Yes, applying for a mortgage loan before you find a home may be the best thing you could do! If you apply for your mortgage now, we will issue a pre-qualification letter online instantly, subject to you finding the perfect home. You can use this letter to assure real estate brokers and sellers that you are a qualified buyer. Being pre-qualified for a mortgage may give more weight to any offer to purchase that you make.

The maximum percentage of your home's value depends on the purpose of your loan, how you use the property, and the loan type you choose, so the best way to determine what loan amount we can offer is to complete our online application!

Mortgage insurance should not be confused with mortgage life insurance, which is designed to pay off a mortgage in the event of a borrower's death. Mortgage insurance makes it possible for you to buy a home with less than a 20% down payment by protecting the lender against the additional risk associated with low down payment lending. Low down payment mortgages are becoming more and more popular, and by purchasing mortgage insurance, lenders are comfortable with down payments as low as 3 - 5% of the home's value.

If you have ever purchased a home before, you may already be familiar with the benefits and terms of title insurance. If this is your first home loan or you are refinancing, you may be wondering why you need another insurance policy.

The answer is simple: The purchase of a home is most likely one of the most expensive and important purchases you will ever make. You, and especially your mortgage lender, want to make sure the property is indeed yours and no individual or government entity has any right, lien, claim, or encumbrance on your property.

A home loan often involves many fees, such as the appraisal fee, title charges, closing fees, and state or local taxes. These fees vary from state to state and also from lender to lender. Any lender or broker should be able to give you an estimate of their fees, but it is more difficult to tell which lenders have done their homework and are providing a complete and accurate estimate. We take quotes very seriously and have completed the research necessary to make sure our fee quotes are accurate.

To assist you in evaluating our fees, we have grouped them as follows:

The interest rate market is subject to movements without advance notice. Locking in a rate protects you from the time your lock is confirmed to the day your lock period expires. Please contact your Mortgage Banker to discuss locking your loan.

None of the loan programs we offer have penalties for prepayment. You can pay off your mortgage any time with no additional charges.

A 15-year fixed rate mortgage gives you the ability to own your home free and clear in 15 years. And, while the monthly payments are somewhat higher than a 30-year loan, the interest rate on the 15-year mortgage is usually a little lower, and more important - you will pay less than half the total interest cost of the traditional 30-year mortgage.

Mortgage interest rate movements are as hard to predict as the stock market and no one can really know for certain whether they will go up or down.

The Federal Truth in Lending law requires all financial institutions disclose the APR when they advertise a rate. The APR is designed to present the actual cost of obtaining financing, by requiring some, but not all, closing fees be included in the APR calculation. These fees, in addition to the interest rate, determine the estimated cost of financing over the full term of the loan. Since most people do not keep the mortgage for the entire loan term, it may be misleading to spread the effect of some of these up front costs over the entire loan term.