Watch Out For These Mortgage Mistakes

WATCH OUT FOR THESE MORTGAGE MISTAKESMany families today have more wealth tied up in the stock market than in their home, but a home remains animportant financial asset. That’s why it pays—sometimes big dollars—to avoid some of the following mistakesinvolving the home mortgage.Assuming you should have a mortgage. Most of the time you’re financially better off owning a home thanrenting—you can never pay off rent, employers and lenders like home owners, it’s forced savings, there are taxadvantages and so on. But sometimes it pays to rent if you plan to move in two or three years, find interest ratestoo high or expect home prices to decline in the near future.Not understanding the different types of mortgage. A straight-forward 30-year fixed-rate mortgage may bejust the ticket for you. Then again, an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) might make sense if you expect to live inthe house only a few years or you need the lower first-year rates compared with a fixed-rate mortgage so you canafford to buy.Not shopping around for a mortgage lender. Amazingly, people shop for food bargains involving a few pennies,but don’t bother to shop around for a mortgage lender that involves thousands—potentially tens of thousands—ofdollars. Lenders can vary significantly in interest rates and fees. Ask your real estate agent, call around to lendersor check the Web.Failing to get pre-approved for a mortgage. By having a mortgage pre-approved (versus merely “pre-qualified”),you ...