How do you win at the mortgage game? You've got to ask the right questions. According to an article on Realty Times, the right questions are open-ended questions, as opposed to closed questions.
How do you know you've asked a closed question? Any closed question can be answered with a "yes", "no" or very short factual answer. Open-ended questions require the other person to provide more context and details. You'll get a narration, instead of a single sentence. As a result, an open-ended question will generally reveal much more than any closed ended question.
Why would this make a difference? Especially when you are in a situation that you've never been in before, it's likely that you need information that you don't even know about yet! Open ended questions can help you find out what you don't know and help provide you with the most important information that you'll receive.
Here's a great example: when negotiating for a mortgage loan, we have a tendency to ask which interest rate we'll qualify for. After all, it's the single most important thing for most borrowers. However, if you ask a closed question, you'll get a one word (in this case, one number) answer. You could get a lot more information (and be able to improve your bargaining position) if you ask how your mortgage lender determines what rate you qualify for. That question requires the answerer to provide you with a real perspective on the lender's process. You can always ask the question about the rate you'll qualify for, but that question can wait until after you ask the more important open questions.
The technique of asking open questions doesn't just work for finding out information when shopping for a mortgage or getting mortgage quotes: this approach will work in any situation where you ned to collect comprehensive information in order to make the right decision.
Michael Chantrel
