There’s no way around it: Getting a mortgage to buy a home is complex and time-consuming — about as enjoyable as doing your taxes. Lenders need to know seemingly everything about your finances before writing a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars to help you buy a home.
But hey, at least the process ensures you get the best loan for your circumstances, right?
Unfortunately no. The truth is people leave money on the table every day, through no fault of their own beyond simply not realizing the full range of options and leverage available to them.
Paired with a system that doesn’t cover your blind spots and a weaker regulatory environment, this knowledge gap makes for a harsh reality: The mortgage rate you get is at least partly dependent on your ability to sniff it out. And for many people, that can mean getting stuck with a higher mortgage rate and the extra cost that comes with it.
The relief of approval and a failure to negotiate
When a mortgage lender tells you, “You’re qualified!” it can feel like a major accomplishment.
“People are relieved to just be approved for a mortgage at all, so they may stop there,” says Consumer Federation of America housing director Sharon Cornelissen. “They’re like, ‘Oh, thank god, that’s done.’ People spend more time shopping for a TV or a dining room table than for a mortgage.”
This relief of approval unfortunately makes it easy for homebuyers to go with the flow. But the truth is you have more power and leverage over lenders than you might realize. After all, the biggest purchase of your lifetime powers a nice business for them.
The stakes of not using this leverage are meaningful: you’ll pay significantly more in interest costs each month and every year that you’re in a decades-long repayment (unless you refinance later to a lower APR, lessening the long-term toll). Even rates that are mere percentage points apart can dramatically increase your costs over the long haul.
Consider the following example for America’s average home loan origination — $373,000, according to mid-2025 U.S. Federal Housing data — repaid over a 30-year, fixed-rate term. Not negotiating could cost you nearly $45,000 in total interest; or $125 per month.
| The mortgage rate you’re offered | The rate you negotiate | |
| Rate | 6.56%* | 6.06%** |
| Monthly payment | $2,372 | $2,251 |
| Total interest | $481,046 | $437,264 |
| *National average for June 1 2026, according to Bankrate **Research, including from the Urban Institute, has suggested a range of 50 basis points in offered rates |
||
Bankrate has interviewed 13 current mortgage bankers and loan officers (MLOs) over the past several months, and their message is clear: By pitting lenders against each other — perhaps with loan estimates in hand — you dramatically increase your odds of securing the lowest possible rate available to you.
Mortgage rates “really aren’t set in stone,” says experienced MLO, Justine Fees. “And as much as the bankers will try to sell you on the fact that they are… it is completely negotiable.”
Similar to how some retailers will accept competitors’ coupons, you can even gain leverage with your preferred lender by presenting them with a lower mortgage rate quote from a competitor. Even if your preferred lender doesn’t match the competing rate, they may offer you a lower one than they otherwise would have.
“I don’t know of a lender that won’t take a loan estimate from another lender and match or beat it,” says Fees. “So, it’s that flexible.”
Multi-time homebuyers aren’t immune from overpaying
Even old-fashioned good service can reinforce the (wrong) idea that you don’t need to shop around. If you feel like you scored a good rate (and your loan closed on time) the first time around, you’re more likely to be a repeat customer and less likely to shop around. In fact, customers of mortgage lenders that score well for “delivering useful guidance” are 2.3 times more likely to report “definitely” planning to choose the same lender in the future, according to J.D. Power’s research.
The lack of a true fiduciary (unless you find a counselor)
Buying a home is a major, life-altering financial decision, and it’s understandable that you’d look to industry professionals for guidance. Unfortunately, many of us assume the real estate agents, mortgage brokers and loan officers will serve our interests above all else — when, in fact, that’s just not true.
Related: 3 traps the mortgage industry doesn’t want you to know about — and how to avoid them
Misplacing your trust in real estate agents, brokers or MLOs can come back to bite you at various points in the homebuying journey. For example, research suggests you might fear applying to multiple mortgage lenders (perhaps in search of the lowest rate) because it will harm your credit score. In actuality, the credit bureaus allow you to file mortgage applications to your heart’s content and generally without harm, so long as you submit the applications within a 45-day period. But a loan officer isn’t obliged to let you in on this key reality. After all: How motivated would they be to nudge you to speak with their competitors, when the commission from the sale is a key part of their income?
“In some cases, a lender or a broker may knowingly market a higher rate than somebody qualifies for on the bet that this person is naive, that they don’t know that they actually have a stronger credit profile and could qualify for a better rate,” says Boston College law professor Patricia McCoy, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s first head of mortgage markets. “This is a problem for first-time homebuyers who don’t have any past experience to go on. And even for more experienced homebuyers, they may only buy a home two or three times in their lives. So, it’s not a frequent transaction where they build up a lot of experience about pricing.”
It’s a very competitive dog-eat-dog market, and very few consumers have the experience to really navigate it.
— National Consumer Law Center senior attorney Andrew Pizor
To be fair, many of the 20-plus real estate agents interviewed by Bankrate over the past several months bristle at the idea that they would encourage a client to do something that’s unwise.
