If you set out to go find a mortgage to purchase a home or for a refinance, you are going to be hit with dozens of different options in lenders, interest rates, loan types, and the like. You have to choose between fixed and variable, 15 and 30 year, and find the lender that will give you the best rate. Generally, the typical refinance advice is to simply visit three different lenders and see what interest rates that you can get from them, but in the information age, there are much better options.

There are a number of sites, such as RefinanceGuide.com, that have arisen which will help you filter out through some of the white noise, and get the cold hard facts as to which lender will be able to give you the best refinance rates. These sites will let you search across dozens of different lenders for both mortgages and other types of loans. Instead of just visiting 2 or 3 lenders yourself, their directory will allow you to search through dozens of different lenders in half the time.

It’s absolutely critical to get the best interest rate on your mortgage. The amount of interest you pay over the course of a thirty year loan will vary dramatically even if the interest rate is just a quarter of a point lower. For example, the difference a 6.00% APR and a 6.25% APR on a $200,000 loan over the course of 30 years is a whopping $17,461 over the course of a loan. That could buy you a new car!

Always make sure that you get the best deal when shopping for a loan. Pay cash in every circumstance that you can, but we know that’s not always possible, especially when it comes to real estate. So if you do have to get a loan, make sure that you get the best deal you possibly can by searching on one of the many loan comparison websites online.