Knowing who to work with when it comes to refinancing can be harder than the home loan process itself! Here are 4 easy tips to help make that process a little easier!

It’s time to refinance where do you start? Look for the lowest prices? Best reviews? Steer clear of sales gimmicks? It all starts with speaking to the right person! The loan officer is the person you deal directly with during the loan process and feeling comfortable with them is the best place to start!

Here are 4 tips to make sure you choosing the right loan officer!

1. Be Prepared to have at least a 10 min conversation with the Loan Officer over the phone

Starting the process over the phone can always be a little bit nerve wracking for most people, so start off by giving yourself at least 10 minutes to get the conversation started! This allows enough time for the loan officer to understand what you are trying to accomplish and get you qualified. If it takes less than 5 min to get a quote, the loan officer could be rushing and not creating enough value, which could lead to inaccurate information. An overly long conversation can be overkill and could be a sign that the loan officer is following a script or is trying to wheel you in. There are always exceptions! Often times when speaking with a loan office you develop a great connection and the conversation just flows! You don’t want to waste your time with meaningless information, but you want to like who you do business with, so make the loan officer earn your business and let them ask the necessary questions to get to know you and your current situation.

2. Let the Loan Officer pull credit.

Yes, it’s a hard hit but the good news is after your first inquiry, you have a window to get your credit pulled by as many mortgage lenders/brokers as you want without it effecting your credit. The bottom line is no quote is going to be accurate unless the loan officer has looked at your credit report. I don’t recommend asking for a quote without credit. Based off my 11-years of experience in the industry, most loan officers that have no problems giving quick quotes without pulling credit will not provide accurate information. Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier for a loan officer to tell you what you want to hear as opposed to what you need to hear. With that being said, I won’t turn down business because the borrower won’t let me pull credit but I will explain my reasons why I should. If that doesn’t work then I’d be glad to give anyone a hypothetical quote over the phone or email but the borrower must remember that it will not be 100% accurate until a credit pull is done. My goal on each call with a prospective client is to earn the business and you can’t do that every time if you have one way of thinking.

3. Ask about the process and what’s involved.

This is a great way to see if the loan officer is a rookie or a veteran. To be clear, a good loan officer will foreshadow the process and set the right expectations up front. Not all loan officers are the same, maybe you’re talking to a loan officer that gets paid for completing an application or by getting you conditionally approved. If so, they might tell you everything you want to know to get you to that point. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes with a mortgage transaction and I for one will always foreshadow the steps once or twice before I even take an application. It’s the right thing to do and I love the concept of under promising and overdelivering.

4. Don’t fall for the sales tactics.

You know, the “let me put you on a quick hold to see if I can do better.” Or “this discount is good until the end of the day. Or my personal favorite, “let me talk to my director and see if there’s anything else we can do to make this better.” To be completely transparent, I have used these tactics before, but it wasn’t because I wanted to, I had to in order to compete. There are a lot of large and medium size lenders/brokers out there that simply don’t have competitive pricing compared to others. This usually happens when overhead is too high making the margin too high. The discounts may be accurate, but why not work with a lender or broker that just has great pricing to start with. Bottom line is if you hear these lines on the phone, then it’s either a sales tactic to get you to commit or the pricing started out high and is now average/good with a discount. 

It’s always smart to stay educated and to choose the right loan officer!

Head over to and get a quote now or reach out with any questions you may have!