Question about Mortgage Reps

[Gom64]

We just recieved notice from our local lender we are preapproved for a home loan and will have an opportunity to meet with her Monday.  Woot!  Woot!  I understand we will go over our interest rate, price range etc in our first meeting, but my question is to what follows next.

1. When you do find a home you are interested in making an offer on, is it customary to ask the Mortgage rep to give us numbers on what to expect in form of turn key payments? (closing costs, monthly payments, insurance, tax)  OR do you have to be under contract to know?

2. Will the mortgage rep show us different prices and options for Conventional, FHA, USDAA , piggy back. etc...?In other words, if my main objective is to have a  monthly payment as low as possible, is it customary for them do extra research to find thebest route to go?

[Anonymous]

When I was considering not going USDA direct, my lender offered me several choices, FHA, CONV at 5/10/20% down, discussed the plusses and minuses of each. We touched on a 7/1 ARM which I actually did consider (I was looking at cheap condos thatwould have been paid off in less than 10. We talked about 15/20/30 yr. It depends on credit (some terms get considerably worse as scores drop) and worked out what was feasible on my relatively low income. She gave me choices, but in the end I decided to move a bit more rural and the USDA direct is almost unbeatable for that if you have patience and you and the property qualify

If they don't give you some choices, I would consider taking your biz elsewhere unless there are limiting factors. They can give you rough ideas of payments, but at least here, taxes can vary fairly widely even within a town. Same with insurance. Closing costs, they should be able to ball park it for a few loan types. There are plenty of decent calculators that have been dead on what my usda loan will look like based on what my coordinator has told me. Most counties have property tax records online (look up the assesor and there should be a link to find taxes based on address. Just make sure it's apples to apples, some properties may have no exemptions listed (taxes will go down with HO exemption) and some may have SR or disabled exemptions or freezes (taxes will likely go up unless you also meet that condition). Ive become a bit of an expert at navigating those as my loan is definitely dependent on the tax number. Ive seen houses listed at 70k with 5k taxes and just 8 blocks over one listed at 98k and the taxes are 1.9k. Different equalization rates, different school district, different special drainage area taxes etc

[Anonymous]

Yes, your lender works for you. He/she should run numbers before you go making offers so you know what your monthly comfort level equates to in buying power.