1. Don't mistakenly damage your credit rating!

If you prequalified correctly, you didn't sign anything obligating you to the lender. That means you are free to shop around. You may be making a big mistake shopping around too much by yourself!

• What many consumers do not know is that each time you apply to a lender they will do a credit check before committing to you. What they are looking for is a credit rating called a Beacon Score. The Beacon score rates you as a number. The problem is that the number is adversely affected by the number of times an institution seeks a rating on you. The number goes down each time someone orders a credit check on you. The theory is that too many people looking at your credit could mean that something must be wrong with your credit. In plain English this means that if you shop around too much it will hurt your credit rating. Hard to believe!
• Consider a broker plugged into an electronic mortgage search network if you have no credit problems. These companies will do a credit application on you and electronically submit it to up to 40 lenders who bid against each other for your deal. Only one credit check is done and the Beacon score is submitted to all the lenders along with the application. The lenders have four hours to respond to the email -you go back to the brokers office four hours after your application goes in and get to review who wants your business and on what terms! If you have good credit, this service will cost you nothing because the broker will be paid a finder's fee by the lender.

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