Ok, thanks.
Everyone we call wants to first see our information before giving a firm quote.
Does it make sense to send out our personal info to a number of brokers?
Get as much initial offers as possible. I got 15 different offers. The lenders/brokers will need info like address, how much you owe on the current loan, how much is the house worth (to calculate LTV), and estimated credit score. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR SSN AT THIS POINT! You just need to filter out lenders/brokers with high rates to not waste your time. Once you've narrowed down to like 4-5 offers, you can proceed with giving them your SSN so they can pull credit report (hard or soft) for an accurate quote aka lending estimate. You can then use the LE to price match with the lenders and etc. Make sure to align the lenders/brokers to start pulling report during a certain time period otherwise it will really ding your credit score.