Loan Application Process – Part 2

Part 1

We refinanced our previous home not that long ago, so we knew we needed all of these documents so that was not a surprise.  Our SR had also prepped us to let us know that we would need a lot of documentation (have I mentioned how awesome our SR is? He’s pretty fantastic!).  We sent our loan representative the required documents the night prior so we figured she wouldn’t have much time to go through them because our meeting was at 8:30 the next morning.  We were wrong… she had keyed almost all of the information in before we got there!  What a time saver that was!

It’s been a while since we had the meeting, so I can’t remember everything we talked about.  I know we discussed different loan options, our credit score and how we could improve it more to help get a better rate and any outstanding information we didn’t have with us.  We also played around with the numbers to determine what our payment would be if we put more money down, paid down our PMI, etc.

Overall, it was a pretty easy process since we had everything fairly organized.  I actually told the loan representative that I had heard a lot of nightmare stories, but it was much more pleasant than I had had anticipated.  She laughed and said that it was because we were organized and were buying a home within our means and we had good credit.  We also have stable jobs and had been in our industries for years (we are very fortunate and grateful for this).  Essentially, we weren’t stretching ourselves too thin and had the finances to purchase the house we wanted to build.  We knew this, but it was comforting to hear. 

Funny story – the loan representative said one time they had someone come in with 3 garbage bags of paperwork and they sifted through them at the loan meeting.  It took HOURS for them to pull everything together.  We cracked up – I can’t imagine putting someone else through that!

Helpful Tips:

• Be organized!  If you’re thinking about the home buying process, start gathering all of this information.  My husband and I are fairly organized, so this is second nature to us. 
• If possible, go ahead and digitize the information.  It was super easy to just email everything over to our rep in advance of our meeting.  I would recommend scanning things separately and naming them logically. 
• Create a folder on your computer to house all of info you need.
• Keep track of your credit and your credit score.  This is crucial!  We started using an app called Credit Karma that updates your credit score weekly.  You can also get your 3 credit reports annually to monitor your accounts. 

Do you have any other helpful tips?