Over 2 years of running this group we’ve found a few things to be undeniable facts when dealing with people: 1 – Everyone likes to compare what they have verse others and 2 – People will speak like professionals even if they aren’t actually professionals.

One way this ALWAYS proves true is in posts that ask about interest rates…

Here’s a note from Brian Dix from September of 2020 :

BLUF: Don’t approve posts pertaining to rates and closing costs advice. Often, we can advise the vet to reach out to a VVA professional to give a second opinion on their scenario.

I removed a post with this AM about rates and Loan costs. Author was asking for advice, but just a heads up these always beg for trouble. Overnight it had several comments with bad/incorrect advice and was starting to run away with vets recommending unvetted lenders and going down the path to spiral out of control. Just posting this here for anyone that comes across a scenario of whether to approve a post like that or not.

Screenshots of the issues identified:

What interest rate posts bring is solicitation and braggadocious content that doesn’t actually help get to the core of the OP’s actual need which is education and insights.  So for that reason –

We DO NOT approve posts with interest rates included

Instead, we must use our knowledge and wisdom to delve into the root of the heart of the question that the OP is actually asking.

For example:

Good leading question – We are locked at an interest rate that we think could be better, can we keep shopping?

That is the heart of this very long post. All the details actually muddied the entire post.

In the future – Do not approve as is. Write the poster a message similar to:

“Hi OP, I love your question, but as it is currently written it will lead to people unintentionally breaking our rules. Can I ask that you reword your post to something like… “We just locked a rate at what I think is higher than what I see others talking about. We are 10 days into our contract. Can I still shop lenders? Is it because our DTI is at 50%? I know we have a lot of income, but with the pending move from overseas I’m wondering if this is making our rate higher?” If you can edit your post I would appreciate it and am excited to answer your questions!”

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Once the OP edits and takes out the numbers that people will focus on you will have a solid post that will engage dialogue and training. Not lead to simple statements like “That’s high. I just locked 2.25% yesterday!”

We all know that interest rates change based on multiple variables including the strength of the borrower, credit, lender overlays, time of day, time of year, the physical location of the property, etc…  Don’t let interest rates be the shiny object that people pay attention to and miss the actual education that needs to be shared.