“The lender’s the one with the bag of money, but I’m the one that they’re going to call if something happens and they can’t make their mortgage payments… I’m the one that they’re going to remember as the one who got them into the house, you know?” says Washington-based real estate broker Greg Church, who teaches a homebuying course for first-time buyers. “So, my reputation is pretty important… I try to be very careful and navigate that very carefully, because this is how I feed my family, right? And I also like to put my head on my pillow at night and sleep well.”
Still, for every conscientious agent or broker, another might rationalize that what’s good for them is also good for you, even if it’s not your best option. Good intent is different than federally mandated fiduciary responsibility — a legal obligation to put your interests above their own, such as is true for lawyers, trustees and some financial advisers.
A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-certified counselor might be the closest thing to a fiduciary you’ll find. Unlike agents, brokers and MLOs, counselors don’t have a financial stake in your home purchase.
Counselors are “a really good source of independent information, and they will tell you to shop around for a mortgage,” says the CFA’s Cornelissen. She adds: A HUD-approved homebuying course might take eight hours of your life, but it could save you tens of thousands of dollars over the next 30 years if it makes you a smarter comparison-shopper or connects you with a down payment assistance program.
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A weakened regulatory environment enables questionable lender tactics
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created to protect consumers from exactly this kind of system, which lacks true fiduciaries and can subtly prioritize profit over your best option. One way the CFPB does this is through enforcement actions — legalese for issuing an order or filing a complaint or lawsuit in court.
However, the agency’s enforcement actions against mortgage origination companies has been on a downward trend across the last three presidential administrations; culminating in zero brought in the first 17 months of the Trump Administration.
| Term | Administration | Enforcement actions against mortgage companies |
| 2013 to 2017 | Obama (second term) | 38 |
| 2017 to 2021 | Trump (first term) | 21 |
| 2021 to 2025 | Biden | 15 |
| 2025 to present | Trump (second term) | 0 |
People can of course still work with plaintiff law firms on civil suits, albeit with less potential for widespread and sustained impact.
“A class-action suit result [doesn’t] have the same sort of teeth as a CFPB action,” the CFA’s Cornelissen says. “It’s much more limited in the cop-on-the-beat kind of role that these class-actions can play.”
Despite the lack of CFPB enforcement actions going back to 2025, the consumer watchdog’s complaint database shows mortgage lender complaints are still pouring in, with submissions relating to conventional, FHA, VA and USDA mortgages near all-time highs.
Source: CFPB
Bankrate reviewed a 100-complaint sample from 2026 that references mortgage interest rates. We quickly found common problems leading to the same outcome: a higher-than-expected rate.
| Common complaint type | Example complaint |
| Application delays and processing errors meant missing out on a lower interest rate | “At the time of my original application, I qualified for an interest rate of approximately 5.125%. Due to the delay caused by the lender’s internal error, market conditions have significantly worsened. While I have been told I can reapply, the current interest rates are substantially higher, which has resulted in a significantly increased cash-to-close requirement that is no longer financially feasible for me.” |
| Failure to disclose costs, including discount points, made a lower rate inaccessible or less attractive | “During my initial inquiry, I was explicitly told that I could refinance to reduce my interest rate by approximately half a [percentage] point with no cost to me and no required action on my part. Based on these representations, I agreed to move forward with the process. However, upon receiving the loan disclosures, I discovered that the refinance included several [thousand] dollars in closing costs, which were being financed into the loan, increasing my principal balance.” |
| Inaccurate credit reporting by mortgage servicer resulted in higher rate | “This inaccurate reporting damages my credit profile after [many] years of perfect payment history [and] exposes me to higher interest rates.” |
| Misleading schemes, communication and advertising that promised lower rates (sometime in the form of a discount, reward or adjustable-rate mortgage) | “Instead of honoring the original terms that were provided in writing and signed, I was told that the fixed-rate option was now [redacted]%. This sequence of events reflects a bait-and-switch practice: I was presented with specific loan terms in writing to secure my business, signed disclosures based on those terms, and then had the terms materially changed afterward. When I objected, I was offered significantly worse terms.” |
Beyond widely-shared consumer complaints about mortgage lenders, seemingly rarer complaints sometimes told heart-breaking or mind-boggling stories. For instance, one California-based homeowner who sought a mortgage modification wrote in March 2026 that their 3.5% mortgage rate was replaced by a 7.125% rate “despite representations that the rate would remain unchanged.”
Elsewhere, nationally-operating mortgage lenders and real estate companies, in various class-action lawsuits stand accused of other tactics that could harm the average homebuyer, including:
- Requiring mortgage brokers to avoid working with its competitors, which could result in homebuyers accepting higher rates
- Pressuring real estate agents to steer homebuyers to their loans (or limited menu of loan options), dissuading you from shopping around
- Incentivizing or even mandating employees to avoid discounting their interest rates
As Cornelissen says of the most aggressive lenders, “They’re trying to see what is possible, basically, within the bounds of the law.”
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