Is my Lender honest or taking advantage of me?

[Jeremiah Hatcher]

Hello everyone. I'm new to real estate and im looking to house hack. Background credit score 740, pre-approved for $230,000 for FHA loan with 203k for renovations. I am very inexperienced and don't want to be taken advantage of. I asked my lender what the interest rates are and he said:

"The rates for rehab loans are slightly different than your typical mortgage because it is a special program and they can change from day to day. Once you have a sales contract we can discuss your Interest rate, mortgage payment, down payment amount, etc.." (Loandepot)

 Is this predatory?

[Marshall White]

@Jeremiah Hatcher Hey Jeremiah, 

Based on what you listed this doesn't sound predatory to me. If you haven't already done so, something you should do is get pre-approved with other lenders (maybe two more) and compare all of the information given among them. Unless something has changed, If you do them all within 30 days of each other this should only count as one inquiry on your credit. Speaking with multiple sources will let you know if it's possibly predatory or standard lender rhetoric. Also, you have a high credit score so you may not have to do the 203k program. For example, Caliber Home Loans offers the 203k program and their own in-house version of it (I believe they just call it a Construction Loan) that essentially works the same way but there is much less red tape. They only offer this to applicants with higher credit scores like yours. I used the 203k loan on my first personal home and there is so much red tape involved. I found out about the other program with Caliber about a year after I did my first home and wished that I knew about it. Also, this is not an endorsement of Caliber because I never used that program with them, I just used them to give a real world example.