Once you've narrowed the lender field to a short list of finalists, it's time to compare their offers. Here are the 10 key questions to ask at application time to help you find the best overall mortgage loan. If you have already selected a lender and are ready to apply, make sure you have the answers to these questions first.

Your mortgage lender will want to know a lot about you before approving your loan application, and justifiably so; they and their underwriters want to be assured that you meet their minimum level of creditworthiness before lending you money.

Whether you are buying a home or are refinancing your current mortgage, you eventually have to apply for a loan and compare offers. You will need to gather a lot of paperwork, satisfy a list of credit requirements, negotiate the best possible loan terms and make sense of the good-faith estimate. You will be asked to supply a lot of paperwork when you apply. Then you'll get some paperwork in return. Of the documents you receive, the most important is the good-faith estimate of closing costs. The lender might shorten that to "good-faith estimate" or GFE. Here we will call it the good-faith estimate.

When evaluating you for a loan against your equity, lenders assess you for a warm smile, winning personality, dancing ability and willingness to fetch coffee. Make sure you ask if the loan officer wants cream or sugar. Just seeing if you're paying attention. The lending institution considers your creditworthiness when deciding whether to extend a loan and how much of an interest rate you will pay. Your creditworthiness boils down to three things: your credit history, your income and the loan-to-value ratio.

You have erratic or hard-to-prove income: Because home equity borrowing is a secured loan and a number of lenders still base loan approval on credit score alone, you have a better chance of approval, providing your credit score is good. Plus a line of credit can act as backup between income infusions, usually at a lower rate than credit cards. Your child is applying for financial aid at a private school: Need-based student aid decisions are determined partially on your assets, including primary residences whereas credit card debt is not reflected. Consolidating credit card or other outstanding debt using home equity dissipates the value of that asset, more accurately reflecting your financial picture. NOTE: This does not apply to FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, used at state schools.

In real estate lingo, a point is one percentage point of the overall loan that is paid up front, typically at the time of closing. For example, if you are borrowing $150,000 on a mortgage loan and will be paying three points, you will pay $4,500 up front. Paying points generally lowers the interest rate on your loan. When determining whether you want pay for points, think about how long you expect to live in the house. Over a short time frame -- less than five years or so -- paying points usually doesn't makes sense, as you will pay more in points than you will save in interest. However, if you plan to stay in the house for 10 or 20 years or longer, points will pay off over time. Although the prospect of paying a few thousand dollars more initially isn't very attractive, you may be able to save money over the duration of the mortgage.

Recasting a mortgage loan typically comes up in one of three contexts. The first is when a homeowner wants to pay down principal and have the loan reamortized. That's the type of recasting you're talking about. The second is when a homeowner is in financial distress and wants to extend the term of the loan to reduce the monthly payment. Finally, a negative amortization loan is typically recast to a larger monthly payment after the loan balance has increased by a set percentage, or at a time certain, so the loan will amortize over its remaining loan term. The balance of my reply will focus on the type of mortgage recast you're asking about, namely paying down the loan to resize the monthly mortgage payment.

Too many borrowers may be unfairly blaming credit scores for their higher-than-expected loan rates or extra credit-card fees, according to a recent working paper. The real culprit may be your own misunderstanding of how the lending process works, coupled with a failure to conduct adequate research before you apply, suggests the MIT Department of Economics working paper. The paper, written by a team of Federal Reserve and university researchers led by Sumit Agarwal of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, admits a FICO credit score may determine if you're offered a loan. But other factors may contribute more heavily to your rate and fees.

As mortgage woes spread, what's a nervous borrower to do? Mike Wilt, who lives in Uniontown, Ohio, is trying to figure that out. Mr. Wilt, a marketing director for a communications firm, is current on his $180,000 adjustable-rate mortgage -- the home's price when he paid for it. But he says he may soon start to fall behind, as he's been notified that his interest rate jumped to 11.5% from 8.5% in September, which will cost him an extra $400 a month. When he tried to refinance back in March, Mr. Wilt was turned down for a loan with better terms because of his credit score; not even his boss's friends from a local bank could help. "The rules that got me into the original mortgage had changed," says the 31-year-old, referring to what he perceives as tougher lending standards.

The political debate over how to deal with a surge in defaults on home loans is raising a question that consumers ought to consider: Is my mortgage broker really working for me? Borrowers often see mortgage brokers as their allies, searching far and wide for just the right home loan at an attractively low price. But many brokers are making it clear they don't see things that way. They are fighting efforts by federal and state politicians to impose a fiduciary duty on them to put their customers' interests first, as lawyers, real-estate agents and financial planners generally are required to do with their clients.