I have always been an advocate for shopping around for you mortgage options. All of our writers at CLF talk about the importance of shopping around for mortgages and I don’t mean just online. I mean by phone.

I was planning on calling a bunch of mortgage companies and listing their different closing costs, APR terms and mortgage servicing fees. As it turns out another financial blogger beat me to it over at Binary Dollar managed by Henry and Matt. You can read their post entitled; 10 Mortgage Lessons From 12 Phone Calls.

From their journey they discovered that what sets all mortgage companies apart from each other is their closing cost fees. You want to be sure you read all of the lender’s information (right down to the fine print) even if you find it really boring. The boring details can save you money (sometimes thousands) over the duration of your mortgage. This can mean BIG money if you are on a long-term mortgage agreement. Keep an eye on the fee structures.

Another important point worth mentioning from Henry’s and Matt’s phone study is the importance of calling back when you are not getting the information you need. Somtimes the mortgage specialist will give you the “runaround” and not give you all of the information you want without you first giving them a whole lot of personal information – hang up (politely) and call back to get a different loan specialist. When you find a more casual mortgage specialist they will very likely give you all the info you want in regards to ball-park figures and APR and ARM estimates.

Nice work guys.