The two most important things to consider in selecting a Boston condo mortgage
First the actual terms of the home loan are crucial. What is the interest rate they are charging? What is the loan origination cost (fees you’re paying them direct)? What are the total lending costs depending on your credit score and down payment amount? Thankfully, the home loan industry is pretty heavily regulated right now and so the information you get from a local lender should be pretty clear and relatively easy to understand.
Second, what kind of loan service will you get? This is the hard part for a potential home buyer to figure out. This is why most Boston condo for sale buyers will ask their Boston downtown real estate agent for a recommendation. A bank could offer you amazing terms but then fail to close your loan at all They could fail to close on time; they could fail to close at all. Many home loan lenders don’t do enough work upfront to make sure that the Beacon Hill condo buyer can get the loan and then after the home buyer has paid for the inspection and appraisal and is almost ready to close, will reject their loan application due to something they found in what is called “underwriting.” So a bad home lender can really cost you a ton of money, a home loan lender that looked like (see item 1 above) they they were going to save you all kinds of money, could end up costing you more than you might imagine. This is why as a top Downtown Boston real estate agent, we always have a couple vetted home loan lenders to recommend to our clients – lenders that won’t mess up the deal or cost our clients unexpected money.
Start shopping a home loan with your local bank.
Why not? You already bank there. It will give you a base line for mortgage rates and offerings. However, please do not end there. Please. Most of the time you can find a better loan offer and better loan servicing through a local mortgage only direct lender in town. You would be doing yourself a disservice to only shop at one location for a Beacon Hill condo loan. As a top Downtown Boston real estate broker, I can tell you that most of the time, from my experience, you do not get the best offers or best loan service through your local bank or credit union.
Next get a quote from a local mortgage lender.
Ask your Boston downtown real estate agent for a top local direct lender recommendation. These providers can either qualify you online, or you can set up a meeting with them at their office to get a quote.
If you’re curious, look at online mortgage lenders, but be careful!
Online mortgage lenders might have some of the best looking deals but often they are honeypots, look great at first but turn out to not be so great when you read all the fine print. Also, they are the highest risk (in my experience) of messing up your home purchase transaction, by not closing on time or failing to even fund the loan at the end of the day due to bad “underwriting” because they did not pre-qualifying the buyer well enough up front to ensure they would have a happy experience. Home buyer beware.
Today’s newest Boston condos for sale
Sorry we are experiencing system issues. Please try again.
