Mortgage Shopping Worksheet: Fill & Download for Free

To effectively shop for a mortgage, you need to compare accurate, reliable quotes. Simply asking different lenders “What’s your rate today?” doesn’t work because the mortgage interest rate that applies to your particular situation depends on many factors, including credit score, loan amount, loan-to-value, type of loan, property type, purchase or refinance, and the term of your rate lock. If you ask for a quote without clearly laying out your specific situation, you will probably get a generic quote that reflects the most optimistic possible assumptions – and which may or may not apply to you.Getting reliable quotes begins with knowing what kind of loan you want and gathering the precise information that a lender needs to price a mortgage tailored to your situation. You need to find credible lenders - at least one bank and one broker - and ask for quotes clearly and unambiguously, and know how to compare the specific terms on the quotes you receive.Also, to insure that the quotes you receive are comparable when shopping, it is important that you get them within a few hours of each other, and before late in the afternoon. Interest rates change every day, and in a volatile market can change during the day, and many lenders have a cutoff for locking in an interest rate in the late afternoon.There is a clear road map for mortgage shopping on my website, The Insider's Guide, along with a 'shopping toolkit' which has worksheets to lead you through the process. Mortgage shopping is complicated - that is one reason that 20 years into the internet the loan officer has not yet been disintermediated by new technology - because there are so many variables in a given loan scenario that can impact pricing.

The list goes on and on. After the military, my dad worked as GM dealer, an IH truck dealer, he ran the Dallas used car auction used by all the dealers and even had a Shell franchise on the side. I grew up around showrooms, lots and yards full of cars. These days I get pretty reasonable deals on cars by frustrating their techniques, thanks to what I learned back then combined with what I've learned in my job of making games.Buying a car is an iterative game requiring a fluid strategy over multiple turns. There is no single play, minimax solution.One of the most powerful advantages for a dealer is the bundle represented by the worksheet called the 4 square. It contains a space for new car price, trade in value, down payment and financing/monthly payment. Each of those are basic games unto themselves, where you have a nearly even chance to win. Not quite even, especially if you lack perfect information. However, when they bundle all 4 together, you are almost certainly going to lose.If you demand fair trade-in value, they reduce the discount on the new car price to compensate. Or the reverse, giving too little for your trade, to give the appearance of knocking down the list price. Or, if you focus on a target monthly payment, to fit your budget, you invite abuse on all 3 other vectors. If you have too little cash or trade, watch out for gimmicky financing.One big finance fad now, is batching up dotty car loans into investment instruments, exactly like the mortgage bundling scam that almost destroyed the global economy.They make buying a car take all day, to wear you down and meet in backrooms to plan a strategy against you. If you survive, the finance manager has a list of high pressure up-sale tactics to run on you.Like mattress sales and real estate, auto sales are a dirty business. "Buyer beware" hardly covers it. Go in with tabs open on a laptop or phone showing real factory list prices, incentives, destination charges, local average price paid, blue book trade values and competitors' Web sites.Every time they leave you alone, visibly shop the other dealer's inventory. Maybe even call them.

In terms of the physical property for your small engine repair shop, you should ask for a real estate inspection which will tell you about any code violations and defects in the property. With this list, you can ask qualified and licensed trades people for quotes on a fix. These quotes can be placed in a worksheet that you can use for loan purposes.The bad part of your question is many mortgage loan evaluators would be hesitant to offer money until the fixes are made if they involve code violations; however, you should ask them. You don't say if you are purchasing the property, if so, fixing code violations is usually the responsibility of the seller.A personal line of credit may offer you better terms than the mortgage; the Boeing Credit Union took my mortgage under a line of credit and only slightly raised the payment but cut the duration from 30 years to 15 years.The best practices a business should follow includes:1. A clean, clutter free workspace where every tool can be used as needed and quickly returned to its readily visible place2. Profit leading to renewed investment and reduction of debt3. Happy customers who get what they want in a timely fashion at a reasonable price, so they come back againThese can be done step by step by a process of minor improvement; make a fix, test it works as desired, pay it off.