1. One of the main reasons daily ratesheets are not available on the Internet or to the general public is that majority of banks consider wholesale rates proprietary information and do not allow brokers or mortgage bankers to publish them. The rule applies even to the few mortgage brokers and bankers who would like to share the information with their customers.

2. Even if ratesheets were published, it would still take consumers quite a bit of time to figure them out because in addition to a ratesheet, their must be accompanying qualifying guidelines. Qualifying guidelines are the rules under which borrowers are approved and subtle differences between programs are not completely reflected in a ratesheet. Many ratesheets have basic LTV, Doc Type and FICO requirements but oftentimes leave out many critical items such as cutoff DTI (Debt To Income) ratios and a whole host of other important underwriting requirements. Beyond the basic qualifying factors, guidelines outline other requirements such as cash reserves, seasoning of funds, number of necessary tradelines, and a large number of other factors. It would take a determined consumer some training and a number of months to get a handle on all the material involved. Not practical for most people unless they are economists, enjoy the pursuit as a hobby, need the information because they are in a real estate related profession (realtors, attorneys, accountants, etc) or are planning on becoming mortgage professionals (loan officers, processors or underwriters) themselves.

3. The last major reason and maybe it should be considered or merged with number one above, is the majority of banks and brokers would prefer consumers to be less informed. The more vague and ambiguous the process, the easier it is from a lender's perspective to close a borrower with much higher margins.

The mortgage industry is moving towards greater and greater disclosure. The 2007/2008 mortgage crisis has done a great deal to shed light on the way many borrowers are abused with unnecessarily high rates.As more and people become better mortgage shoppers, the way mortgage pricing works will probably sink more deeply into different parts of the mass public consciousness. Savvy shoppers will probably be able to gain more insight into wholesale/retail dynamics and be able to use the information effectively similiar to the way some automobile shoppers can research car invoice pricing ahead of time. Currently up to the minute wholesale/retail pricing is hard to obtain and for the majority of borrowers would be difficult to interpret without some training.

LoanShoppingPros can give consumers a very, very good idea of whether they are getting a reasonable wholesale/retail markup or not. We can give you a very accurate idea of whether the rate you are be quoted is low retail, mid retail, high retail, very high retail or outright price gouging. We can also help prevent you from being abused at ratelock time, the time many lenders bump your rate from the low retail rate they quoted you over the phone or application time to a much higher retail rate at closing. Almost all of the brokers and bankers in our network already know ahead of time to quote and deliver rates that are both real (as opposed to phony quotes just to get your application) and competitive. Lenders who do not live up to our standards are dropped from the network.