When you deal with a Certified Network Lender (CNL), the prices quoted to you are complete, accurate, timely and competitive. Among other things, this means that you are protected against lock scams, which are pervasive.

Complete Prices: The prices quoted you include all lender charges. Many sites and most loan officers (LOs) quote points, which is a single fee expressed as a percent of the loan, but leave out other lender charges that are expressed in dollars.

Accurate Prices: The price quoted to you reflects all the factors that affect price, not just some of them. That is why the questionnaire you filled out was so long.

Most other web sites have shorter questionnaires in order to encourage users to finish the process. Shorter questionnaires require sites to make assumptions about the factors that are left out. They naturally assume that these factors result in the lowest price to the applicant. If these assumptions turn out to be wrong, the price will be raised when it is discovered, at which point the applicant will get a rude surprise.

Price quotes from loan officers (LOs) may be even less accurate than those obtained on the web, since LOs typically don’t want to waste any more time than necessary in dealing with casual shoppers. Their quotes may also be deliberately set below the market, a practice called “low-balling”, in order to induce shoppers to become clients.

Timely Prices: Because this site connects directly to the internal pricing systems of its lenders, all price changes by these lenders result in simultaneous changes in the prices shown on the site. This means that during business hours, these prices are always current. After business hours, the site displays the last closing prices, and warns that prices will be reset on the next business day.

Other web sites often display obsolete prices because they depend on manual updating, which some lenders have a bad habit of forgetting to do – especially when interest rates rise, which makes their prices look low compared to others.

Competitive Prices: The CNLs on this site obtain their pricing from, and sell their loans to 15 correspondent lenders. These are larger firms that account for about 70% of all home loans originated in the US.

The large correspondent lenders compete to have their loans offered by the retail lenders. To assure that they are getting the best prices available, each of the 6 CNLs deals with 4 or more correspondent lenders. This forces the correspondent lenders to offer their best prices to the CNLs. In turn, the CNLs compete with each other to be selected by borrowers using this net work. This assures borrowers of the best possible pricing.

Protection Against Lock Scams: This site gives you the unique ability to monitor your price day by day until it is locked, which protects you against lock scams. On the day you lock the price, you have access to the lender’s posted prices, the exact same prices you would be quoted if you were just starting to shop.

Lock scams are widespread elsewhere. If the market price rises after the borrower selects the lender, the borrower will pay the new higher price and maybe a little more (“the market went against us”). If the market price declines, the borrower will receive the price they were quoted before rather than the lower price.

Protection Against Being on Your Own if Something Goes Wrong

Mortgages are complicated, as is the mortgage process, things sometimes go wrong even with the best systems, When that happens, it is helpful to know that there is an informed and objective third party with the clout needed to find a solution. The professor or his agent is that party, serving as your ombudsman if something goes wrong.