Shopping for the best mortgage deal

You know you’re supposed to avoid “junk” fees when you get a mortgage. But here’s the problem: Junk fees can be harder to spot than you might think.

Plenty of fees charged by the travel and banking industries are junk. Those fees are almost pure profit and barely related to the cost of providing the underlying service.

When you’re getting a mortgage, though, many of the fees are associated with legitimate costs.

Lenders also can play games with fees and the interest rates they charge. One might offer a rate slightly lower than the competition but jack up the fees.

The best way to shop for a mortgage is to apply with at least three lenders and compare their good-faith estimates on similar loans.

According to an article posted by The Mortgage Company (TMC), it would be prudent to take a fixed rate mortgage at this time. This would ensure you can plan your repayments over the long term and avoid the risks of market fluctuations.

Review objectives

TMC also advises developers that it would be important to review their development objectives to see how best to structure their development. Whether to phase it, structure the financing differently or get an equity partner instead of debt.

www.adviceguide.org.uk advises that if you signed up to a special mortgage deal for a fixed period, remember to check if there’s a better deal available a few months before it ends.

If you’ve got a variable rate mortgage, remember that your repayments will go up if interest rates go up.

Rates

If interest rates fall, not all lenders will drop their rates so ask your lender what they will do if this happens. If you’ve got a mortgage with a low starting rate for a fixed period, make sure you know when the fixed period ends and find out a few months before then what deal your lender will offer you.