October 19, 2002, Revised November 9, 2006
"I shopped four lenders using the telephone to contact those who looked
most promising based on the rate tables published in my local newspaper.
When I went back to the one with the best prices, however, I was told
that those prices no longer applied! Is there any way I can avoid
starting the process all over again?"
I'm afraid not. Most mortgage lenders change their prices daily,
generally in the morning after secondary markets open, and sometimes
they will change them during the day as well. This is a major problem
for shoppers using traditional distribution channels, since prices
collected from lender 1 on Monday and from lender 2 on Tuesday will not
be comparable if the market has changed in the meantime.
Prices advertised in newspapers are out of date when they are read. A
newspaper that publishes price information in its Monday edition, for
example, is reporting Friday's prices. On Monday when the paper hits the
street, lenders have already posted new prices.
The internet can ease the pain of shoppers trying to stay abreast of the
market. For one thing, it provides more current information than the
printed media. On Monday morning when the newspapers are reporting
Friday's prices, some web sites are reporting Monday's prices. In
addition, it is easy to compare prices of different lenders on the
internet, so having to repeat the process on successive days is not a
burden.
But not all mortgage web sites provide current data. Some of the prices
posted on the internet are even more out of date than those in the
newspapers. Almost always, however, the date of the quote is given so
you can ignore those that are not current. If the date is not given, you
can assume the quote is not current.
All the single-lender web sites I list as being worth a borrower's time,
keep their prices current. See
Shopping For a Mortgage On-Line.