So you are in the market for a mortgage in Ventura County. Maybe you are purchasing a first time home, second home, investment property or just looking to refinance your newly adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed rate with these historically low rates (well, almost historically low rates).

What do you do?

Well the best approach is to call your mortgage professional that did your past loan, or if you do not have a mortgage then you ask your family and friends for a referral. This in itself could be a challenge due to the exodus of many loan officers from the business due to the “easy pickens” days are over. All that are left are those mortgage professionals that are grounded from years of experience (not so bad). Once you hook up with a professional then you are in good shape to get the best mortgage program and rate possible. Why?

For those that do not have a mortgage source to go to, they will call around and get mortgage rate quotes. This is backwards for a couple of reasons.

First, you may get a quote that you really like, go with it and then find out that the loan officer that quoted the “really nice” rate can not perform or the quote will not work in the time frame needed (I just got a random call today asking if I could refer a mortgage attorney due to failure to perform within the rate lock commitment..basically the customer lost their rate and now that rate does not exist).

Second, calling around and getting quotes does not work in today’s multiple rate sheet environment. What do I mean? Due to the volatility in the market, lenders price rates in the morning, then depending on how the market is performing (the mortgage backed securities..I’ll save this for a different blog post) you can get a mortgage rate re-price. So what? Well if you call my competitor at 10:00 a.m. and then call me at 2:00 p.m. and the market has improved to warrant a mortgage re-price, I will beat out my competitor just due to the improvement in the market.

You need to be able to compare apples with apples. In May, rates changed about every 4 hours. This makes it very challenging to shop for rates.

Back to my earlier point. Find a mortgage professional first, one that is established, has weathered the storm and understands the market, then stick with that professional. You will in the long run end up with the best program and rate.

If you want to follow mortgage rates on a daily basis, follow me on twitter were I give daily updates to how the mortgage market is performing.