"Is This Good?" What I Actually Check On A Loan Estimate.
People send me these at nine o'clock at night with three words. "Is this good?"
I understand the instinct, but I cannot answer that from the top of page one. The number everybody stares at is the one that tells you the least by itself. So here is what I actually look at, in the order I look at it.
First: is this even locked?
A Loan Estimate is an estimate. That is not me being cute, it is the name of the document. It is not a lock, and plenty of people find that out at the worst possible moment. So I look at the top of page one for the rate lock line and whether there is an expiration on it.
Then I look at the column on the right of the Loan Terms box, the one headed "Can this amount increase after closing?" That column is doing more work than anything else on the page. It tells you whether the rate is fixed or adjustable, whether there is a prepayment penalty, and whether there is a balloon payment waiting at the end.
Most of the time the answers are fine. When they are not, that is the whole conversation, and it has nothing to do with the rate.
Then the escrow line, because that is where the payment lies to you
This is the one that gets Florida buyers, and it is the most common real problem I find.
Look at the Projected Payments box on page one and at section G on page two, the initial escrow payment at closing. Then check the estimated taxes and insurance underneath, and the little checkboxes for what is actually in escrow.
Here is the trap. On a purchase, that tax figure is often built off what the seller has been paying. If they have owned the place fifteen years with a homestead cap holding their assessed value down, their tax bill is not going to be your tax bill. The county resets it, your escrow catches up in year two, and the payment you budgeted is not the payment you have. I wrote about that separately: why your mortgage payment jumps in year two. When I do a second look, I check whether the escrow is built on your future tax bill or the seller's old one.
Section A: what you are actually paying for that rate
Page two, section A, origination charges. This is where I find out whether the rate on page one was bought.
Points are not a scam and they are not a junk fee. Paying points to lower the rate is a legitimate trade, prepaid interest in exchange for a lower payment. But it should be a decision you made on purpose, with somebody telling you how long you have to keep the loan before it pays for itself.
The reverse matters just as much. A lender credit shows up further down as a negative number, and it makes closing costs look smaller. That money is not free either. It generally comes from taking a higher rate.
Neither one is wrong. What is wrong is nobody telling you which one you picked.
The box on page three almost nobody reads
Page three has a Comparisons box, and it is the closest thing to an honest apples to apples tool on the whole form.
It shows what you will have paid in five years and how much principal you will actually have knocked off in that time. Two loans can look nearly identical on page one and separate badly in that box. It also gives you the APR and the total interest percentage, which fold the fees back into the picture.
If you are holding two estimates and you want one number to argue about, argue about that box, not the top of page one.
What happens when you send me one
It takes me very little time. I go through the loan terms, the projected payments and escrow, the origination charges, the third party fees and prepaids, what you have to bring on closing day, and what the thing costs over its life. Usually I come back within a few hours, always within twenty four.
And here is the part people do not expect. If the deal in front of you is the right one, I will tell you that and you should go close it. I have wholesale lenders in 30 plus states to compare against, and sometimes the honest answer is that yours already won.
Send it over at 1rmtg.com/second-look, or call or text (941) 941-5150.
Tony Fitzgerald, The Mortgage Jedi. NMLS #1284924.
The Loan Estimate is the standardized federal disclosure form lenders are required to provide. Section and page references describe that form as of July 2026. This is general education, not financial advice, and not an offer of credit. Terms vary by borrower and by transaction.
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Tony Fitzgerald, NMLS #1284924. 1st Response Mortgage, powered by Mpire Financial Group LLC, NMLS #2108504, Florida Mortgage Lender License #MLD2467. Equal Housing Lender. NMLS Consumer Access: nmlsconsumeraccess.org. This article is general education, not financial, tax, or legal advice, and not an offer of credit or a commitment to lend. Terms vary by borrower, property, and transaction, and program guidelines change over time.
