Lowest Mortgage Rates

Find the Lowest Mortgage Rates Without Falling for a Scam

If you're looking for the lowest mortgage rates available, you may be doing some serious comparison shopping. While shopping for the lowest mortgage rates, you might be tempted by incredibly low interest rates, great loan terms or fantastic promises that seem almost too good to be true. As is the case with anything else, things that seem too good to be true usually are. But if a lender promises zero down, interest rates at only one or two percent, and claims to have the ability to finance anyone "regardless of credit history," it must be true, right? Actually, it's all in the details and there are some common gimmicks used to draw in unsuspecting borrowers.

One common way lenders attract the attention of borrowers with poor credit history is with the promise that they'll loan money to anyone. Those same lenders promise the lowest mortgage rates available. If you have a poor credit history, you've likely already discovered that the lowest mortgage rates advertised by those lenders don't apply to you.

The are several other ways a lender may advertise the lowest mortgage rates available without offering that to every customer. One way this happens is when the lender promises the lowest mortgage rates but tells you that those rates are only good for the borrower with a significant down payment. It could be that those lowest mortgage rates are good only if you're borrowing a specific percentage of the total purchase price - for example, that you are able to pay half of the purchase price yourself. This same principal may apply if you're refinancing and then the lowest mortgage rates advertised only apply if your total loan is below a certain percentage of the market value.

The bottom line is that many lenders who advertise the lowest mortgage rates have details that make it difficult or impossible for the majority of borrowers to meet the criteria.

Does that mean that every lender offering the lowest mortgage rates is seeking to take advantage of the unsuspecting? Not at all, but you should be aware of all the terms of that loan you are applying for.