In today’s mortgage market, whenever one lender pulls a credit report on a borrower, the credit bureaus (Experion, Equifax and Transunion) then sell that borrower’s information to unscrupulous internet lenders who then try to solicit borrowers already in a mortgage application with another lender.

At Indigo Mortgage, we call these internet lenders “bottom feeders”. Here’s how bad it is: I had a borrower sitting at my desk and I pulled his credit for his application. Thirty seconds later, his phone rang with a bottom feeder on the line.

These internet lenders don’t know the borrower, they don’t know Indigo Mortgage but yet they promise the borrower they can beat our offer.

As we’ve said for decades, we encourage borrowers to shop for the best mortgage rate and fees, but let the borrower decide who they shop with. Most often, when one of these bottom feeders do entice the borrower to jump ship, by the time the loan goes to closing, it looks nothing like what they were promised.

Our advice: shop your mortgage but stick with local mortgage companies and avoid the bottom feeders at all cost, as it’s probably going to cost you if you take the bait.