Comparison Shopping for Mortgages

I've been shopping interest rates for a house we rent out in San Luis Obispo. The problem is the online quotes don't include all the fees. So I think one loan might be better than the others just to find out it is full of extra closing costs. Points, lending fees, and origination fees can be huge as well as all the small junk fees for documentation to delivery of documents can add up to be a significant expense.

Then with all the different financing options from option arms to variable rate loans it takes a lot of research to understand the risk with each loan type and how much the interest rate may move. Is it better to have a variable rate loan tied to the LIBOR index or to US Treasuries? To be a smart loan shopper it takes an incredible amount of time and in my opinion the information can be presented in a much easier method to understand.

The product should create a 100% transparency into the cost of each mortgage and the risk. Mortgages should be able to be compared side by side as well as call out any warnings to shoppers.

The goal is to make finding a mortgage as simple as it is to comparison shop for a CD.

I think one of the problems with the mortgage industry that so much of the business is built on a per lead model. This is a terrific model for companies like LowerMyBills, but it lacks transparency and prevents the service from offering its customers the best mortgage. I'd prefer a model that separates advertising from the service similarly to how Google displays search results. There are the organic results which it believes are the best and then the paid results which are on top or the side.