Hello Reddit! Appreciate your help in any way.

My fiance and I put in one mortgage loan application today because of a really good quoted rate with a smaller bank near us in Georgia. Specifically, a doctor's loan that requires 0% down payment without PMI and had a good rate without points. We are comfortable putting in 5% down, however, for a house in the 700-850K range.

I know we're supposed to shop around and have banks basically compete for our business. What is the recommended number of loan applications generally speaking to ensure you get the best rate and of course able to compare closing fees to see what the cost of the total package will be? I know that multiple credit inquiries won't actually mean anything for this in terms of FICO but I also read that too many is not a good thing.

To clarify, I have made about a dozen phone calls for verbal rate quotes from different lenders to get a general idea of what kind of rates we would be offered already. I just am curious if there is a recommended number of actual loan applications to submit for from the list of lenders that I have narrowed down to...I have 4 or 5 on my list that we are considering including 5/3, Fairway, Laurel Road or KeyBank, and/or SunTrust.

Credit scores are >800

No student loan debt if that helps any.