Plan your mortgage around a strategy, don't shop for rates.

How important is interest rate? How important is amortization period? How important is principal reduction with your mortgage?

See below........

Bottom line is this, is rate important? Yes, always. Is the most important? Nope, I might consider it 3rd or 4th most important factor in shopping for a home loan. Proper game planning is A-#1 on the list. Level of service and reliablity is 2nd and I would put out of pocket and upfront costs at the third spot with Rate maybe coming in 4th. (I could make an argument for product being number 4 and rate being 5.....)

Point is this and it's pretty simple: A low rate is worthless if the loan doesn't close or the loan closes at this low rate but is contradictory to your desired financial outcome.