Where can I find a mortgage broker or commercial lender in the San
Francisco Bay Area?  or a residential mortgage broker or residential
lender who posts the best mortgage rates and also has competitive
rates with zero points and low or zero fees? Has anyone heard of
www.firstselectgroup.com or www.fsmlender.com  ??

---

Request for Question Clarification by 8ball-ga on 22 Jun 2002 16:30 PDT

1.  Do I need to have heard of the two places you listed and be able
to comment on them specifically to answer your question?

2.  Is it sufficient for me to recommend one based on my own personal
experience in the Bay Area?  (I own a condo on the peninsula and have
refinanced it 4 times.)  Or do you want a detailed comparison of
places and current rates?

I do no want to give you an answer you are going to find inadequate,
but there is only so much you can expect for $2.00.  =)

Check out www.bankrate.com.

firstselectgroup,
have you ever thought of this, Banks have always thought us that the
interest is what's really important... and they go way out of their
way to tell you that... as consumers we've always asked the same two
questions... "What's the interest rate?" and "How much is each payment
a month?", but we've never asked the following two questions which I
beleive should be asked: "How much will this loan cost me?" and "When
am I going to be out of debt?"

i.e. if you go to two different banks, and you ask the two question I
said should be asked and they give you two different answers...

Bank A: the loan will cost you 500K for your 150K home loan and it
will be for 30 years (rate of about 7.5%)

Bank B: the loan will cost you 350K for your 150K home loan and it
will be for 18 years (rate of about 9%)

Now these are only examples... and I'm guessing on the rate, but, what
I'm trying to emphazise is that you should know how much the loan will
cost you Before you commit to anything. (before you sign)

Bank A: will tell you that you have a good rate, but you are being
exposed to that rate for 30 years.

Bank B: is much less because of the type of program you have with
them.  Simple Interest (NOT PreSchedule, like most banks) and paying
"Bi-Weekly", this program allows you to touch the principle more times
(26 times) than your normal "PreSchedule" once a month payment
programs that banks give you (12 times).

So, I think you should look at a bank that will give you: Simple
interest, bi-weekly payment and Oh yeah... "NO ESCROW" accounts and
"NO PMI".

Escrow and PMI are only things that benefit the Bank not you the
consumer.

I can give you more information if you like... but I think I've
overwelcomed my Comment...

tacke care...

-M