Hello Ken, You can get multiple pre-approvals from various lenders. When you are shopping around for your mortgage and arranging meetings with each bank, they will each perform a pre-approval after taking your info and doing a credit check. The problem with multiple pre-approvals each time a new credit check is performed it will adversely affect your credit score, not by much but it still will affect it. Plus each of the lenders will know you have been shopping them around as well. The benefit of a Mortgage Agent in this specific case is two fold. The running around and arranging meetings with each bank is avoided as we can negotiate with all our available lenders on your behalf. Secondly one credit check is performed and that credit check is forwarded to each lender for their review. The lenders want us to send our client their way so they are always adjusting their rates and programs to attract our clients to them. We get the best rate available upfront and even lower rates when we do volume with the lenders so our rates tend to be better than what your current Bank can offer. There are also mortgage companies that have programs equivalent to the big 5 banks but have much lower rates. What do the big 5 banks do for you on your mortgage business anyway? Each and every month a mortgage payment gets taken out of your account and there is no real benefit to the client where the mortgage is, the real benefit comes in the amount of interest you are paying your lender each month to borrow their money. My point is if one of the big 5 banks can give you a great rate that is fantastic, but there are much lower rates available at lenders that the general public do not know of or have access to. I have access to over 25 lenders across Canada including the Big Banks and I would be more than happy to discuss the lowest rates available in the marketplace with you. Even if you have a pre-approval, a short discussion will reveal if you have found the best rate out there. Give me a call anytime. Abraham Niyazi - Mortgage Agent - Lic#M08010640 - Centum One FInancial Corp - Lic 10758. Cell: 416-993-4082 Toll Free: 1-866-728-3708 x 115 http://www.centum.ca/abraham_niyazi/ I deal with 25 lenders and can do mortgages across Canada except Quebec.

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One of the mortgage brokers i spoke with said that it doesn't hurt your credit score to get pre-approved by more than one broker/lender. but, if being pre-approved by a particular broker/lender doesn't actually lock you to that broker/lender, then is there a real benefit to getting pre-approved by multiple brokers/lenders? does it incent them to give you better rates? i'm looking to buy my first home, and would appreciate your guidance and experience. thanks!

Getting pre approved simply gives both you and the seller a good feeling of what kind of a loan you can be approved for. You know the price ranges you can look for to get the payments you want, and the seller can feel good that you being pre approved shouldn't have problems getting financing. Getting pre approved by more than one lender soes nothing to improve this. The one broker is probably hoping you'll get pre-approved with them, because they know that a preapproval means you are much more likely to get financing through him, which means he makes a commission. But you have done what you needed, you are preapproved. You don't need more than that, going through additional brokers to get more preapprovals would just be eating up more of your time. Instead, you should now be concentrating on what house to buy. My advice would be to get preapproved at one only, but you can still get information on loan programs through different brokers. That way, when you do agree with the seller on a particular transaction, you can go with the loan program that makes the most sense to you. You will have 2-3 days after the seller accepts your offer before you have to start formal loan processing, so you will have that time then to do your final homework and decision on what broker and loan program to use.

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Just wondering, if i'm shopping around for mortgages, can i get pre-approved by more than one lender? i wouldn't see why not, but wanted to make sure..... are you committed to a lender after getting pre-approved, and how can i make sure multiple pre-approvals don't hurt my credit too much? thanks!

Yes you can get more than one pre-approval, however, the credit bureaus WILL see that your credit is pulled and this MAY drop your scores. Pre-approval means at minimum a credit check. Prequalification is based solely on the info you give the lender. Rather than try for so many pre-approvals, this would be the time to compare the rates that lenders are offering. This way YOU stay in the driver's seat.