Money: Read the Fine Print


Newsweek

Oct. 17, 2005 issue - Mortgage brokers are answering their phones again, and that's good for borrowers. With refinancings down and new signs that the housing market has slowed, the lending industry is more desperate to close deals. Use your new leverage to make sure you're getting the best refi or mortgage possible. That means not falling for those small-print traps like hidden prepayment fees, excessive yield spreads between what the broker gets and what you pay, markups on photocopying and delivering documents, unfair interest rates and bad "good faith" estimates of closing costs.

One Seattle-based company, the National Mortgage Complaint Center  www.national mortgagecomplaintcenter.com, will look over your loan documents, find trouble spots and tell you what to do about them. It'll cost you $35, but keep it in perspective: you'll spend more than that on a new doormat and some change-of-address cards. And those will be gone long before you're done paying off that mortgage.

—Linda Stern
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.