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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Vindicated on two mortgages

“Vindicated” is too strong a word. Perhaps “not completely crazy” would be more like it. 

When we were buying our first house, I shopped around for mortgage rates, and ended up applying for a mortgage at two different banks. This was just to be safe. At the time, the application fees weren’t particularly high.  But this struck people as a strange idea.  Now, I see in this NYT Review that I’m not the only one thinking this way.

There are enough counterintuitive ideas to keep even people who know a bit about personal finance reading further. For example, given the costs associated with trying to get a mortgage, most of us wouldn’t think of applying for two simultaneously. But Ms. Weston says you should. It will give you an alternative should a lender try to raise rates, or “sneak in” additional fees just before closing.

That’s a review of “The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy” (Hudson Street Press, $25.95), by Liz Weston.  The Times review is highly favorable.

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