US News Recommends:

NOTE TO RYAN – EACH BANK BELOW NEEDS AFFILIATE LINK

1. PrimeLending
2. Axos Bank
3. Chase
4. ConsumerDirect
5. PNC Bank
6. New American Funding
7. Carrington Mortgage Services
8. AmeriSave
9. Freedom Mortgage
10. Quicken Loans

Business Insider recommends:

NOTE TO RYAN – EACH BANK BELOW NEEDS AFFILIATE LINK

1. Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans
2. Navy Federal Credit Union Mortgage
3. Veterans United Mortgage
4. Fairway Independent Mortgage
5. Guild Mortgage
6. New American Funding
7. NBKC Bank Mortgage
8. Bank of America Mortgage
9. PNC Bank Mortgage
10. Carrington Mortgage Services
11. Chase Mortgage
12. US Bank Mortgage

Money recommends:

NOTE TO RYAN – EACH BANK BELOW NEEDS AFFILIATE LINK

1. Quicken Loans
2. LendingTree
3. Veterans United
4. Guild Mortgage
5. Caliber Home Loans
6. Navy Federal
7. Bank of America
8. Better Mortgage

It’s important to remember that algorithms don’t need mortgages…they live in the matrix and in people’s heads.

So when it comes to choosing the best place to get a mortgage, don’t put all your faith in Google’s algorithms.

If you’re smart, you’ll also make sure you get some guidance from some really smart people, like these:

• Your rich uncle
• Your friend the banker
• Your friend the mortgage broker
• Your financial advisor
• Your accountant
• A really smart Realtor

And if you’re smart, you’ll think twice about taking too much advice from these guys:

• Your neighbor
• Your golf buddy
• Your drinking buddy
• All the other Realtors

Beware of some sites that offer a list of “best” mortgage lenders.

For them, “best” might mean the sites that give them the best payout vs. sites that actually offer you a list of the objectively best lenders. 

How can you tell?

1. Look for explanation of their methodology for determining which sites are best. Do they offer their methodology? If no, you should be suspicious. If yes, take a quick look to see if it makes sense to you. We’re offering lender recommendations here from US News, Business Insider and Money because we think their methodologies make sense. 
2. Look at the site’s Advertiser Disclosure, which should be clear about how they pick the companies they highlight and whether payouts from those companies can influence their rating or position on the page. Click here to find out more.

Beware of Bankrate.com.

Damn near every site you visit is going to present some kind of loan widget where you put your info in, and rates pop out.

The funny thing is, the widget almost always comes from the same place: Bankrate.

What does that mean?

First of all, as we’ve noted in other places, the Bankrate Advertiser Disclosure is pretty awful. Click here to find out more.

Beyond that, we wondered what would happen if we plugged the same details for an imaginary house into the Bankrate widget on different websites.

It turns out in our test that the rates were the same unless you’re a veteran, in which case the widget on the Forbes Advisor page doesn’t think you need to know that you might be eligible for a $0 down home purchase.

Note to Forbes and Bankrate: If I was a veteran, I would want to know that.

Note to you: Only you can decide how many of these rate quote widgets you should use to find the best rate. Should you fill out just one more in case something new, like the Veterans United Home Loans offer, pops out? At some point, it becomes an exercise with diminishing returns.

* Our imaginary house came from a city we picked randomly, Des Moines. The value we used for the imaginary house came from Zillows report on typical home price in Des Moines.

You’re going to get screwed if you don’t pay attention to advertiser disclosures.

Between the time you click on a link to visit a website and when you actually consider putting your trust in the information offered by that website, you should make sure you read the website’s “Advertising Disclosure.”

Our recommendation is that you look for an advertising disclosure statement that not only clearly explains the website’s relationship with advertisers but also makes clear that the content you’re reading is in no way influenced by their relationship with advertisers.

For instance, we keep singling out BankRate.com because we think their policy outlined on their advertiser disclosure is terrible since it contains language like this:

The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories.

We’ve also given Dave Ramsey’s website our lowest rating. Although the content can be terrific it can also deceptive because, like here, there is no advertiser disclosure and it’s not clear until you get to the bottom of the page that the entire page is a setup for their advertiser Zander Insurance.

For an example of a great Advertiser Disclosure, take a look at the language here from consumer advocate Clark Howard’s website:

We only write about companies and products that we want you, the consumer, to know about.  We do however make money from links and offers from some companies and deals on our sites. For example, you may see a deals roundup or a credit card comparison/review page with links to particular products or cards in a story. After the story is written, our advertising team will look and replace links to those products/sites that will pay us a commission if they gain a customer. Many of the retailers/banks on that page may have no relationship with us, in which case we receive no compensation.

If you don’t do the math on your mortgage, you’re a moron.

Doing the math is the only way you’re really going to understand what your new mortgage is really going to cost.

And you could end up paying almost as much for your mortgage as you’ll pay for your house (especially at even higher interest rates), as this chart from Motley Fool’s MillionAcres.com illustrates: