Mortgage Ethics 101: question about getting pre-approval

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hey folks.

So, as some of you know, my wife and I are about to begin the process of shopping to buy a home. A few weeks ago, we met with a broker who very informally pre-qualified us. We really, REALLY like this guy and are happy with his rates, but we’ve read that it’s smart to shop around, even on an FHA loan.

We have paperwork gathered today and were prepared and anxious to find another lender or two to pre-qualify us this evening, but every place we called was busy tonight for one reason or another. But because we want to start shopping next week, we decided to make an appointment with the first guy and go ahead and apply for a loan with him. From my understanding, this will amount to being pre-approved at this point (assuming all goes well).

My question is, now that we’re taking this bigger step with Broker A, would it be unethical (or problematic in some other way) to still talk to a couple of other lenders/brokers and maybe at least get pre-qualified with them? Or are we making some huge mistake in going all the way to pre-approval with the first broker we talked to?

Thanks, folks.

2

When we bought our house we got pre-approved by one company. Our agent said we only need one to demonstrate to the seller that we can put in an offer. He said, who we ultimately get the loan from doesn’t matter.

In other words, get pre-approved with letter in hand. Shop for house, then shop for mortgage. You don’t have to use the lender who pre-approved you, and the lenders don’t expect you to. The rates will change between now and when you find your house anyway. It makes no sense to shop for mortgage first.