Buying, refinancing or borrowing against your home? Take it one step at a time.
Home loans come with a lot of new words and a lot of pressure. Here is what each lender publishes about its loans, checked on its own pages and dated, with every term explained. No personal rate quotes, no pressure, and nothing to sign up for.
Where would you like to start?
Mortgage lenders
Buying a home? Minimum credit scores, down payments, loan types and fees as each lender publishes them.
7 lenders
Refinance lenders
Already own? Lenders that publish a refinance, including cash-out, and what they say about costs.
7 lenders
HELOC and home equity
Borrowing against the equity you have built: credit lines, draw periods, limits and fees.
5 lenders
Calculators
Free and private. Work out a monthly payment, or whether refinancing would pay for itself.
2 tools
Looking for something specific?
A calm way to go about it
You do not need to understand everything before you start. Four steps cover most of it, and you can stop after any of them.
1.Find a payment you are comfortable with
Start from the monthly number, not the price. Our payment calculator includes the parts people forget: property tax, home insurance and mortgage insurance.
Try the payment calculator2.Know your starting point
Your credit score, how much you can put down and what you already owe each month shape every offer you will get. Lenders list their own minimums, and we show them.
3.Compare what lenders publish
Minimums, fees, loan types and where they lend, side by side, each with the date we checked it on the lender's own page.
Compare mortgage lenders4.Ask for official offers
Request the same loan from a few lenders and compare their official offers line by line. That is where your real rate and costs appear.
Mortgage lenders we cover
Purchase and refinance. Shown: lowest minimum credit score the lender publishes.
Better MortgageAll-digital direct lender in all 50 states with 3-minute online pre-approval and FHA, VA and jumbo loans580Min. credit score
Chase Home LendingBig-bank lender with 3% down, FHA, VA and jumbo loans to $9.5 million, plus homebuyer grants in eligible areas620Min. credit score
Rocket MortgageOnline lender with FHA, VA and jumbo loans, 1% down on ONE+, and a published rate table with its assumptions580Min. credit score
Veterans United Home LoansVA-loan specialist with $0 down, a published daily VA rate table and a typical 620 minimum score620Min. credit score
SoFi MortgageOnline bank mortgages with 3% down for first-time buyers, a published $1,495 origination fee and a 90-day rate lock3%Min. down (non-VA)
Navy Federal Credit Union MortgageCredit union mortgages for military members and families: VA and $0-down loans, no PMI and a free 60-day rate lock0%Min. down (non-VA)
Bank of America Home LoansNational bank with 3% down programs, FHA and VA loans, jumbo loans, and down payment grants in select markets3%Min. down (non-VA)
HELOC and home equity lenders
Shown: largest credit line the lender publishes.
Chase HELOCVariable-rate HELOC from $35,000 to $400,000 with a 3-year draw period, up to 80% of your home's value$400,000Max line
U.S. Bank HELOCHELOC from $25,000 to $500,000 with no closing costs, a 10-year draw period and up to three fixed-rate locks$500,000Max line
Bank of America HELOCHELOC from $25,000 to $1,000,000 with no closing costs, no annual fee and a fixed-rate loan option$1 millionMax line
Figure HELOCOnline HELOC from $15,000 to $750,000 with a fixed-rate first draw and funding in as few as 5 days$750,000Max line
Spring EQHELOCs and a home equity loan from $50,000 to $500,000, up to 90% of your home's value, from a 640 credit score$500,000Max line
The words you will keep seeing, one line each
- APR vs. rate
- The rate is the yearly cost of the loan. The APR adds in fees and points, so it is usually higher and better for comparing offers.
- PMI
- Private mortgage insurance. It protects the lender, usually applies with less than 20% down on a conventional loan, and can end once you have built enough equity.
- Points
- Money paid at closing to lower your rate. One point is 1% of the loan. They only pay off if you keep the loan long enough.
- Closing costs
- One-time fees due when the loan is finalized, separate from the down payment.
- DTI
- Debt-to-income: your monthly debt payments divided by your monthly income. Lenders use it to judge how much you can comfortably borrow.
- CLTV
- Combined loan-to-value: every loan on your home added together, divided by what the home is worth. HELOC lenders cap it.
- Rate lock
- A lender's promise to hold your rate for a set number of days while you close. Extending a lock can cost extra.
- Loan Estimate
- The standard form that spells out a loan's terms and costs. Ask several lenders for one and compare them.
How we check lenders
Every minimum, fee and limit on these pages comes from the lender's own website, read on the date shown, with the source on the lender's page. If we could not confirm something, we leave it blank instead of guessing. Lenders cannot pay to change what we publish about them. We do not quote rates, because a real rate depends on you. Read our method