How to actually shop mortgages?

[Adam Frerichs]

I am looking to buy my first home and have been pre approved by one lender. I want to shop around, but how do I actually do that. I am currently not looking at any house in particular, so should I just be asking for the same pre approval from each lender and asking for a breakdown of fees and rates for the particular price and loan type? The first lender I got pre approval from did not give me a breakdown of the pre approval details, just the letter that I had been approved.

[Jay Hurst]

Quote from @Adam Frerichs:

Quote from @Robin Simon:

are you qualifying for conventional financing?  If so, it’s really going to be the same loan product among all the lenders with very little differences, maybe a tiny bit of difference on rate from place to place.  If not conventional, you can shop around a bit more and ask for a full preliminary breakdown of payments/terms/closing costs

Yes, just conventional. So I should be expecting similar numbers at other lenders because they will all be judging by the same guidelines majorly and using the same rate tables?

Conventional requirements for approval are largely the same no matter who the lender is. The differences can if you are complicated like being self employed, own a lot of rental real estate etc.  But, if a W-2 borrower with good credit and down payment the actual approval will not very. 

However, pricing can very a great deal. So, once you find a property you absolutely should shop around for the best rate AND terms.  I emphasize the and because a lot of first timers do not understand the relationship between rates and costs. The lower the costs the higher the rate and vice versa.  So, you cannot just say oh well this is the lowest rate if it is costing you 3 times another quote. Just compare apples to apples on a few quotes before deciding.