Loan Shopping Pays Off

One thing we ALWAYS do for our home buyer clients is help them shop for the best lender - by analyzing good faith estimates from different lenders - and helping the buyer pick the lender with the best rates & fees. Lenders hate it - but our buyer clients love it! On average - we save our buyer clients $20,000-$30,000 or more over the life of the loan - just by "shopping the loan." Time consuming? Yes. But it is worth it - for our client's sake.... And in appreciation - they give us a lot of referrals from doing things like this - that traditional agents typically don't do.

Sadly - most Real Estate agents don't even know how to analyze a good faith estimate - to ferret out junk fees.... Some agents may not even know what a "yield spread premium" (YSP) is...

(You may want to ask them when you interview them)

Many agents refer their client to an in-house lender (stating that "it will be convenient for you" - they are right here..) - where perhaps their brokerage gets some benefit from that (rent from the lender or an LLC profit sharing agreement etc.) That isn't being a true fidicuary for the buyer.