What Loanlens does
Every US mortgage comes with two standard forms: a Loan Estimate when you apply and a Closing Disclosure before you sign. Loanlens reads yours, checks them, scores them out of 10, and explains what they say in plain English, using the figures on your own documents. Choosing a lender? It can put the Loan Estimates from two or three of them side by side.
Two forms, read line by line
Loan Estimate
Your lender has to send it within three business days of your application. It shows the rate, the monthly payment and the costs they expect. If you have several versions, upload them together and say which is the latest: Loanlens compares their APRs.
Closing Disclosure
It has to reach you at least three business days before closing, with the final terms and costs. Upload it on its own, or with your Loan Estimate to see what changed between the two.
Choosing between lenders? Compare their Loan Estimates
Upload the Loan Estimates from two or three lenders, one from each. Loanlens checks every one, sets them side by side, and scores each out of 10.
Set side by side
- Rate and APR
- Lender and service fees, and any lender credit
- Total closing costs and cash to close
- What each costs over the years you plan to stay: closing fees, plus interest and mortgage insurance
Your score, out of 10
- How safe the loan's terms and fees are, the biggest part
- What it costs over your stay
- Its APR
- What it asks for at closing
A fair comparison
You'll give the day you applied with each lender, since each estimate is checked on its own date. Ask every lender for its estimate on the same day if you can: rates change daily. The money parts of the score are set against the best offer in your comparison, not against the market. One payment covers the whole comparison.
Checks that follow the rules for these forms
Each check either needs your attention or it doesn't, and only the ones that do make it into your analysis.
The loan's shape
- A large final payment (balloon)
- A balance that can grow
- An interest-only period
- A rate that can change while you still have the loan
- A payment that can rise a lot
- A penalty for paying the loan off early
Costs
- An APR well above your interest rate
- Lender fees on the high side
- An escrow payment that doesn't match your taxes and insurance
- A bigger escrow cushion than usual
Timing
- Your Closing Disclosure reached you in time
- Your Loan Estimate isn't out of date
- Your rate lock lasts until closing
Estimate against final
- Fees that can't go up at all
- Services that can rise only 10% in total
- A lender credit that can't go down
- New charges that weren't on the estimate
The math
- Total of payments
- Finance charge and amount financed
- The APR, recomputed
- The loan costs the gap between rate and APR points to
Your answers
- When you applied and when you close
- How long you plan to stay in the home
- Whether you're buying or refinancing
- Any written reason your lender gave for a change
Short, plain, and only what matters
Built from the figures read off your documents. Download it as a PDF, and copy the questions for your lender in one go.
- 1
The short version
The lender, the loan, and one sentence on what to do.
- 2
Score out of 10
How the loan's terms and fees hold up, with the parts it's made of. A problem lowers it by what it is worth, and nothing holds it at a fixed ceiling.
- 3
Key numbers
Loan amount, rate, APR, monthly payment and cash to close, estimate against final.
- 4
Worth a closer look
Only what needs attention, marked Sort out before signing or Worth asking about: what we saw, why it matters, and what to ask.
- 5
Do the numbers add up?
The form's main sums redone from its own figures, and the gap.
- 6
What changed since your Loan Estimate
Only the costs that changed, and what the rules allow for each.
- 7
Looks right
The key things that checked out.
Ask follow-up questions
The chat answers from your analysis and from every figure read off your documents. It may add or subtract them, and says when it does. It never makes a number up. Before you upload anything, it answers general questions about mortgages.
- Why is my APR higher than my rate?
- How much cash do I need at closing?
- When does my rate lock end?
- What can I do if my lender won't fix these?
Free, before you have a Loan Estimate
Type in the price, your down payment and your income, and see what the loan would cost you.
- What you'd pay each month, taxes and insurance included
- How that compares with your income, and with all your debts
- What a lower or higher rate would do
- What would improve things, and by how much
- Where the first five years of payments go
- Mortgage insurance and the cash you'll need at closing
Your documents, and what it costs
Your documents
Uploaded PDFs are deleted as soon as they have been read. What was read off them stays in your account until you delete it. The Privacy Policy has the details.
The price
The chat and “What can I afford?” are free. A full document analysis is a one-time fee per loan, for a Loan Estimate, a Closing Disclosure, or both. Comparing two or three Loan Estimates is one payment for the whole comparison.
Ready to read your loan?
Upload your Loan Estimate, your Closing Disclosure, or both, and get your analysis in minutes.