Editorial policy

Mortgage advice affects your money for decades, so here is exactly how our articles are made and how to hold us to it.

Public sources first

We start with public-domain government material: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, HUD, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and HMDA data. Where a private source is the only one that answers a question, we say so and link to it. We do not build a claim on a number we cannot point you to.

Plain English, grade 6 to 8

Every article is written for a grade 6 to 8 reading level, and the measured grade is printed at the top of the page. When a piece of jargon cannot be avoided, we define it in the same sentence and repeat it in the jargon translator on the page. Every article opens with a short answer and a real dollar example, and ends with what to do next.

Named author, licensed reviewer

Every article carries the name of the person who wrote it and the name of the person who reviewed it. Articles that touch on rates, loan terms or costs are reviewed by a licensed mortgage professional, and once that reviewer profile is published we show their NMLS ID beside their name. Until a licensed review is complete, the article shows a visible pending review notice instead of a review badge. We never show an NMLS ID we have not verified.

Sources on every article

Each article ends with a sources list linking to the primary documents behind its numbers. If a figure came from our own calculation, the page shows the inputs and recalculates when you change them, so you can check the math with your own loan.

Corrections

If something is wrong, we fix it and say so. Send the page and the problem to hello@lowest.mortgage. We correct factual errors as soon as we can confirm them, update the "Updated" date on the article, and add a short note on the page when the correction changes the advice rather than just the wording.

Compensation never touches content

No advertiser or partner lender sees an article before it is published, and none of them can pay to be mentioned, praised, left out or moved up a ranked table. Writers and reviewers are paid for the work, never on what an article recommends. How the site is funded is set out onhow we make money.

lowest.mortgage is not a lender and does not make loans. Nothing here is personalized financial advice.