Consumers looking for mortgage loans in Santa Rosa Sonoma County CA should know mortgage rates are always quoted and are never guaranteed until the loan is locked in. Every loan program, interest rate and or points are only quotes until an appraisal is not only ordered, but received with a full valuation.

For people who are Santa Rosa mortgage shopping know that the interest rate offered is based on a specific loan to value. For example a 70% loan to value would give you a better interest rate than an 80% loan to value. As a result the interest rate might be affected if the loan to value changes. There our websites available online free of charge including Zillow.com and E appraise it.com which are almost always inaccurate. These websites are run on advertising revenue and that is their sole purpose. Their purpose is not to give you real tangible information especially for a home value let alone an interest rate quote.

Begin your Santa Rosa mortgage shopping the right way by ordering a full appraisal up front.

A full URAR (Uniformed Appraisal Report) is required by any mortgage lender in order to determine a loan-to-value and subsequently an interest rate lock. If a mortgage lender is willing to lock your loan on a refinance before the appraisal comes in they are risking the integrity of the interest rate they provided because it might change (purchase loans are a different story). For example if you do a 30 day loan lock with your mortgage lender before the appraisal comes back and your loan to value drops, your interest rate could not only change, there could be additional points and fees added to the new mortgage loan.

The solution is to not rely on the Internet for a valuation. Get an appraisal, let the appraisal order come back with a valuation and then lock in your interest rate for 30 days or less. By doing your loan lock this way you can avoid surprises during the loan process and keep your costs low. If you are concerned about ordering appraisal because you are worried about the value coming in lower that will boil down to a situation of risk vs reward. Is the reward of potentially refinancing at today’s historic market lows worth the cost of $400? This can only be determined by your unique loan situation.

For every borrower out there trying to get a refinance done, there is almost always a solution. Santa Rosa Mortgage Shopping make sense given today’s historically low mortgage rates.