Have you ever tried to shop around online for mortgage rates? I just tried an experiment, where I searched via Google for the specific phrase “mortgage rates.” The search engine came back with nearly 13 MILLION hits. Yikes! That’s a lot of web pages dealing with mortgage rates. Here’s the problem: The vast majority of those sites are in the business of creating “leads” for the mortgage industry. In order to get anything other than a generic quote on “today’s lowest mortgage rates” you need to provide your contact details. Lead generation is big business in the mortgage industry, since brokers will pay hefty fees for your contact information.
Finally, there is a website that sidesteps this whole “lead generation” aspect of shopping for mortgage rates. It’s called FreeRateSearch.com. The site was set up in order to provide consumers with a way to be ANONYMOUS when they search for rates. Consumers simply provide basic financial and credit information (which does NOT include their contact details), and then the proprietary search technology returns real-world rate quotes for comparison purposes between lenders.
My friend, Gerri Detweiler, is the resident expert at FreeRateSearch.com. Gerri has been a consumer advocate for 20 years. She is the author of The Ultimate Credit Handbook, and is a widely quoted expert on financial and credit matters. In my opinion, she has hit on a win-win formula here for both consumers AND the mortgage lending community. Let’s face it. Nobody wants to become a sales “lead” and get bombarded with dozens of calls from mortgage companies. The beauty of this system is that you can get an accurate snapshot of the mortgage rates available to you WITHOUT having to disclose your personal contact information. You can do unlimited anonymous searches, and after you find a rate you like, you can have the system submit your details to a lender that is willing to MATCH that rate. This makes it a real win for the mortgage community too, because it means the mortgage broker’s representatives are talking to people who are already pre-matched to be a good fit for their mortgage product.
Another superb feature of this site is that the rate quotes returned are PAR rates. These are the rates that lenders publish for loan officers, with no hidden mark-ups. Such hidden commissions can account for $100s or $1,000s of extra costs at closing. This is a bit like knowing in advance the “invoice” value of a car before you start negotiating with the dealer for your best price. By having access to the par rates, you can negotiate with lenders with a lot more confidence.
So if you’re looking for a solid source of info on current mortgage rates, look no further. Surf over to FreeRateSearch.com and click away in total privacy.
One Comment
Thanks Charles! I am glad you understand what we are trying to do by showing consumers the best par rates. The search engine we use has been used by loan officers for over four years to find the best rates for their customers and we’re excited about bringing that same tool to consumers.
A lot of consumers I talk with think that what we do is the same as, say, Lending Tree. But imagine if you went to a travel site and had to fill out a form describing the trip you wanted to take…then wait for four or five travel agents to call! We think it’s the right time for consumers to find the best rate instantly without having to rely on what a lender is telling them.