Mortgage Blog

I talked to one of my best clients yesterday about my rates, he asked me usually I have the best rates, why it seems like I have the rates same as others.

Usually I have two advantages over other brokers: 1)I have limitted overhead. My cost level is minimum. And I have one of best filing system and I proces the loans 2-3 times(volume) more than other brokers. 2)I can process the loan faster. I can send clean package to the lenders and can close the loans around 15 days.

Because of those advantages, I can have very competitive rates(usually 0.125% to 0.25% better than others). But this time is different. The lenders have a lots of loans, I am stuck within the lender's pipeline. So all my loans takes around 45 days to close.

Guess what? On the ratewise, 45 day lock rate is 0.125% higher than 15 day lock.  

Can we do soemthing to get better rates? Yes, if the borrowers are willing to float the loan for two or more weeks, then we can get better rates to lock a short period of time.

But the problem is: most people are nervous when the rate is not locked. And some broker indeed quote the "lower" rates by locking the rates after the loan approved.