Shopped 8 lenders for our mortgage and here's what we learned

My husband and I are buying our first home and spent a few weeks shopping lenders before locking. Figured I'd share what we learned since a lot of the advice online didn't match our experience.

Credit unions were not necessarily the move. Everyone said they'd have the best rates but they were the least responsive and their rates weren't meaningfully better than anyone else.

The big banks were the most aggressive. Chase in particular for us as well as NAF. They want the business and they move fast. The catch is once they figure out you're rate shopping, some of them get cagey about providing a formal Loan Estimate. Don't let that happen, a verbal quote or even a worksheet means nothing. Always get them to send over the loan estimate in writing.

Most "competitive" rates came with points attached. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples. A 5.625% rate with 1 point is not the same as 5.625% with no points. We saw this constantly.

What actually moved the needle was making it clear we were talking to multiple lenders at the same time and weren't in a rush. Most people were quoting us around 6.0%, the next best we saw was 5.625%, and we ended up locking at 5.5% on a 30-year fixed after we got the LE from Chase and used it to negotiate with another lender.

Along the way I built a mortgage calculator spreadsheet to actually understand the full picture in terms of payments: PITI, debt ratios, recast scenarios, appreciation over time. Happy to share if anyone wants it! Let me know if you have any questions and good luck!