The most dreaded part of applying for a mortgage is all the paperwork. Mortgage documentation requirements are more stringent than ever and every “T” must be crossed and every “I” dotted. Fortunately, at this point, there is no truth to the rumor that you and your pet’s blood type are required to get a home mortgage. Low doc and no doc loans no longer exist. If you can not prove your income, assets, etc you will not get a loan.
A competent mortgage originator will look at your individual situation and see if he can minimize the pain. An example would be a salaried borrower with one job. In this case, W-2’s would probably be sufficient and the borrower would not need to furnish tax returns. Make sure the information is legible and complete. When a bank statement is requested, it means the complete bank statement and not just the front page.
Your mortgage originator does not need a history lesson on how things were done when you applied for a loan five years ago. While your friends mean well, if they have never been in the mortgage industry, they are confusing you and wasting everyone’s time. I had a client who had some unusual, and unworkable, ideas about a purchase mortgage. I tactfully asked where these ideas were coming from. She said she had a friend who was in the oil industry – they worked at a gas station – but “spent a lot of time on the web”!
If you will be out of town, let the loan officer know as soon as possible. The mortgage industry has not embraced electronic signatures. While you may be able to have documents faxed or emailed to you when you are gone, the printing costs may be frightening. With loan packages running over 30 pages, and hotels charging $2.00/page to receive or send a fax, do you really want to spend $120 because you did not plan?
Help your lender help you. Your lender should be committed to providing the best service possible to make the process as fast and painless as possible. Remember that mortgage originators hate to bother clients but need the information to close the loan. The sooner you provide the information, the sooner you can close. And look forward to something pleasant, like a root canal.
