: In this blog post, I'll offer some online mortgage advice to help you get quotes from mortgage lenders via the Internet.

Imagine this. You're shopping for a home loan, and as a smart shopper you want to compare multiple offers. So you go online to a certain website, and you fill out a short form with information about yourself. By the end of the day, you receive information from several different lenders or brokers -- straight to your email inbox.

Sound too good to be true? It's not. These days, there are many reputable companies that offers this kind of online service to consumers. You've probably even seen their ads on TV. It's a great way to save time and energy while achieving your ultimate goal of finding a home loan. So in this article, I'd like to give you some online mortgage advice based on my own experience with this industry.

Here are the steps I recommend when getting mortgage quotes online.

Step 1 - Determine Your Home Buying Budget

Some people think a lender will only approve them for a loan they can afford. In truth, this is a flawed way to look at things. And as we have seen from the housing crisis of 2008, this is simply not the case. You cannot rely on a mortgage lender to determine your housing budget. You have to do that for yourself. This is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give you, related to online quotes.

Use a mortgage calculator to get a rough idea of the monthly payment you can afford. Be sure to consider all of your other monthly expenses, such as your car payment, credit card bills, groceries, insurance, entertainment and savings. This will help you determine how much of a loan you can afford, and you can use that number as a cap when requesting quotes.

Step 2 - Choose a Lending Website

The best online mortgage advice I can give you here is to choose a well-known company, such as the big-name brands you've seen advertising on TV. These companies spend a lot of time and money developing their reputations, which means they also want to protect their reputations. They do this by offering a good service with built-in security, and by treating their customers right.

Step 3 - Complete the Online Request

There's actually not much to say about this step, because it's very straightforward. But it needs to be included in the list. Once you've chosen a lending website, just follow the instructions they provide to request a quote. In most cases, you will be asked to provide your name and contact information, the amount of loan you wish to apply for, the amount you have to put down, and similar information.

After you submit the form, you will get some preliminary offers from mortgage brokers or lenders. Keep in mind these offers will likely differ from the loan amount and interest rate that you ultimately qualify for. The online process is just to get the ball rolling. You'll go through a more thorough approval process after this initial request.

So there you have it -- online loan quotes in three easy steps. I told you it was simple. If you'd like more advice on this process, of if you'd like to get started requesting an offer, check out out our mortgage quotes page.

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