Things To Remember During The Home Buying Process

November 4, 2009 3 comments

Things to remember during the home buying process.

Here are some common mistakes people make during the approval process that has cost them their new home loan.

1) Make sure you continue to pay ALL of your bills on time and do not open any new accounts. These actions will cause your score to drop.

I have had 2 clients in the past 6 months lose their financing for forgetting to pay a $25 per month credit card bill! Not only are lenders looking at your credit scores but they are also looking at your payment history. Even if the score doesn’t drop enough to knock you out, the payment history may.

2) Do not change jobs if at all possible. Try to wait until after you close on your new loan. If it’s too good of an opportunity to pass up, let your lender know as soon as possible so they can make arraignments and prepare the underwriter. You will be required to provide more paper work so keep that in mind. Your employment is a key factor in the mortgage approval process, and if you can’t show steady gainful employment, you might be denied.

3) Do not change financial institutions during the approval/underwriting process. Even if you hate your current bank, tough it out until after closing. You’ll have to provide information about previous accounts that are now closed, and therefore inaccessible. And if you diversify your money too much in money market accounts, savings accounts, checking accounts and other places, you’ll have a harder time with the disclosure process.

4) Hold off on any and all large purchases. Don’t go out and buy that new plasma TV or living room set until after you are in your new home. Until you are actually closed the underwriter will follow very specific steps including verifying and re-verifying everything at different points throughout the process. Any large purchases will affect what funds you have available that may be required for your down payment, closing costs or reserves.

Here is what I really want you to remember. If you plan on buying a home, make that your priority. Be ready to provide everything your lender requires at a moments notice.

If you don’t try and take on more than one life changing event at a time, your home buying experience will be smooth.

first Time Home Buyer Tips first time home buyer

#1 | Written by Dan about 14 years ago.

We are looking into buying a new house in the mid-$400k’s before we sell our current home, but this means that we would need a larger loan and that we would have less cash available up front for closing costs and downpayment. Buying before we sell our home means that after all the closing costs, we would only have 3.5% – 4.5% as a down payment.

I already checked and the HUD website’s FHA loan limits in the area where we would buy the new house are: FHA Forward $271,050 ($280,000) —AND— Fannie/Freddie $417,000. Depending on the offer that is accepted, we’d need to borrow between $425,000 and $435,000, and again, we’d have 3.5% and 4.5% for a down payment (after we pay closing costs).

We’ve talked to 2 lenders who only discussed FHA loans since apparently only FHA loans will allow as small as a 3.5% – 4.5 % downpayment:

(1) Lender #1 told us we have no choice but to get a conventional loan since we cannot get an FHA loan for more than $280,000 — end of story. He said there is absolutely no FHA loan available for loans over $280,000. As for non-FHA loans, Lender #1 said there is a cap for conventional loans of $417,000, and even then, we’d have to have a 12% down payment. In other words, we MUST sell ours first to have enough cash for closing/down payment.

(2) Lender #2 said we can borrow up to $450,000 on an FHA loan as long as we have a 3.5% down payment because our debt-to-income ratio is good enough. He said there is no $280,000 or $417,000 limit on FHA loans when the loan is a jumbo (aka, “non-conforming”) FHA loan. The debt-to-income ratio is all that matters.

What?! Something seems really wrong with what we’ve been told since the two lenders seem to contradict each other on the FHA “facts.” We understand that different lenders will only finance conventional loans under the terms they set, but the FHA rules are rules – they can’t be different from lender to lender?

Can someone explain and make some sense out of this?
#2 | Written by about 14 years ago.

Since you did your homework and lender 1 basically confirmed what you found out, you know that lender 2 is pulling your chain. FHA county loan limits apply to any FHA loan so it’s not something a lender can arbitrarily change or ignore.

Since you know that you are not in a high cost area, your loan will be capped at $417,000 for any conventional financing. This means you can buy at $435,000,00 and as long as you can put 5% (which is the minimum for a conventional mortgage) down you fall just under the $417,000 limit.

I have a question for you. You said you will have 3.5 to 4.5% available for a down payment after you pay closing costs. Are you talking about the closing costs on the home you’re selling or the home you want to buy? If it’s the home you want to buy, ask for seller concessions to cover your closing costs which frees up more money for your down payment.
If you have any assets that you can liquidate that may help cover your down payment as well.
#3 | Written by selling your home without an agent about 9 years ago.

hi!,I really like your writing very much! percentage we be in contact
more approximately your post on AOL? I need a specialist on this area to resolve my problem.
Maybe that is you! Looking ahead to see you.

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Things To Remember During The Home Buying Process

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