"What's your rate?"

You're busy, I get it.

Between getting ready for work in the morning...

making sure your clothes is ironed...you have the right tie...making breakfast...getting the kids ready for school & packing their lunch...driving them...and managing to get to work on time...

...to making it home on time to prepare for dinner, helping your kids with their homework and sharing a glass of wine with your wife at the end of the day...

When do you find the time to talk about your mortgage for 10 - 15 minutes? (Your interest rate has just adjusted. You need to refinance. You just  don't have the time to talk about it all). So what do you do? You call a lender and the first thing you ask is:

"What's your rate?"

Fine. It's a valid question. BUT, have you ever turned on the shower-head and just jumped right in? The water's cold isn't it? Of course it is, you haven't let it warm up yet. In Spanish our parents used to tell us, "deja que se ponga tivia"; translation = "let it warm up." There's nothing worse than the sting of ice-cold water in the morning.

When shopping for your mortgage, I know you're in a hurry to jump right in and ask "what's your rate?" to arrive at the lowest quote. But I'll tell ya, and so will many others, there's nothing worse than the cold hard sting of getting ripped off by a predatory lender. The person that answers you straight off without asking any questions. The kind that promises you:

5.5%, 30-year fixed, no closing costs, no pre-payment penalty...

You know, the person that mis-represents the Good Faith Estimate and comes to the closing table with something completely and utterly different (higher costs & a higher interest rate...with a solid 3-year pre-payment penalty). The person that tells you what you want to hear without analyzing any of the qualifying factors:

Your Credit Report & Credit History

Your Income (to determine your Debt-to-Income Ratio), and

Your Equity (to determine your Loan-to-Value)

They tell you to slow down, wait a minute and let the water get warm so it feels better when you jump in to shower. We (lenders) tell you to slow down and go through the 10 - 15 minute pre-approval process because it will feel better when you know you got a mortgage that's right for you and that's a genuine representation of what you qualify for in today's market. After all, this sure beats the "low-rate" selling point alternative that comes back to bite you in the rear at closing. Doesn't it?

My name is Ricardo Bueno. I'm a mortgage professional based out of California. If you want to get pre-approved for a mortgage loan (purchase or refinance) you can contact me directly at (323) 810-2175 or via e-mail at ricardo (at) ricardobueno (dot) com Or, you can also apply online here.