You are fortunate, because this lender left a clue. Fannie Mae does not insure
lenders, and that means that you shouldn’t trust anything else they told you --
especially about interest rates.
There really is no place for someone like you to go to check out a particular
loan provider. That’s why they should be selected in the same way as wild mushrooms:
identify a few you know are good, and let the rest go.
I don’t have a list of approved lenders. The list on my web site consists of
Upfront Mortgage Brokers (UMBs) who agree to act as a borrower’s agent in shopping
for a loan. These brokers set their fee in advance and pass through the wholesale
price from the lender. There is no comparable list for lenders, although I have
listed and evaluated a number of single-lender web sites and multi-lender auction
sites.
If you don’t want to use one of the UMBs or any of the internet lenders listed
on my web site, and you have no dependable referral sources, throw a dart at
the yellow pages. While most lenders who solicit by telephone are OK, most rogues
solicit by telephone. Hence, the chances of hooking up with a rogue are greater
if you accept a blind telephone solicitation than if you select a loan provider
at random.
August 19,2002
