Confessions of a mortgage salesman

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Good morning. Due to a fit of technological incompetence by your blogger, ‘Tree of the Week’ is delayed this week. In the meantime, this came in from Ted Janusz, a former senior loan officer at a mortgage bank and author of ‘Kickback: Confessions of a Mortgage Salesman.’

Top 10 Mistakes Mortgage Borrowers Make:

1. Not knowing which mortgage fees the borrower can -- and cannot -- negotiate.
2. Choosing and trusting the first loan officer the borrower interviews.
3. Using an interest-only or ‘payment option’ adjustable-rate loan primarily to qualify for a more expensive house than the borrower could normally afford.
4. Thinking the interest rate is always the main thing.
5. Not comparing the final fees listed on the closing documents to the up-front estimates to avoid the lender ‘packing the loan’ with added-on fees without the borrower’s knowledge.
6. Not knowing if the mortgage has a pre-payment penalty -- until it’s too late.
7. Thinking that renting is always just throwing money away.
8. The borrower does not know if he or she is paying a back-end yield spread or Service Release Premium.
9. Paying for mortgage life insurance, credit insurance or other expensive lender add-ons to increase the amount of kickbacks the lender can receive from various vendors.
10. Paying hundreds of dollars to have a company set up a biweekly mortgage payment plan, something the borrower can generally do for herself or himself -- for free.

Thanks Ted. Thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.